Gaston and Paulette Journuy

When I was at the Road to California quilt show in last January I bought these two kits for boy and girl kitties. Gaston and Paulette are made out of a velour fabric that feels like velvet and originated from France. They have an awake and an asleep side. You can read more about them in my January 25th post about the Road2CA show.

I opened up the two packages last week to make them for my two granddaughters, ages four and nearly two who just had a new baby brother join their family two weeks ago. To my dismay, I noted that the instructions were in French. "Oh, no," was my initial reaction. Then a told myself, "Get real Diane. Sure, it has been over forty years since your high school and college French classes, but you have a also been sewing for longer than that. And there are pictures. How hard can this be?"

I laid out the boy panel first.

I cut out the night time side for Gaston. "Nuit." That means "night" I remember. And that "n" on the panel must stand for "nuit" and I do not need to search for "a" through "m" component parts.

The day time side of Gaston was similarly labeled with "j" for "jour" which a long ago wrinkle in my brain revealed to me that this means "day" in English. The bases of the ears were neatly color coded so that an ear would not be put on backwards.

Following the picture, I dutifully made and stuffed the legs first. I used a zipper foot to accommodate the bulk of the stuffed leg when I sewed across its top.

I placed wrong sides of the torso together, sewed all around, and then automatically turned it right side out. The thickness of the fabric, as shown in the next photo,  made it difficult to turn narrow appendages like the arms. I struggled but succeeded. I carefully aligned the legs to the torso and sewed them on, pleased with how well the leg and torso borders had lined up with each .

Whoops, I had sewn the legs on wrong side of the torso fabric. They were supposed to have been sewn on before I'd turned the torso right side out so they were on the wrong side of the body. I was not about to turn those arms wrong side out again they had been so difficult to turn in the first place, but I did need to reverse the torso part. 

With the torso wrong side out again, as needed, it took me three more times to get those legs right! I faced them the wrong way for night and day the second time. The third time, one went on crooked and they were off to one side, not centered. I finally did get it right the fourth and final time. After the the legs were attached, here is the turning right side out process. First one leg...

 then the second leg...

  ... then the two arms - already right side out since I goofed on the sequence for them.

  The head was last and, voila! Gaston was right side out awaiting stuffing.

Stuffing the arms was difficult. I thought I had the perfect tool in this Clover Hera Marker until I broke off the tip on one end. It a tiny piece as seen by the one inch grid in its background.

  

I now had to un-stuff what little of the arm I had done and hunt for that sharp little bugger. I found it way down deep in one arm near the paw. I could not leave that sharp item buried within. It would not be safe for my grand babies. I finished stuffing Gaston and continued on with Paulette. Here is the Paulette panel.

Paulette is all cut out and ready to sew. Note she has a purse too, there in the center.

I struggled with stuffing Paulette's legs. I did not notice it at the time, but they were even thinner than Gaston's arms. Ooh-la-lah! This time I got the sequence and positioning correct when I sewed her legs to her torso and only had to do it once. What a huge struggle it was to turn the thick fabric of her thin arms and stuff those slender members! I think if Paulette had been a model she could have been called Twiggy. But I persevered and completed both kitties. Here they are with their awake side up. Paulette's purse has a Velcro closure.

  

  

Here are Gaston and Paulette as if they are sleeping. They did come out so soft and velvety smooth, just right for cuddling. 

I imagine Gaston and Paulette to be happy to meet their future cuddlers. I plan to give the two year old Gaston since her baby brother is a boy. I will ask her to help mama by turning Gaston on the pajama side when baby brother is sleeping and on the pants and jacket side when he is awake. The four year old, who has a bit more developed fine motor, will get Paulette with her purse.

My guess is that Journuy was not intended to be a French word for journey. Journuy is not in my Google French translator. I think it may be meant to be a play on the French words for Day (Jour) and Night (Nuit). That much I do remember from my high school French and freshman college French, over four decades ago! Linking up with Let's Bee Social #226 to share this finish.

Quilt for New Grandson

At the time of the Houston Quilt Festival in October/November 2017 I knew I was going to have a new grandson come April 2018 and bought some fabric accordingly from a vendor called The Whole Country Kaboodle. The choices I made from the line titled To Be or Not to Be were a selection of houndstooth tone on tone mini-print fat quarters, a medium print with various critters on it, and a panel that had nine feature blocks of various animals. The animal print with words (center fabric in the photo) was so darn cute I planned to use it as a backing or as sashing between blocks.

On the panel is a banner under each animal with a goal virtue displayed: Be Curious, Be Brave, Be Humble, Be Wise, Be Generous, Be Gentle, Be Kind, Be Grateful, Be Thoughtful. It struck me as endearing advice for raising a baby. It wasn't until I was over halfway finished with the top before the Shakespeare phrase "To Be or Not To Be?" followed by "There Is No Question" on the panel borders made any sense to me. Of course, you should strive to possess all those virtues:  curiosity, bravery, humility, wisdom, generosity, gentleness, kindness, gratitude and thoughtfulness. What a great sentiment! But if it took me that long to realize the meaning, then it was too deep for a new baby or his sleep-starved parents to comprehend. I left the border out of my design but I did save it, of course for future use!

The colors of the houndstooth blenders were very rich and I was especially drawn to the concept of using houndstooth for a boy.

I was planning to reserve two houndstooth colors, the light teal and a black (not shown), since they echo the animal block frame so well.

At this point I did not have a pattern in mind but guessed I would separate out each animal block and alternated them with a different quilt block – perhaps an Ohio Star or log cabin made from the houndstooth. Once back home, I browsed through my patterns and decided on Framed Nine Patch by a local designer, James Hahn. I had been to a preview party hosted by my local quilt shop, In Between Stitches, and a sample had been made up in a set of masculine colors that really appealed. Doing the same thing in those houndstooths would look great, I thought! Perhaps I could scatter the animal blocks throughout this sea of framed nine patches.

So I merrily went about my way, pairing two houndstooth colors and making blocks. A pair of fat quarters yields four blocks, so I made sixteen blocks from eight of the houndstooth fat quarters I had. Each block measured 10.5" (five times 2.5" strips). These were the combinations I picked: orange and gold, red and brown, green and teal, and tan and rose. All those colors were in the animal blocks.

In my blog post for March 30th I'd put these blocks up on my design wall and found that they did not work at all with my critter blocks. Although I had originally planned to border the critter squares to make them larger, the scale of the central nine patches was all wrong and dominated those cute little animals. Plus with 16 nine-patch blocks and 9 animal blocks at 10" a block, a 5x5 twenty-five block quilt would have been huge for a baby, 50" x 50". Back to the drawing board... literally. I scanned an animal block and a 3x3 assortment of houndstoothes (houndsteeth?).

I duplicated the images and combined them in powerpoint trying different arrangements and spacing them to make room for sashing. I tried a random scattering of the animal blocks and could not make it work to my satisfaction so I went with an organized X configuration.

I then realized I did not have room for sashing and those framed nine-patches had a built in sashing anyway that I really wanted to keep. I decided to re-make the blocks using a 2.0" strips for a 1.5" finished square size that would make an 8.0" block (5x1.5"). This dimension was more in keeping with the scale of the 8.0" nearly square animal blocks. I could unstitch those sixteen blocks framed nine patch 10.5 " blocks and re-use the fabric to re-make the blocks with a smaller grid size. I really did not want to do all that ripping out – especially when I had sixteen perfect good blocks I could use on something else. I checked the website of the The Whole Country Kaboodle and did not find a stack of houndstooth fat quarters. I called them and they still had them, just not on the website. I explained my situation, bought another set with my credit card over the phone, and – they were so great – I had them is my hands two days later.

While I was waiting, I messed around making a few of the framed nine-patches in the smaller grid size. At the Connecting Threads booth at the Houston Quilt Festival (post for 11/9/2017) I had bought a selection of solids that were printed with a texture to replicate burlap (shown on the left). At the Road2CA show (post for 1/25/2018)  I'd attended in January, I had purchased a stack of polka dot grunge in lighter, brighter colorways (on the right). I pulled colors from my stash of these fat quarters as close to the coordinated houndstooth varieties as I had.

I had convinced myself that a boy's quilt should not have polka dots or pink. But I caved in that resolution. I paired a deep red burlap with a rose/coral grunge dot and loved that they enhanced the owl and mouse block more so than the rose and tan houndstooth they replaced. I think the tan was intended to pick up the coloration of the toadstool stem and the owl's breast but the dots I subbed in instead picked up the mouse's ears and the owl's cheeks. There were already polka dots on the toadstool cap so I felt vindicated that I could add my own. The big muted dots are somewhat subtle, too, I rationalized.

I was on a roll. I really did like the deep, deep brown burlap texture and found a swirly orange in my stash to pair with it. Those colors went with the fox and the hedgehog in a more juvenile way than the tan-ish brown and rust-ish orange of the more adult houndstooth.

Now I was halfway there. The green and the teal houndstooth now looked a bit too sedate with the other fabrics. I pulled a bright green mottled tone on tone and a bright aqua grunge to replace them respectively. The green and the teal had been the lowest contrast of the houndstooth pairings so instead of pairing the bright colors with each other, which I thought might be too glaring, I found two lighter fabrics to use. I used a white with a fine dotted green line and a pale aqua with subtle soft stripes. I like that the striping called attention to the background of the animal blocks.

By now my repeat purchase of houndstooth fat quarters had arrived but I was pleased with my recent experiments and decided to keep them. The houndstooth fat quarters I ordered more of will go into my stash and I will probably make more framed nine patch blocks in the 10.5" size to go with the sixteen I already have. I did however still want to use the houndstooth in this boy quilt. I pressed it into service as a light teal houndstooth border and a green houndstooth binding with black houndstooth accent piping. It reinforced the coloring of the block outlines and the podiums where the animals were. See? I did use three of the houndstooth fabrics after all!

 
Now I had the challenge of FMQ which I still approach with a bit of trepidation. I did continuous line quilting wherever the framed nine-patches were. I was considering doing it in the border, also, but decided I wanted the border to be different. I did a snaking motion alternating between horizontal and vertical. When I first completed it I did not care for it but was not about to unstitch it. Once I put the  binding on however, I liked the way the border receded and seemed to let the animal blocks shine  forward. I was glad I had dared to try something new. I was brave enough to use a contrasting thread color. The bright lime had sufficient contrast to show up, but was subtle enough to camouflage imperfections.

The final FMQing I did was the animal blocks themselves. I let the quilt sit and marinate a couple days while I was trying to decide. I considered a tight meander in the pale area so the background would recede and the animals pop. But my skill level at meandering is still pretty low and I thought negotiating the contours of the animals could be tricky. I decided to take advantage of the subtle striped background. I switched to white thread and used a ruler to go up and back on the white lines between the pale stripes, much as one would quilt a piano key border. I detoured around the twigs, leaves, and bumblebees but decided to compromise and go through the laurel wreaths to make my job a bit easier.

I'd used an aqua thread in the bobbin to blend in with the backing fabric and a snippet of the blue is peeking through under the deer's chin. For the most part though my tension balance was pretty good since neither the white appeared as dots on the back nor did the aqua thread appear as dots on the front. Here is the completed quilt. The border does recede a bit and the animals do pop out some, so I am on the right track for my FMQ reasoning and selections.

The back of the quilt  has the animal print as the backing. Can you tell which are the animal blocks and which are the framed nine patch?

I affixed my trademark grosgrain ribbon labels in the two lower corners with my initials and the date on one and the quilt name on the other. I had to ponder a bit to come up with a quilt name that pleased me. Then it just popped into my head. All that advice on the front about how to act was noble enough that I just wanted to add a Grandmas's wish, Be Happy.

And speaking of happy, my son and daughter-in-law certainly were. Here is my son, Dan, holding his 8 lb 9 oz son, William Daniel, just hours after he was born.

William's two older sisters were quite entranced also when they met him a couple days later.

Sleep well, William.

I refrained from revealing this quilt in my blog until I had given it away. We just got back late last night from visiting and meeting our newest grandson, and gifting quilt. Now I feel free to publish this post and link up with Let’s Bee Social #226. William is 11 days old in the following photo.

Quilt Show and Cloth Book

The Guild of Quilters of Contra Costa held their annual two-day show this past weekend April 7th and April 8th. Because of other commitments, I could spend only a couple hours on Sunday viewing the show. I still enjoyed it and snapped a few photos of quilts I wanted to remember.

I loved the swirly quilting pattern on this four star beauty by Kitty Nowack, titled Shine. I often struggle to create a special pattern for each block when I quilt but I think this allover treatment is gorgeous.

A closeup better illustrates the flowing movement the stitch lines inspire.

The swirls remind me so much of Vincent Van Gogh's painting Starry Night. Although the colors are more subdued than the strong blues of the painting, the motion in the quilt is every bit as energizing.

I was also drawn to this quilt titled Hillside Village by Birgit Knuth. Why? I love red for one. Second, I found the mix of house blocks with diagonalized four patch blocks interesting. The four patch blocks are not truly set on point... or are they?  The piano key borders, light on top and dark on the bottom, give the eye yet other places to explore.  And I love polka dots, so that red and black dotted border clinched it for me. There is lots to look at in this quilt.

I was even more fascinated with the quilt construction when I read its story card and source for the blocks: orphan house blocks from the guild's Country Store, backwards Arabic Lace blocks, and scraps from Birgit's stash. What a delightful eclectic mix this concoction turn out to be. It made me smile.

Two hours is not a lot of time to view a show yet I still did manage to find enough time to pick up a bit of fabric from two vendors. These eight fat quarters just called to me. The lacy pattern on the purple and orange ones allows them to read like a solid but still have lots of interest. Buying two fat quarters of each of the two stripes will allow me to use them as a binding somewhere. If not, I always find a use for red and white stripes of all thicknesses and variations.

I bought three one-yard pieces that called to me from another vendor. The aqua flagstones on the left will make a nice blender fabric or option for a border  –  enough print to be interesting but not so much as to overwhelm.  The blue stripe in the middle will also make a nice border or can be used for binding; I do so like to bind with stripes. My stash is quite full so I try hard to avoid buying more novelty prints because seems that every novelty print needs to be another quilt. But on the right, those funky stylistic chickens on the yellow background with the flower eyes and brown squiggles seemed to have my name on them. "Cluck, cluck," they called. "Buy me, buy me." So I did. When I got home I showed my husband my purchases. I saved the chickens for last and crowed to him, "And aren't these funky chickens just soooo cute...?" He murmured neutrally, "Uh-huh. They even have those brown worms." I exclaimed back, "WORMS? Those are not worms! They are artful squiggles!" But you know, now I cannot see them any other way. I am not so sure I like this fabric so much anymore.

This week I finished the baby quilt for my new grandson due to be born via C-section tomorrow. I will blog about that quilt once I have gifted it later this month. But this week I did make a cloth book for him that I am willing to share today. The 24" x 44" From the Ground Up panel was Designed by Viv Eisner and licensed to Wilmington Prints. My grandson-to-be's daddy is my son, who works as a project manager for construction sites, so the theme of this book is fitting.

I cannot fill in the name until I learn what it will be. I sewed crinkly plastic inside the very center page so the book with make that crispy crunchy sound babies seem to like in their toys. I know his older sister did. I was able to special purchase the machine washable crinkly product on line; I have yet to find it in any store.

I trimmed the pages so closely that I'd inadvertently sewn the page numbers into the seam allowances. I had to assemble the book relying on the rhyming of the lines of text. From a google image search for the panel as sold, before it had been cut it up, I managed to zoom in and confirm that I did order those pages correctly! Whew! Hooking up now with Let's Bee Social #223.