A Small Hello for the Baby Girl to Be

I boasted a bit that I did not wait until the last minute before my daughter-in-law's baby shower to finish the baby quilt Paisley Pearl, topic of my last post. Well, I guess I am not content unless under pressure, so I started and finished another quilt in my time window before the shower. This one was just a quick inspiration based on a charm pack of forty 5" squares I had from a Me and My Sister fabric collection called Good Morning. I had three reasons for making this small quilt.

First, I was just itching to use this charm pack of bright cheerful colors.

Second, I had made a simple checkered quilt for my daughter out of a charm pack of pinks when her daughter was born mid-October of 2012. It turned out to be the one she used the most because of its small size and the knowledge that I had not slaved over it for hours. It was one of my first FMQ practice quilts and became essentially a portable changing pad. It was called Strawberries and Chocolate and was discussed in my 2012 posts for Oct 24, Sept 5, Aug 15, and Aug 8. 

Third, I had this awesome striped fabric in my stash with vibrant colors that not only matched the charm pack but were amazingly like a garter stitch knit small throw I had purchased at Babies 'R Us quite a while ago. Just look how the striped border and binding goes with those knit stripes. Kismet!

I pulled out the three black squares and one purple square (top row of the charm pack photo) because I thought they were too dark. I eliminated the pale yellow at the lower left corner because it seemed weak to me. This left 35 squares so I snuck in a square from my stash to make a six by six array. Then I added borders of that awesome stripe fabric on just two ends because I wanted a rectangular shape to this rather small quilt. My proposed use for this quilt is a portable changing pad. I simple quilted along the seam lines using a decorative stitch on my Pfaff. I could have practiced meandering and stippling in each of the 4.5" squares but elected not to, so as not to put myself in a last minute rush. Also, the patterns were so lively I did not want to detract from them. This center fabric with the daisies was so cheery that I felt I needed to include it; but then it became the only black in the quilt. 

So it was this black daisy square that drove the choice of the fabric for the 36th square. I went for whimsy. I don't think it will take you too many guesses to figure out which square it is. I later just camouflaged my initials and the year in this block with a black pigment pen. I hope my little granddaughter will one day be looking for and poking at those cute kitties with her tiny little forefinger.

Since I like to add polka dots to every one of my quilts I backed this with a simple dot print. The dots are not precise and so are in keeping with the fun spirit of the front fabrics. Also the backing is a bit tame so the checkered side can take center stage or the back can be used as the primary if a calmer mood is desired. The squiggle quilting along the seams shows up better in this photo.

Here is the completed quilt which measures 27" wide x 35" tall. I try to name my quilts even though I rarely put this info on the quilt itself. I considered Hello Kitty but rejected it as misleading and too commercial. A little baby girl is coming into this world to use this quilt, but who knows exactly what time of day that little baby girl will arrive? I rejected the name Good Morning even though it is the name of the fabric line. This is a small quilt befitting a small name. I decided to name this quilt simply Hello.

In the gift box, along with the small knit throw and this quilt, I tucked a couple of burp cloths I'd made. Again, I thought the stripes and colors of all three items were just meant for one another.

The box I used was from the Fat Quarter Shop as a quilter's way of paying homage to recycling. Fabric in. Quilt out. I wrapped the box in polka dot paper with a decorative band of that striped fabric and a bow of the remaining binding. It is on the right and piqued my daughter-in-law's curiosity at the baby shower yesterday. She was not anticipating a second quilt. I am curious to see if Hello will be pressed into service in the same way and as much as Strawberries and Chocolate was for my daughter. Only time will tell.

Autumn Has Arrived

I have not blogged since, egads, September 12!  I had one post in draft form the last weekend in September but then got distracted- and for good cause.  I flew out to my daughter and son-in-law's home in Oklahoma to await and be present at the birth of my first granddaughter.  She arrived 10-11-12 (after a 30+ hour labor) and her proud parents named her Autumn. She is just 2 hours old in the below photo weighing in at 7 lb 4 oz.  Just look at those wide open eyes and that head of hair!

Autumn has been the reason over the last months for my obsession with baby quilts, baby knitted socks, baby crocheted hats and sweater, and flannel baby burpcloths.  Here are finished pix of three quilts I made for her.  Smallest and my first FMQ'd attempt was "Strawberries and Chocolate" shown here in full view and posed on by Autumn for the photo.

Second to be finished and FMQ'd was "Duck and Cover", shown first in full view and then with Autumn and both her grandmas.  Autumn is only a few days old here.

The third quilt to be finished- and just barely the day before I left for the airport- was "Little Witch Girl", shown in full view here, though a bit shadowed, in my backyard.

Here are all three quilts spread over the laps of me and my husband with little Autumn nestled beneath.  She will have to grow into those quilts.  I sure hope they get dragged around and become threadbare!

Oh, and by the way, Autumn's mom, my daughter also made her a quilt called Trick or Treat seen here, a Star Wars quilted wall hanging seen here, and a Winnie the Pooh quilt for the Pooh themed nursery, seen here.  In true quilter fashion, the final stitches of the binding of the Winnie the Pooh were put in the night before my daughter went into labor.  And lest we forget, my daughter's quilt guild also made Autumn an adorable modern/owl quilt shown here.

Here is the Box of Sox I completed- seven pair in all accompanied by suitable reading material, of course! I was bemused that one of my daughter's favorite outfits for Autumn has lady bugs.  This was unbeknownst to me when I packaged the socks.  I guess mother and daughter have similar tastes.  Hmmm... I wonder how Autumn will fit into this picture and what she will think about all this as she gets older.

Be sure to check out my New Project with modified poem excerpt below. But, to meet the rules of linking up to WIP Wednesday, I can still cite two quilts as my "Works In Progress".  My Doll Quilt just needs the binding put on and my Grinch Quilt is just itching to come down off that design wall and be assembled- maybe even in time for Christmas this year. 

Completed projects:  

1. "Strawberries and Chocolate"
2. "Duck and Cover"
3. "Little Witch Girl"
4. Final of seven pairs of baby socks

Ongoing projects:  

1. Doll quilt - still awaiting binding after baby projects reach a lull
2. Grinch quilt - still on design wall for assembly and creative sashing solution
3. Catching up on my quilt blogging- I have draft entries that will be chronologically out of synch when I do post them but so what

New projects:  

1. Traveling to Oklahoma to rock my granddaughter

          Cleaning and scrubbing (and quilting) can wait til tomorrow
          For babies grow up we learn to our sorrow
          So quiet down cob webs, unfinished bindings go to sleep          
          I'm rocking my grandbaby, and grandbabies don't keep*

*I modified this final verse of a poem. I never knew there was more to it.  The complete poem is here.

This month's stats:

     Completed  projects - FOUR!

     New projects - rocking my new granddaughter, Autumn

     Currently in progress - 3

     Those in closet - many enumerated in earlier posts and not repeated here 

 

Expectations vs. Reality

You know the feeling.  You go to a movie touted as being really great and come out saying "What was all the fuss about? That wasn't so hot". You begrudgingly go to an outdoor concert in a neighborhood park played by a local, supposedly mediocre, community band and return really pumped because, not only were the musicians really good, but they played a lot of your favorite songs.  It is not how good something really is that pleases you.  It is how good it is relative to how good you expected it to be.  Well, that is true of my FMQ.

You have been hearing me moan and groan about my fear of FMQ. I finally broke through my log jam of trepidation this weekend, quit stalling, and quilted that little pink and brown baby quilt, dubbed Strawberries and Chocolate.  I was expecting awful results.  I comforted myself with the thoughts that it was a learning experience and all that I was sacrificing was a charm pack of 30 squares (that resurfaced just by chance during a sewing room cleaning) and only a portion (not all) of some backing/sashing fabric I really liked.  I cushioned my anticipated disappointment with the knowledge that the quilt top was not intricately pieced and so was not a huge time investment, either.

Surprise! I am really happy with how it turned out.  I had very low expectations and the reality of it was, it did not come out so bad after all. Sure, it is not perfect but I did not expect it to be. I expected it to be awful. Take a peek.



I did "stitch in the ditch" between the squares first.  Then I did the straight lines along the brown tree trunks in the sashing, practicing little jut outs and loop-like bubbles out around each twiggy branch.  I tried meandering among the stars using them as a spacing guide.  I did straight lines in striped and plaid squares. I did not do any marking. On the striped fabrics and diagonal plaids this worked fine.



I was not as successful on the pin dots in the far left corner, above.  Without marking, going forward and backward, I lost track of which "line" of dots I was connecting and strayed. It is just coincidence, and not intentional on my part, that the rather shabby, or should I say "quirky" square is not fully in the photo. As I said, it was a learning experience. It really was a good first project since each 5 x 5 square gave a limited area to focus on and to try out different quilting patterns.  I following Mary Ann's advice and did not take out my mistakes.  Rather I will wait and see if I can find them again in a few days.  That pin dot square is a potential candidate for re-doing. I did miss a few diagonals on the dark pink honeycomb that I will need to go back and complete.  Can you find them?

I am adding my binding.  I was very glad I had made that earlier. I usually do, and am so grateful that my binding is ready when it is time to put it on. I had it ironed and clipped in place so that today, during my lunchtime at work, I could start the hand sewing. I was surprised I completed the hand-stitching on two of the four sides in about 50 minutes. I was expecting it to be much more time consuming. Why, completing it will be just another lunchtime or two shows of Jeopardy! Again, reality was better than my expectations and so I am a happy camper.  I will post a picture soon of the completed project, without label.  The label will need to wait until my grand-daughter is born and her name is decided.

This weekend I spray basted the quilt sewn from the Duck, Duck, Goose fabric line. I am liking the quilt name Duck and Cover since it seems quite clever. But, since I do live in California where the weather is "sunny with a chance of earthquakes", perhaps I have become desensitized to the disastrous seismic implications and the name is inappropriate. My daughter does say, though, that there are mini-seismic events in her belly right now so maybe the quilt name under consideration is cute and OK.

I also completed this week the second half of a pair of baby socks.  I do not know if my various color combinations will go with any outfits but they sure are fun to experiment and knit with.  The yarn is a bamboo blend called Baby Boo and really has a nice soft hand to it.

I am linking up to WIP Wednesday and here is my list of projects to keep me honest.

Completed projects:  

1. One pair poppy and orchid baby socks

Ongoing projects:  

1. "Strawberries and Chocolate"-  FMQ'd and binding 2nd half on Thursday
2. "Duck and Cover" - spray basted, will start FMQ this weekend
3. Autumn Baby Quilt - make binding and spray baste this weekend 
4. Doll quilt - still awaiting binding after baby projects reach a lull

This week's stats:

     Completed  projects - 1 pair of socks

     New projects - none- how about that! 

     Currently in progress - still 4

     Those in closet - many enumerated in earlier posts and not repeated here

Friday's Child

Friday's child is loving and giving, or so goes the nursery rhyme/poem. Well after many Fridays not off from work because I was either traveling or working in trade for a day off to travel, I finally spent last Friday- all day-  in my sewing room, loving every minute of it and giving it the old college try on progressing on projects. I worked on the pink quilt  of my last blog entry where I agonized on the tiny strip insert before the border. Here it is and I am glad of my selection.


I cut the longer, outer side borders twice.  I will know in the future that when using a striped border it is less obtrusive if you add the borders that run the way of the stripe after the other borders, regardless of which is shorter.  Then the seams parallel the stripe and are less noticeable.



I did not do this on the inner beige striped strip but that is narrow enough I think it does not matter.  It made a big difference on the outer border so I reordered the sequence.Now it is ready to be backed (with the border fabric and FMQ'd (gulp!).

Friday I also made  great progress on the patchwork blocks on the little witch girl quilt. Saturday I finished piecing the patchwork blocks and decided how I will treat the rectangular ( rather than square), smaller sized feature picture blocks of the witch and kitties. Since my daughter's baby is due in October I wanted a hint of Halloween but not and overdose of it.  That is try I am trying to play up the softer colors.

My patchwork blocks will finish 12 " square. I will border each of the picture blocks in a fabric that picks up the green, purple, and orange or yellow of the patchwork blocks. The image portion of the blocks are 10.25" wide x 9.75" high so the "frames" will need be about 1" wide or less. I will sacrifice the built-in orange preprinted border so as to incorporate it in the seam allowance and have more of my custom selected contrast border showing. I figure I will align my border along the printed picture edge, then square off the bordered blocks later to accommodate for the not perfectly square printing of the pictures. Here are some fabric considerations for the binding. The purple and green are a bit darker than the colors in the quilt but I generally prefer a matching or darker, binding to a paler one. The purple is a pretty interesting pattern but because it is so intense I would not go with a wide binding. I am also considering an outer sashing of a pale yellow before the binding.

Here is the quilt I used for inspiration so you can see the patchwork block.  The  quilt came from the book Two-Block Theme Quilts by Claudia Olson   I love this book and already made another quilt from it.  See my elephant and lion patchwork quilt for my  grandniece here.

I also finished completely the lilac, pink and mint baby cardigan and cap. I was not fond of the pink buttons I'd bought, too coral in nature and not pink enough, and there was no mint green buttons to be found.  I found a U-tube video on how to crochet button covers with no hole in the center and I adapted it to cover small plastic rings instead of a big flat button.  I like the results and will use this idea again.

I finished knitting a pair of baby socks, blue and grey, and today started another pair, yellow and blue.  I am thoroughly enjoying working with the Babyboo yarn from Knit One, Crochet Too. Is is a very soft, silky feeling bamboo, with a bit of nylon in it.  However, when knitting tiny baby socks, it seems to take as least half as long to kitchener stitch the toes and weave in the loose strings from all the color changes, as it does to knit the sock. No photos of these yet.

Completed projects:  

1. Crocheted baby cardigan and cap set
2. Knitted pair of blue and grey baby socks
3. Knitted one yellow and blue baby sock 

Ongoing projects:  

1. Pink squares baby quilt-  back, FMQ myself (eek!), and bind 
2. Little witch girl quilt to be- finish frames on picture blocks 
3. Duck, Duck, Goose - completed binding-  will FMQ (again, eek!) by self
4. Doll quilt - attach binding and call it good

This week's stats:

     Completed  projects - 3

     New projects - 1- Yellow baby sock new and completed 

     Currently in progress - 4
     Those in closet - many enumerated in earlier posts and not repeated here

Pink Play- Yes Indeedy Pumpkin Seedy

Yes Indeedy is a song that my kids loved from their childhood days in which the characters cannot make a decision. See this link. The verses say that "Uncle Fred could make up his bed but not up his mind " and "Uncle Zeke...  would sit for days just wandering in his head".  I too am similarly noncommittal in my quilting.  I waffle back and forth often enough, however, that I have come to the realization that I must enjoy playing this game of "what if" fabric choices.  If it was so distasteful, I would change. Planning and playing is half the fun.

Take, for example, this little pink mini-quilt of thirty 5 inch charms squares that I joined in a 5 x6 array for my first grandchild, a little girl due in October. I bet I spent three to four times the amount of time positioning the squares, as I did sewing them together.  See more about it here. The border fabric, a brown and rose tree limb quasi-stripe, I knew immediately would be perfect.  But then I had this great idea of offsetting the border with a thin strip of "something" to delineate the inner squares. I generally like the look of a mini-inner border.  To use a picture analogy, if the border is the frame, the thin inner border is like the beveled edge of the frame. Now I have spent time playing with the selection of this 1/2" to 3/4" fabric insert.   

I originally thought to use a rose pink like the dark one in the squares, but none of my pinks were quite right. I rejected a signature polka dot print I originally had in mind because it seemed to get lost against the pink squares, falling short of having sufficient contrast.  Then I thought a chocolate brown, but all of mine were too dark or too golden and clashed with the border fabric.  I thought a pea pod green, like the accent wall of the nursery, would add a pop of color to the quilt. The green really did pop, but, when not viewed from within the walls of the nursery, it seemed odd man out.     

Auditioning pink, green, or brown for accent strip.

Love the pea pod green accent wall as backdrop for black crib.  Photo does not do it justice.

I love the look of a stripe, running crosswise to the strip length; I did this on my doll quilt and liked the results.  See doll quilt before quilting here. I went through all of my stripes but, again, the Goldilocks syndrome, each was either too wide, too thin, too light, too dark....  I even considered just plain white but thought that was a cop out.  Then I found this beige subtle stripe.  It has white like the blocks and is a less harsh tie in to the brown in the border fabric.  I think this is it.  What a lot of trouble to go through for just beige! (Oh, what the heck, I had fun playing.)

I think the beige uneven stripe is the winner. Yes, no, maybe so.

That song I talked about in the beginning?  It is written and sung by Joe Wise who was quoted as saying,  "Yes I am the author, though if any kid sings it all across the country in the car on the family vacation I'll deny authorship in any court." Here is the chorus.  I can't get it out of my head.  But then again maybe I have not made the decision if I want to!

                    Yes Indeedy

                     by Joe Wise

     Yes indeedy, pumpkin seedy
     No siree bob, hey diddle corn cob
     Yeah but, no but, wait a minute, could be so
     Maybe baby, chicken and gravy
     Don’t be silly saspirilly
     Hardly yardly, bailing up barley, 
     Pick a little, I don’t know!

Ongoing projects:  

1. Pink squares baby quilt- add borders, back, FMQ myself (eek!), and bind 
2. Little witch girl quilt to be.. sneak peak here hidden in June 20th post 
3. Duck, Duck, Goose - completed binding-  will FMQ (again, eek!) by self
4. Doll quilt - attach binding and call it good

This week's stats:

     Completed  projects - 0

     New projects - 0

     Currently in progress - 4