Whimsical Quilts

We recently did the Tucson Quilt Fiesta. On set up day one of our customers, Sally Dickinson, walked me through the show to see her quilts that were entered in the show. She won ribbons for some of them. One of her quilts was a Sumo Wrestler quilt. Each wrestler has a different animal print for his loincloth. It is from a Japanese paper pieced pattern. The alternating blocks and layout are her own design. Sally told me that it was a little tricky finding animal prints that were the correct scale.

Sumo Wrestler Wardrobe by Sally Dickinson

Each day as I came into the show I saw a few different quilts. Some were just spectacular and some were just plain fun. So I decided that when I had the opportunity to "Power Walk" the show to see the quilts on Sunday morning, to look at it from a whimsical perspective. I went in search for some "fun" quilts to write about.

Here's a Halloween quilt called "Haunted Cottage" made by Jain Barrett. She turned a drawing into a quilt and pattern. She worked with Quilters Market to create a fabric kit for it to raise money for Quilt for a Cause. The pattern is available for free on their website at http://quiltforacause.org/haunted-cottage-wall-hanging/.

Haunted Cottage by Jain Barrett

There are a lot of skeleton themed quilts out there and generally I'm not a big fan of them. But this one struck my fancy. It is kind of a self-portrait of the quilt artist Tami Graeber. She made it for the Saddlebrooke-Friday Quilters Club President's Challenge. The theme was Arizona Centennial. "Vaquera Rae" was created in her image with a red ponytail and ex-cowgirl.

Vaquera Rae Celebrates the Arizona Centennial
by Tami Graeber

Next we have "Crazy Cats" by Dottie Lanier.  The eyes and flower centers were digitized and the flower stems were machine appliqued. Each cat has his own personality. Very cute! The quilt was machine quilted by Arlys Bjorke.

Crazy Cats by Dottie Lanier

Frogs & Bugs for Theresa was made by Becky Ruhl for her four year old granddaughter. Her niece Mary Watson designed the bugs for the frogs and Becky embroidered additional bugs to even out the design. It was quilted by Barb Angerhofer. It is definitely a bright and cheerful quilt! I love the binding fabric. It ties in all of the colors from the quilt and frames it very perfectly.

Frogs & Bugs for Theresa by Becky Rul

I hope you enjoyed this fun tour of some of the quilts from the show.

Happy Quilting, 

Carol

Perle Cotton Bubbles

Looking for a great way to control your balls of perle cotton? Our "Bubbles" really come in handy. Since I lead a "grab and go" lifestyle I usually just put everything I'm working on it a tote bag and carry it everywhere to work on whenever I have free time. The first time I did this, I went to grab a ball of perle cotton and it had  unrolled and gotten tangled up. After that experience I make sure that all of my thread is contained in one of our Perle Cotton Bubbles.

I wish I could take credit for this idea but it came from the creative, always inspired Robin and Tina Kinglsey from Bird Brain Designs. But I totally embrace the idea. It keeps everything nice and neat. Here's what's involved in getting these ready for you. 

We order them in a box of 2000. The bottoms come in one box.

Here's what 2000 "Bubbles" look like.

This is 2000 Lids

Now all they need is the little hole. This is where ours differ from those you buy from Bird Brain Designs. If you notice in the picture above, there is a hole in the end of the Bubble. This requires drilling a hole in the bottom. We tried this but I found that there was a little burr from the drill bit which I thought could be a problem when pulling the thread through the hole. We tried smoothing it out but I just wasn't happy with it. So we put the hole on the side of ours. 

This means that my husband, Alan punches a hole with a hole punch in the side of every one of those Bubbles. He does it from the inside so there is nothing rough near the thread. It is a very smooth hole. Talk about a time consuming and tedious task. Not to mention that if he does too many at a time he gets a blister in the palm of his hand. 

I have tried every hole punch I can find to try to make it easier but the one that works best is the good old fashioned cheap metal one. The more ergonomic ones break after just a couple punches.

The Official "Bubble" Hole Punch

Our 13 month old granddaughter Tristyn likes to "help." She likes to play in the box or grab them and give them to Grandpa to punch the holes. She gets a little frustrated with him when he can't punch holes as fast as she gives them to him.

Our Granddaughter Tristyn - 13 Months Old

They are available individually or in our Perle Cotton Bubble Pack of 12.He also counts out the bubbles and lids and packs them up in bags. This way when you want 12 they are already packaged up for you.

So next time you're stitching and pulling the thread through your Perle Cotton Bubble you know what went into getting that ready for you.

Happy Stitching,

Carol

New Wall Hanging Project

Ok. I know Christmas just ended and you're probably wondering why I would post a Christmas themed project when you just finished putting all the decorations away. Two reasons - One I just finished it and really wanted to share it with you. Two - There's plenty of time to get started on it now and finish it in time for next Christmas.

This wall hanging in this post is my version of the Santa Portrait Trio Pattern by Bird Brain Designs. I have posted pictures in previous blog posts about the blocks. Now I have put them together.

Santa Portrait Trio Pattern Photo

I knew when I decided to make this that I wanted to keep the feel of a portrait but I also wanted to do something different. I wanted it to be a quilted project rather than a framed piece. I finished stitching the blocks and set them aside until I figured out how to set them. I toyed with traditional sashing and possibly little stitched cornerstones but that was too obvious and kind of boring. Then I thought of Attic Windows but I still didn't think it was the right setting.

You never know when or where inspiration will strike. I was in Michael's one day looking for I don't even remember what. I walked past the picture frames and I had the solution to my problem. Here's my inspiration.

Once I had the plan I was really excited to get going on it. I decided that I wanted to do 8" x 10" blocks so they would be a standard photo size. So I trimmed my blocks to 8 1/2" x 10 1/2".

Next came the math part. I decided to have a 1" finished border around my blocks. I measured the size of the small black border in the photo and the white piece between the pictures. I used those measurements to apply the same ratio to my project. I used the same technique to choose the two outer borders. Keeping with the style of the sample frame, I mitered all of my borders.

There was a lot of "dead" space in the first wide border. I quilted a holly motif on the top and bottom borders. In the center of the sides I quilted a single Christmas Tree and finished the rest of the side borders with the same holly motif. 

Now for the finished project.

My Santa Portrait Trio Wall Hanging

Here's what it looks like on the back.

Quilting Detail

We usually think of a color for borders and sashing fabrics. I know that had I done it that way it would have been a completely different look. When I look at the finished product, I think I achieved the look I was going for. It looks like framed Santa photos.

Happy Quilting and Stitching,

Carol

Friendship's Garden Quilt

I just finished this quilt. I had so much fun putting it all together I wanted to share the process with you.

First I want you to know that I can't take credit for the embroidery in the blocks. My friend Holly from Quilter's Cove had one of her employees do the stitching. She was going to put them together and never got around to doing that so she passed them on to me. I've had them for a couple months but finally had the time to assemble the quilt.

I tried a few different fabrics for the sashing. It was kind of like Goldilocks. I thought I had the perfect green. When I actually sewed the sashing between the blocks in the first row, I hated it. It was too bright. I toyed with black but it just didn't fit with the cheery blocks. Next I tried red. It matched the red in the blocks, but it came out too dark. Most of the cornerstone fabrics didn't show up and I wanted to add that extra sparkle of color. Finally I tried the pink. I thought it was way too much pink, but when I actually sewed the sashing into that first row, I really liked it. That was the winner. However, I didn't like that it was a solid fabric. It was a little too plain.

Section of Plain Pink Sashing

I recently saw the book "Doodle Quilting" by Cheryl Malkowski on SewCalGal's Blog. I bought a copy right away because I knew it would come in handy for the Santa Portrait Trio quilt I'm working on. I found the perfect way to incorporate some of the "doodles" in the book into the sashing to break up all that solid pink.

I chose to do a combination of leaves, circles and flowers as the quilting motif for the sashing. Instead of choosing a pink thread that would blend into the sashing, I chose to do the quilting in green. I wanted it to look like a printed fabric rather than a solid. Here's  what one of the sashing strips looks like quilted.

Sashing with the Quilting

After I had done a good part of the quilting, I got really excited. I had achieved the look I was going for. It was pink with an added splash of color and texture. Don't you just love when that happens?

Partially Quilted

Here's what a small portion of it looks like from the back.

 I added yellow for the binding to give it a little more color and sparkle. Here's the finished quilt.

Finished Friendship's Garden Quilt

I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. I'd love to know what you think. 

Happy Quilting and Stitching,

Carol