I have been quilting up a storm this week on a secret project. (It’s a secret from Rachel…shhh!) I have not enjoyed not being able to discuss this quilt with Rachel. Nick and my mom have been helpful, but they give conflicting guidance and Nick yells things like “But what about the pickle dicks?!” (The block was actually a “pickle dish.”)

Anyways, in my post about Louie’s superhero quilt I think I mentioned the two other superhero quilts I made him. Both of those were just lap-sized, whole cloth quilts.

The tutorial for those lap quilts is from the blog PurlSoho (which is a fabric store in NYC and I wish I could go to there right now.)

https://www.purlsoho.com/create/2011/05/25/mollys-sketchbook-lap-duvet/

(I also wish I knew how to make a nice neat link with the link inside of the word, but alas my brain is too tired from marathon quilting to figure that out).

The first one was made from this yard of fabric with a purple minky backing. Louie loves minky. At bedtime he thrashes around in his bed yelling “Where are my minkies?!” I don’t remember why I bought this purple minky in the first place, but I mistakenly bought a ton of it and it has backed many quilts.

The second one I made in some kind of quilting state of insanity one night when Louie refused to go to sleep. He was crying about not having a pillow to use at nap time or something ridiculous. I told him I would go make him a pillow if he finally went to sleep. That worked. So I made the pillow.

I still had so much of this fabric left I decided I might as well make a quilt! So I did and I was very tired the next day. And Louie refused to take his new pillow or new quilt to school for nap time.

The moral of this story is, the PurlSoho lap duvet tutorial is a great project if you need something quickly, like if you are trying to bribe your child. I’ve also used the same tutorial for a more muted, non-superhero version in cozy flannel.

Lastly, as I was searching for the pictures of these quilts in my photo library I found this photo, which I am just going to leave here.

On Friday, I finished up work a little early and thought about taking a nap on the couch before picking up the kids from the bus stop. As I approached the couch, however, I noticed the throw cushion covers. “I am getting tired of these,” I thought. This makes sense because we have had them since we moved in to this house in 2009.

So, instead of taking a nap, I looked over at the pile of scraps from the quilt top I’ve been working on and decided that they would make good cushion covers. Then I got to work.

I had actually considered making cushion covers a few months ago and had bought some zippers, and I also had lots of batting scraps leftover from previous projects. Everything I’d need for a weekend project. I found a tutorial on zippered quilted pillow covers over on Suzy Quilts and realized that I should have quilted the pieced pillow cover that I made for my mom last spring… no wonder it came apart. I also found a tutorial for an economy block and started with that. I love Amy Smart’s site, I’ve learned so much about quilting from her.

I should have just started with one and went through the whole process, but I really wanted to get rid of all four of the 1234, so I did four at a time. I made a block with my favorite star, another with HSTs, and another that just stretched my scraps as far as they’d go.

I had fun quilting these, it seemed like a good opportunity to practice some FMQ. I tried some spirals, leaf motifs, and little flowers. Also some echo quilting on the star.

On Saturday night, I fell asleep in my kids’ bed and woke up at 11pm (I should have taken that nap!). Whenever I do this, which is often, I feel like I have missed out on my key 3 hours of alone time for quilting and am disappointed. I had some energy last night after my nap, so instead of going back to bed, I turned on the lights and attached the zipper foot.

As I got started, I realized that some of the blocks I made were a little too big to handle the Suzy Quilts recommended 1/2 inch seam allowance for pillowcases without cutting off the design (or making the cover too small for the insert). I should have planned a little better. In some cases, I tried to do a smaller seam allowance and some of the batting is showing where the zipper goes. Sew and learn, sew and learn.

I finished these around 1:45am, and today I got to nap with them (along with Amanda’s dog Wallace, he spent the night with us while Amanda and her family were away). It was a good nap.

Now that I’ve got the hang of doing zippered pillow covers, hopefully I will change these out before another 12 years go by…

When I finally finish my fall-ish quilt for my bedroom, I’ll have these coordinating pillow covers, which is kind of neat. I’m going to become one of those people with 300 pillows on my bed, can’t wait!

I like our new cover photo! Thank you webmaster Brad for adding it. And thank you neighbors for coming out during the Steelers vs. Bills halftime to hold quilts for us!

I tried to accomplish my goal of both quilting and supervising my child simultaneously this weekend. If my child could be contained in a room this wouldn’t be that hard. But, as Rachel knows, that is not possible. At 8:00 a.m. on Sunday Louie was on Rachel’s porch wearing my exercise resistance bands as a “jet pack” in a Spider-Man outfit. So, I resorted to outdoor quilting while the children of the neighborhood did all of the things they do for 10 straight hours.

What I actually came here to say though is we might be cutting edge fashion designers. A famous and cool person who my husband knows but I do not wore this to the Met Gala:

That is a literal quilt.

I googled the designer and here is this “look” from his “look book.”

I do like the idea of one day making a puffy quilt. And, Rachel, when you see me on my porch wrapped in it you will know that I am not a disheveled mess, but rather, a very stylish and cool person who definitely has it all together.

and her name is Rachel! I asked her last night to help me understand how to write on our blog, and then I came here for a leisurely stroll this morning, and I see she has been quilting and blogging about quilting like a literal quilting machine!

My mind is blown by the “H” quilt. I love it and the colors and how did you even do the math to figure out that pattern…and the back! It’s really amazing and I’m glad Wallace was respectful of the process. Also the quilt top you are working on is so beautiful—I need that pattern!

I think I said my quilting goal this year was six quilts? I am probably not even going to accomplish that underwhelming goal. I am not worthy of living in the shadow of Rachel.

Earlier in the year I made three quilts for Louie’s new superhero bedroom, which is probably excessive. (Two are just whole cloth lap quilts, so I don’t know if they count.)

For his bed, I used the “Wish” pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew.

I actually emailed Allison from Cluck Cluck Sew last night to show her pictures of this quilt and she emailed me back this morning and I felt a bit starstruck.

For some reason when I painted Louie’s room I included a rainbow stripe border. I made the star tails in this pattern to match that border. Then in the stars I appliquéd various superhero characters.

When I posted this photo I had a flashback to how overwhelmed I was about quilting this thing! I can’t believe I actually finished it. I free-motion quilted it with an “echo” around the appliqué and then straight lines down the tails. I’ve never straight line quilted using the free-motion foot before, but this quilt was too large to keep turning. It turned out better than I expected! Then I just did random zigzag lines in the zigzagging background areas.

I also am now recalling how hard it was to come up with the backing! I am not a math genius like Rachel so without a pattern I struggle. Oh and also the day I basted this monster I had some weird fold in the backing and I had to take out 3/4 of the pins and do it all again! Thank you Rachel for being the only person to understand the tragedy of that situation.

I added this block as a funny joke for Louie because he always asks who my favorite superhero is and I say “Wonder Woman” and then I ask him and he says “all the boys.” Which, of course. Nick thinks this block is weird, but Louie liked it!

I am currently laying in Louie’s bed under this quilt and I am going to go back to sleep now because he woke up at 4 a.m. and then 6 a.m. to build LEGO. I guess I stay awake until 2 a.m. to quilt sometimes so I can’t fault his LEGO excitement!

I texted this to Amanda last month, and she responded as I expected: “BABY QUILT!!”

When you know, you know.

Baby quilts are fun, because they are small and also because they are so cute. I spent more time than I care to admit on the internet scrolling Etsy for baby quilt fabric until I came across this adorable little ducklings charm pack by Moda. I ordered a couple and decided on a basic patchwork design.

I started this quilt the week before we were supposed to go on vacation for 2 weeks, and surprise surprise, I did not finish it before leaving town like I had hoped I would. At least I managed to get it pieced and basted. My partner/webmaster kept saying, “I don’t understand why you are working on this quilt and not packing or preparing for our trip?” It’s a disease. Quilting addiction. It could be worse!

When we got home, I had to bump the baby quilt after the H quilt in the queue (cousin’s baby is due in October), but I managed to quilt and bind it over Labor Day weekend after I finished the H quilt.

I wanted to buy a few yards of one of the duckling fabrics for the backing, but I guess this collection was too new and no shops were selling yardage, only charm packs, jelly rolls, and layer cakes. I think yardage is available now, but I didn’t know how long it would take, so I just used some flannel from my stash. It’s a little too natural/off white, but it almost looks like the yellow in the prints, so I went with it. I prewashed it on hot before basting, so hopefully it doesn’t shrink too much.

I used a hera marker and ruler to crease the fabric on the diagonal through the squares and keep the line straight through the border. It’s a neat little tool, I think I’ll use it more in the future.

For the binding, I tried something new: using the backing fabric to bind the quilt by leaving one inch of overhanging backing and cutting away the batting to the edge of the quilt top. After reading a few quilt blog posts on how to do this, I sewed the folded backing over the quilt top and then super slowly machined finished it. I tend to try to speed through machine binding because I’m just so ready to be done at that point, but since this is a gift for a baby, I wanted to make sure it was done properly and securely. I’m quite happy with how it turned out.

I hope my soon-to-be-born second-cousin-once-removed enjoys this cute quilt as much as I enjoyed making it.

Is this quilt 7? I am losing track.

Here’s a sneak peek of Quilt 8. I just finished the top tonight, but didn’t have the energy to do any more.

I started this one a long time ago so I’d have something to put on my bed for spring/summer instead of the Christmas quilt that is currently on there. Considering it’s the middle of September, I’m not sure about getting this one done in time for “summer” 2021… maybe I should put this top away and work on a fall theme quilt instead?

Yesterday we visited my in-laws, and their neighbor, Mrs. B, invited my mother-in-law and me to her house to look at her grandmother’s quilts. (She knows I love quilts.)

Mrs. B’s grandmother was not only an amazing quilter, hand piecing, quilting, and binding, she was also very talented with embroidery. There were whole cloth quilts that were beautifully quilted with intricate floral patterns and then perfectly decorated with embroidery details. I didn’t bring my phone to take photos of all of them, but I wish that I had. Another was a sort of crazy quilt that was made from what appeared to be velvet men’s jackets and upholstery fabric. Lots of cool scrappy quilts, interesting patterns like flowers from hexies and a hummingbird pattern. Mrs. B doesn’t quilt but she has a deep appreciation for all of the work that went into these and displays them in her home. Her mother had 3 siblings, and they all divided the quilts up after her grandmother passed away, so I only got to see a quarter of the collection.

My favorite quilt, and the one that Mrs. B saved for last, was this friendship quilt that was made by her grandmother and her aunts and cousins and neighbors who lived on nearby farms. Each one made a block and then embroidered her name in the middle. I asked my mother in law if I could borrow her phone to take a picture of this one, because I loved it so much and wanted to put it on the blog, which Mrs B said was OK.

The most outrageous thing about this quilt, is that Mrs. B’s grandmother kept it between her mattress and box spring to keep the mattress from sliding around. I am all for using quilts but this seems a bit too utilitarian. Mrs. B knew a good thing when she saw it though, and fortunately rescued this quilt and treasures it. She pointed out all of the names of the ladies who worked on it and knew stories about all of them. She also realized that this quilt was probably made when her grandmother was pregnant with her mother based on the date.

Many thanks to Mrs. B for caring for these beautiful quilts and sharing them with me. I was inspired to try more hand quilting and also to try to convince everyone I know to take up quilting so that I have a quilt with a name block from all of them.

While I was visiting my parents in Michigan, I decided to make my daughter a quilt for her birthday. “When I get home, I’ll have 5 days. Day 1, pick our fabric from my stash. Day 2, cut. Day 3, piece. Day 4, baste, Day 5, quilt and bind. I can totally do this.” Dear readers, I could not do this. Work got busy, I was baking cakes, planning a very last minute party (texts to parents inviting their kids with 6 hours notice)… It was a busy and good week, but the quilt did not get finished. We were also dog sitting Amanda’s sweet and wonderful dog, and dogs need to walk and stuff. Wallace was very respectful of the quilting process though.

I never had a dog growing up, but I do see the appeal. It was hard to get work done when Wallace was just sleeping on the chair in the other room, looking so cute and snuggly. I managed to only take one nap with him all week. It was a glorious nap.

The last minute party was actually a success, and thanks to YouTube videos, I pulled off this crazy unicorn cake that my daughter requested.

The best part of the party was the reunion of Wallace with his family. He was so happy that they were home.

But this is not a cake blog or a dog blog. It’s a quilting blog.

I managed to make this quilt out of fabric entirely from my stash. Part of this is because while I was making the angel table runner, I had some second thoughts about the fabric that I bought. I wanted it to look more like the sky. So I ordered some different sky fabrics online, and buying online often means that you’re buying by the yard. Well, shipping takes longer than usual these days, and I was worried it wouldn’t arrive in time for the teacher’s last day. So I ordered a bunch from Joann fabrics and picked them up curbside. Also, 1 yard minimums. I ended up just going with the original fabric (which I had already cut and pieced… I think I lost my mind a little bit). Fortunately Helen is into celestial patterned blues and when she helped me pick out fabric, she was very interested in these impulse buys.

I got this idea from a quilt in Thomas Knauer’s book Modern Quilt Perspectives, which was a quilt constructed of H shapes that he made for his daughter. However, there wasn’t a pattern for this one in the book, so I had to do some quilt math and sketching on graph paper to figure out how to cut it. I also did some funky piecing of scraps to make the squares and rectangles.

I must also admit that I used a bunch of charm pack pieces that Amanda had gifted to Helen so that she could practice making her own quilt, but I am my mother’s daughter (very little patience and too much of a control freak to teach a child how to sew, sorry Mom, it’s true) and my daughter is her mother’s daughter (does not have the patience to sit still and learn to sew, even though she wants to). So that wasn’t going to happen. I’m sorry Amanda! However, Helen loved the colors, and we used almost all of them to make the blocks, along with a few other things I had in my giant tub.

I really like the colors that she picked, which was basically every color except green. I quilted about 1/4 inch away from each seam inside the Hs. (What is the plural of H?). It made the Hs kinda pop out nicely.

I put her name on the back with scrapped together blues for the background. It has a wool batting so it’s nice and warm, but it was heavy and kind of a pain to quilt, even with the Juki. And speaking of the Juki…

Something went very wrong with my walking foot, which is now broken. I’m not quite sure what happened, but it made a terrible sound. I don’t know if something was loose or what. It didn’t happen until I was binding it, thank goodness, because it was helpful in getting the thick layers quilted. I’m going to call Juki this week and see what they say. I’ve read other blogs suggesting that a Janome walking foot works well with the Juki TL-2010Q, so maybe I’ll try that if I can’t fix this one.

Quilt six complete! Halfway to my goal but only 1/3 of the year left.

When I found out that one of my kids’ day care teachers was retiring, my first instinct was to make her a quilt. She changed both of my kids’ diapers and cared for them when they were little babies. She also became a special friend throughout all of the political turmoil of the past few years. I wish I could have made a big one but there wasn’t much time before her last day, and I was also in the middle of trying study for my anatomy class final (it’s been a weird year). I knew that she liked angels, and I found this adorable pattern for a table runner, so I decided to go with that.

I had done some appliqué previously on my son’s dinosaur quilt, and I liked the piecing and appliqué combination in this pattern.

I was happy with how it turned out, but because I was in such a hurry to finish it, I forgot to take a picture of the final product before gifting it. Huge quilt blogger fail!

If you’re curious, I used the blue fabric from the pieced border for the back and binding, and I did echo quilting around the angels with some FMQ wavy lines. At least that’s what I remember from what I did three months ago. I don’t think it would be good form to ask the recipient to send me a photo of the final product for the blog. Use your imagination!

One of the best parts of making this table runner/wall hanging was that I took a field trip to the south hills of Pittsburgh to Gloria Horn’s sewing studio. (I was also picking up my Kenmore after getting it serviced there. Usually my partner (also our webmaster) takes it out there for me because I really don’t like driving in the South Hills. Somehow I ended up in Mt Oliver on the way home…) The people working there are awesome, and they helped me pick out the iron-on shiny glitter stuff for the stars. I also discovered that they have an app and do live streams to show off new fabric and products, and they are really funny. Highly recommend if you’re in Pittsburgh or on the World Wide Web.

I’m blogging because I’m supposed to be straightening my house, which looks like a tornado went through it. I guess I should do that now. Does this count as quilt 5?

In my first blog post on this site, I mentioned that I was working on a secret project. I wanted to keep it secret because I figured that I’d share this blog with my mom before I finished the quilts but no. I guess I should do that. Increase our readership!

I saw the Lakeside Story Collection by Mara Penny for Moda on a fabric website and I knew I had to make a Michigan quilt for my mom. The flowers, the birds, the colors!! I just loved it and I knew my mom, born in Michigan and residing near the lake, would love it, too.

Again, I wanted a pattern that would show off the print, so I bought Amy Smart’s Lattice Quilt pattern, which was perfect. I have regrets about the white sashing… off white or snow would have matched better, but it’s not too glaring. I find matching solid colors to prints, especially when there’s a pandemic and I’m buying most fabric online, very challenging. I wish designers would just tell you exactly which whites would match. Maybe they do and I just don’t know where to find that info?

Anyway, I also came across this pixelated Michigan pattern on Etsy, and decided that it would make a great back. Or front? I guess this is a 2-sided quilt.

This looks complicated, but with the pattern it wasn’t hard at all. The only thing that was challenging was laying it all out on my living room floor and keeping my kids off of it.

I was excited about this quilt, but I also felt a little bad because… I had already made a quilt for my mom last year. What about my dad?

Well, good news. Lakeside Story has some Ohio panels, too. My dad is from Ohio and that’s where I grew up. I don’t think of it as a land of lakes, but it’s still in the Lakeside Story collection. So I made a matching one for him.

For the back, I figured I’d do some Ohio star blocks. I did the quilt math myself, and my points aren’t great, don’t look too closely!

I tried to do some fancy FMQ in the Ohio blocks in a corny attempt to replicate the script Ohio marching formation that the Ohio State University band does at football games. It went ok?

I guess I’m 33% of the way to my quilt goal according to this blog. More to come soon, hopefully in less than 4 months!

I guess today is the day for quilt blogging, I may write 4 posts in one day after 4 months of doing nothing related to blogging.

In my last post, I mentioned the Etsy fabric buying spree at the beginning of the year… quilt 2 is one of the products of that late night online shopping madness. How cute is the AGF Nightfall collection? It has all of the motifs that I love: bunnies, moons, owls, pine trees… how could I not buy this? Did I buy more after making this quilt just to have it in my stash? I absolutely did. Do I have a problem with buying fabric? Yes, I absolutely do.

Because I loved this fabric so much, I wanted to find a pattern that wouldn’t take away from the prints too much. I decided to make a “snowball” quilt, which I guess is a quilt with little squares sewn onto the corners of bigger squares and cut so that the bigger squares look round like a snowball.

Who is this quilt for, you may ask? Me. I wish that I had made it just a little bit bigger because it doesn’t quite cover my toes when I nap with it. I used wool batting and it is so snuggly.

I used the scrap half square triangles that I trimmed from the snowballs on the back. I think I’ve got a tiny scrap quilt in my future.

The quilting isn’t too exciting because this quilt was all about the fabric. I probably should have marked the quilting lines instead of just winging it, because I can see some wobbles in the diagonal lines. Oh well. Learning as I go!