I Heart You!

Jumping in with the I Heart You sewalong had a sense of deja vu for me. A couple of Januarys ago, I impulsively started in on a scrappy patchwork strawberry quilt for my granddaughter. When I saw Meghan/Then Came June and Lindsey/Pen + Paper Designs' pattern using Lindsey's Patchwork Pattern Hack, well it made me immediately want to make it for my baby granddaughter. And why not?!

Besides the mix of pink and low-volume scraps for the hearts, I chose Kona White and Cotton + Steel Sprinkle in Stardust for my two key fabrics. I followed right along with the sewalong, making a few blocks each week, and that worked great, as I was working on other projects alongside this one.

For backing, I miraculously had several yards of Michael Miller Fabrics' Ta Dot in pinks. This colorway is called "Confection" - isn't that perfect?! And since I had plenty of it, I went ahead and pattern-matched it.



Quilting was done in a simple grid following the seam lines in Aurifil 50wt #2021 (Natural White).



Binding matched the Sprinkle background, and then, just like I'd done on my Strawberry Love quilt, I made a label out of a selvage of Kimberly Kight's "Yours Truly" strawberries print for Cotton + Steel. Even though the strawberry fabric wasn't used in this quilt, the selvage was just too perfect.



This project was on my 2019 Finish-A-Long Q1 List! 
Linking up with the Finish-A-Long Q1 Finishes Link Up!

Strawberry Love

So you were probably as surprised as I, that after declaring I was starting the year planless, I would almost immediately start in on a strawberry quilt. I KNOW! But there's this little girl who has an insatiable appetite for strawberries, and I just couldn't resist.

Both the original block by Bec/Skyberries Handmade, and an up-sized block by Angie/Gnome Angel were offered as options for the introductory month of The Honey Pot Bee. I opted for the larger block (17 1/2" x 24 1/2"), making four very scrappy blocks for a grandgirl-sized quilt.

I chose Sprinkle in Jelly Bracelet from the Cotton + Steel Basics line as my background fabric, which just suited those scraps so nicely. And then for the back... oh goodness.... another Cotton + Steel print - Kimberly Kight's "Yours Truly" strawberries - totally won my heart.

A quilted grid with Aurifil's 50wt #2000 (beige) was a pretty obvious choice, plus a current favorite. 

To top things off, the strawberry print had a perfect little selvage to sew into the back. It couldn't get better than that.

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday.

Still Chuckling

As fellow-creators, I know you have also all experienced the variety of reactions our creations get. I'm talking real-life here, where some folks get what we do (or at least really appreciate it), some not at all, and most feel very comfortable letting us know what they think of our work. And I'm fine with that. But one of those experiences happened yesterday that gave me such a good chuckle I had to share it.

So I've got this stack of mini-quilts that I've made over the last year, and I was showing them to daughter dear, basically bemoaning the fact that I really didn't know what to do with them all. Well Rachel's hand reached out so quickly when I came to the one I'd just created making the organic straight-line quilting tutorial, which I was totally fine with, and it didn't surprise me one bit, since it was her colors and all. But what did catch me by surprise was that moments later, grandgirl reached out her little hand to grab a favorite of her own! And what gave me such a laugh was that it was the back of the quilt that caught her fancy!

You love what you love, right? And I was more than happy for sweet Lucy to go home with (in her mind) a new dolly quilt, knowing it would be the back that would be most admired. It's all good, don't you think?

Grandgirl's First

This post should have been written 3 years ago, because that's when this tale began. I remember clearly, because it was the day I was babysitting grandgirl and wrote this post about our trip to the grocery store. And after that little episode, we went on to the fabric shop, with little one sitting in the front of a shopping cart once again. She was 15 months old, and happily entertained as I wheeled her up and down the rows of fabric. At one point I stopped to glance at some yardage, and when I turned back to her, I saw she had reached out and grabbed a bright and soft flannel fat quarter covered with doggies. When I tried to put it back, her little fist just clung tighter. So of course I bought it, and ever since I've considered it her 'first fat quarter', and fully intended to make her something with it. But what?

Fast forward those 3 years and that fat quarter was still hanging around, pulled out of the stash now and then, and eventually put away again. It happened to be on my cutting table last weekend when grandgirl was over, pulling scraps from my basket and creating on the design wall as her mother and I sewed. I mentioned the fat quarter, showing it to her, and telling her that I really wanted to make something for her with it but I didn't know what. Well she lit up and got all excited! "Grammy! Make my dolly a quilt!" Well who would have thought to wait until the child was old enough to choose for herself?

So that night, I got to it, fussy-cutting those doggies as best I could. I didn't follow a pattern, pulled scraps for the framing, and just sewed. It's nothing extraordinary, but when I gave it to grandgirl tonight, she hugged it tight, yelling, "you made it!" Indeed I did.

Now this is a little girl, barely 4, who is watching closely, and by some strange yet wonderful power, soaking it all in. She calls fabric, fabric, and corrects you if you call a quilt a blankie. She already knows the joy of creating and that something made with your own 2 hands is something pretty special. I like to think that one of these days she'll be sewing right alongside her mom and I. Time will tell, of course, but for now at least, I'm just glad she appreciates creating for the gift it is.

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday.

Tuesday at the Table

Grandgirl was over the other day, and after a while she asked what we were having for dinner. I told her, and her quick reply was, "I don't like that idea." (She's very nearly 4.) She went straight to the fridge, yanked open the door, while retorting, "Let's see what's in here." Having no inkling she'd find much interesting in our refrigerator's post-vacation emptiness, she soon announced, "Hmm. Let's have eggs and toast." Why not? So we got to work.

I was a tad surprised when grandgirl announced she'd crack the eggs, but always one to encourage kids in the kitchen, I got her stool so she could wash her hands and then work at the counter. Just 1 little reminder about where to place her thumbs after cracking the first egg was all it took, and I tell you, in no time we were ready to scramble.

All that to say, when I needed some random sewing the next night and came across a plain pre-made apron in my stash, I knew it was time. I'd purchased the kid-sized apron last year when I made my own Polka-Dot-Cafe-Apron during the Zakka 2.0 :: Patchwork, Please sew along, intending to downsize the Zakka design for grandgirl, but I never did. Debating on blocks for the pockets, I finally decided to keep it simple and went with an old favorite, the Polaroid block from CapitolaQuilter. The bright pink of the apron made me immediately think of Cotton+Steel tiger stripes along with a couple of other C+S coordinates. Fussy cutting definitely seemed the way to go.

Working from a fuzzy memory, I framed the Polaroids in white and sewed them into a row. Backed with a layer of batt, I matchstick quilted around the blocks with some straightish lines using Aurifil 12wt #4660 (Pink Taffy). Then I added the lining using a technique that left a tall enough flange to show off those sweet daisies. Easy peasy and just the amusement I needed. Stitch the rectangle onto the apron, dividing into 3 child-sized pockets, and it was done.

When I showed the apron to grandgirl over the weekend, she did admit the "kitties" were really cute, and pink was her favorite color, but she refused to try it on. So time will tell if it gets any use, but it was a fun diversion at any rate, and apron or no, I'm curious what she'll have us cook up next.


Linking up with Fabric Tuesday.