A Birthday Gift Accomplished

Maybe it's because I like to make my friends smile. Maybe it's because I'm always looking for my next sewing challenge. Maybe it's because I like getting cool gifts myself. Whatever the reason, I frequently find myself stashing ideas away - either on Pinterest, in my creativity journal, or little notes that I inevitably lose - for things that I just HAVE to make for upcoming birthdays, rainy days, and holidays.


In this case, the idea didn't just sit there, collecting dust -

I actually made it!

(I know, I'm not sure if I can believe it, either!)

 

I got the idea from these fabulous pillows that were made by one of my favorite fabric artists - Tula Pink.  The second I saw them, I thought of one of my closest friends - Christen. We're both a bit obsessed with London, English men, period costume dramas (think Pride and Prejudice), super heros, singing along to our favorite songs, fantastic shoes, coral (the color) and the list continues... As amazing as the pillows by Tula Pink were, I couldn't find a pattern for them, at least not in this style. So I stared at that little picture on her website until I got my courage gathered to do some quilt math. Quilt Math = Fractions. Fractions = Evil. I did pretty darn well in my math subjects in school, but I always shot the textbook, or my poor unfortunate teachers, a glare when fractions were brought up. I grabbed some graph paper, sketched out the design, and completed the arduous quilt math while watching an episode of Castle. Love that show. Just saying.

 

I was in awe, and a bit frightened, when I realized that Tula Pink had not only made cute flag pillows, but pretty dang accurate ones, too. There are fifty white squares in the stars section of the USA flag, for example. To get my stars section to the right size, and including those some 50 white squares and 49 blue squares, it meant that each square would end up being 5/8". EEK!  I had to take a couple deep breaths when I saw the final number.

 

 

 

 

 I forged ahead. To the left, you'll see the finished stars section, along with my prized Gingher's, for scale.

 

Tuesday's work involved making a lot of strips of strips. I would sew lengths of presumaly random fabrics together, and then cut those strips to the width needed on the pillow. I found a great site that gave the exact dimension that a USA flag should be, but I didn't have the same luck with the Union Jack, so there was a lot of more trial and error involved with that one.  On Wednesday, the front of the USA flag pillow was done. I thought Thursday was going to end with just a completed Union Jack, but I ended up staying up a little later to finish the backs, too.

 

 

 

 

 

I woke up on Friday, the day that I wanted to give Christen her gift, and found that I was surprisingly on schedule and ready to go. I'm usually the first one to point out all the flaws in my work. With these, I'm pretty darn satisified with how they turned out!

 

The best compliment that I've gotten on these pillows came from the birthday girl herself, Christen. She said that they keep making her smile. I can't ask for better than that.





Finished in
the nick of time!




In Bellingham, I'm fortunate enough to have three really good quilt shops - Fourth Corner Quilts, Two Thimbles, and Fabric - Etc. Each year, Fabric - Etc., hosts a charity quilt drive, called Bonnie's Team. Fabric - Etc., provides the backing fabric and the batting, and the completed quilts are donated to Bellingham's Madrona Infusion Center. (You can learn more about it here. )

At the beginning of August, when I picked out the backing fabric, I had delusions that I would get it done early this year! I remembered how last year, it felt like I barely got it turned in on the due date itself! 

Well... History, at least my history, has a way of repeating itself.

 

I was out of town, visiting some friends in Tennessee, at the beginning of October. When I came back home, I made a list of projects that I wanted to make before Christmas. Then I had the startling realization that I only had ten days to start, finish, and turn in, my Bonnie's Team quilt! 

I didn't even have a design in mind... 

Thank Heavens for Pinterest!

 

As I lie in bed, panicking about how to incorporate something fun, yet sophisticated, and all with the color pallet of the backing fabric, I started scrolling through my Quilting board on Pinterest. I found the perfect fit in Mod Chevron Baby Quilt, designed by Rashida Coleman-Hale. To get it to the size requirements needed, I did a little tweaking. Quilt math is always my favorite (sarcasm intended). After digging through my stash of fabric for just the right colors - I'm so picky that it even gets on my nerves - I was ready to get down to business!

 

I started cutting and assembly work on Friday, October 12th, and finished the quilting and binding on Tuesday, October 16th!  Not too shabby, if I say so myself.  If I look too closely as the quilt, I get annoyed, because I can see several spots where I didn't get corners/points matched up perfectly. I wouldn't go so far to say that half-square triangles are my nemesis, but they definitely won't get added to my Christmas card list, either, if you know what I mean.

      

Here she is, in all her glory! Done with only a few days to spare. (Maybe procratination really does work for me??)

 

Some Projects Just Take a Little Longer than Others...

I finished two quilts within a week!!

Hold up... It sounds way more impressive than it actually is.

Back in November, I had the opportunity to housesit for one of my two best friends, Chrissy. While there, I spent my days working on sewing projects.  When my neck and shoulder started to complain a bit too much, I would read for a while, then go back to sewing. Since I had an entire house to myself, it gave me lots of counter space and floor space to spread out my projects, without fear of them attracting footprints from people, or pets.

There were apron patterns, pieces of in-progress purses, home decor projects, dresses in various stages of completion, and, naturally - quilts.

(What can I say?  I was overly optimistic about how much I thought I could complete over the course of 11 days.)  

Now, everyone, gather round and I will share the tale of two quilts.

Quilt #1 - "Rainbow Rag"

Back in July, I put up a post about the first rag quilt I made. It was a baby shower gift for a friend of mine, Jolene. Ever since then, I had been wanting to make one for myself, but I wasn't sure what spin to take on it. Then I remembered another quilt that I have in progress, called City Lot. I got the fabric for it while driving from Bellingham, WA, to Provo, UT, and then from there to Nashville, TN, and then back home to Bellingham. In each of the states I passed through, I got one piece of solid color Kona fabric. With the City Lot quilt, it will all be put together in a fantastically modern, and random, way, as a tactile reminder of that trip that I took with my mom. I absolutely love the look of that quilt, but my inner Lisa Frank hated that I gave up the lovely rainbow order in favor of something more abstract.

Enter the rag quilt!

I had OODLES of leftover fabric from the City Lot project, so I used it to put together this rag quilt. For the layout, I have to thank Constance, a young lady, and daughter of yet ANOTHER friend, Dawnette, (look, Ma!  I've got friends!!) that suggested that I try for a cascading color effect. This quilt really only took me about two or three days to complete, start to finish...

...and then there was Quilt #2 - "Laurel Star"

This project definitely took a bit more time. This is the first quilt I ever started, and the fourth or fifth one I've actually finished. I started working on it when I was 16 or 17 years old. For those of you that are Mormon, you'll understand when I tell you that it was one of my Laurel projects.  As you can see, it's a scrappy star quilt, all done in reds, dark blues, purples, and various pieces of cream-on-cream fabric. A representation of what my favorite colors were in my late teens. Oh, well. In August of 1996, I had finished putting all the blocks together and had also done the quilting. I know this, because of the little free-hand embroidery I had added to the lower right corner. So close, and yet so far... All that remained was the binding.

Since August of 1996, the nearly-finished quilt followed me as I dated, got engaged, married, lived in three different states, and divorced. In May of 2011, while sifting through box after box of accumulated stuff in a storage unit in Franklin, TN, Kaylee, my other best friend, triumphantly held up this quilt. I breathed a sigh of relief  at knowing that it wasn't lost forever, and then promptly packed it away to be ignored for yet another six months. Finally, while at Chrissy's house in November of 2011, approximately sixteen years after I had started it, I spent about two hours and added the binding. It's done.

Now, the Rainbow Raq quilt awaits me on cold evenings when I need some extra warmth as a I sit on the couch. The Laurel Star, however, stays on my bed, every now and then prompting me to reflect on all that I've seen, accomplished, and been through in the years that it took me to make it, from start to finish.