Catching up!

A few weeks ago, we were surprised to learn that Norris' cousin Peggy had a new grandson. I was preoccupied at the time and didn't even think - but last week it dawned on me!! The baby's older  brother got a quilt-- this baby needs his own quilt! So I quickly made one of flannel and got it in the mail on Monday. The Post Office says it was delivered today, so I can post some photos.

 The quilting was done with a classic pantograph called Waterworld.  I had rectangles of flannel that came in a set and added two more fabrics I had that happened to go well with the set. I didn't plan it but the quilt came out square.

This closer view shows the flannel prints a little better.

 A light green swirly print and a darker green binding finished it off.

The other side

Several weeks ago, I posted the photos of Ellen's quilt for her granddaughter.  I finished the second one, which used to be the back of the Princess quilt, and finally took photos this week. I didn't get one of the full quilt.  It was wet outside when I took these and I couldn't find an indoor patch of sunlight that was not disrupted by shadows  - but the photos in the afternoon sun do show off the quilting best.  In most lighting, the quilting is not this obvious.

Much of the quilt - be sure to click for the larger view.

You may have noticed the swirling trail I gave the butterfly above for some movement, but you probably couldn't see how the frog also moved, hopping from the flower garden to its current location

 

The bunny was just relaxing in the scene, but you can see the mix of feathers, ferns, leafy and flowery designs I used. The cut off areas are more of this type of fill.

 

Ellen's applique is really cute - and incorporates several things to make her design very special for Elizabeth.

A Young Princess quilt

When I was closing out my quilting business, my friend and customer Ellen asked if I would still do a project she had discussed with me earlier, and I said of course I would.  It was a two-sided quilt she had made early in her quilting life, for her youngest granddaughter, who has grown up a lot in the decade or so since.

The quilts were originally tied together, which was a fine solution for a two sided quilt, but Ellen decided she'd like them quilted.  When I show the second one (which won't be for a while) you'll see why we decided they would be better as two separate quilts.

 

 

Ellen is still making quilts with photographs, though her work these days is more in the Art Quilt realm.  She now enhances her photos with fabric paint - but these photos don't need enhancing.  I think she paid to have them professionally printed - there's a business label lower left.  You can see how vibrant the color is in this closeup.

 

The feathered rays idea jumped out at me when I saw the layout of the quilt - but I didn't know how I was going to quilt the bejeweled crown.  Happily, the design worked itself out on my first try - I'm not sure the lame fabric would have taken well to reverse-sewing.

I didn't want to quilt the photographs but they are a little large to be left unquilted even with the poly batting I used to provide good loft.  There's a minimal amount of quilting around the edges of Baby Elizabeth, and occasionally on a seam or decorative element of clothing - you never leave a space larger than your fist unquilted.

What Are Little Boys Made of?

A couple of years ago, when we were going through my mother's things after she died, my father found two items that had no identification on them. 

A very ordinary looking, well-worn flannel receiving blanket.  The flannel was thin, and the edging was coming unraveled.

 

And less mysteriously, a slightly stained flannel baby jacket with a hand-crocheted edge.

The jacket still had three of four ties attached - and the sewist had used blue thread - so this was a jacket made for a boy baby.   

I had several white flannel baby jackets of this same style, with crocheted edges and ribbons for my doll-babies, made by my mother's mother.  So, it's just my guess, the jacket was made by Grandma and the blanket in the cedar chest must have been one of the first Mom had for my big brother Jeff.  Now, they may also have been used by any number of the subsequent babies - at least my other two brothers, but I suspect they were saved because they were gifts for Brother Jeff, the "experimental model" as Brother Roger likes to call him.

As we divided up, and saved or gave away many of our mother's items, these two baby things, in their then nearly 60 year-old condition, had  no value other than sentimental.  I brought them back here with the idea that I might make something of them if Jeff's son, married the year before, ever had a son.  And since he is expecting one of those in August, it was time to make these over.  

Modern parents don't allow much of anything with ties around their infants, so I sewed a row of snaps to the jacket, and trimmed it with a bias strip of a green and blue striped fabric, which also became the binding for the newly lined blanket.  I hope Grandma would approve of my signalling the baby is a boy this way.

 

 

The blanket's new green lining fabric is a licensed Golden Books print - which goes both with the 60-year-old theme, and the shower invitation's suggestion for signed children's books for the baby in lieu of cards.   

Here's a closeup of Grandma's crochet - this would be the new baby's Great Great Grandmother's work.  I don't expect his Modern Mom Katy will take this baby out in the old-fashioned jacket, but perhaps when he's teething (it's not a new-born size) he can use it when he's drooled on everything else in his wardrobe, and he will feel the love of the previous generations.

(the greens of the stripe are not really olive and do not clash with the lining in real life, as they do in these photos)

I guess I have to call this quilting, but there's no batting. The flannel layer is just to preserve the blanket for a little while but the blanket is still thin. I chose to use a Patricia Ritter design called "Ribbit" because well -

 

"... frogs and snails and puppy dog tails".   And it was fun to trace out all those little toes!  The frog is maybe the size of my hand.  

Don't worry, this baby will be getting his own brand new quilt, the white one with blue and yellow zigzags. And now I get to go book shopping!

Blue and Yellow Baby Quilt

I finished the quilting on this yesterday morning, then bound it completely by machine.  I need to trim a stray thread or two, but otherwise, it's done, ready to ship off to the expectant parents.

Sorry this photo of the entire quilt is skewed -- it's because of the angle I used to show the simple quilting.

 

Well, it's only really simple quilting on the zigzag part where I used spaced parallel lines. 

I broke the inside border area into squares and triangles and used channel stitching in contrasting directions.  I like how the negative space adds interest, and the quilting makes the quilt top appear fairly complicated where I was actually working with a single 5 inch piece of white fabric across the width of the quilt.  The two inner border areas are not the same, because the blue fabric zig zags asymmetrically into them.

 

I had an easy Greek key stencil that fit the outer border perfectly.  I wish I could say I had planned that, now that it's on there and I like it.  I don't know if this quilt qualifies as "modern" with an ancient design like that.

In this photo, we see that more traditional flannel back fabric.

Here's how it combines with the colors on the pieced side.

 

Alice and Ann, with whom I worked on the Shindig Raffle quilt, will think I was copying these colors from the ones they chose for that quilt, but honestly, I had this yellow flannel, and I had to figure out which colors I had in my fabric stash that would go with the print and make it a "boy" quilt.  I also wanted to include a celestial print of some kind, in honor of the baby's father, Andrew.  

New person - New quilt

Yesterday, I cut and pieced a very small quilt (30"x40") for a very small member of the family we expect to make his first appearance in August.  He is the son of my brother's son Andrew and wife Katy.  The quilt is modeled on one I found by searching for modern baby quilts.

 

"Modern Quilts" fit a particular model, with simplified piecing.  They often feature large areas of white. Not naturally what I'm drawn to -  I did dress up the original with the striped bands at the top and bottom.  But they have determined that babies see contrast and pattern before they see color and can distinguish shapes.  Happily for old great-aunts, the back will look more like a traditional baby quilt - cozy and soft out of a pastel flannel with cute little toy animals on it. 

Now I have to figure out the quilting - nothing too fancy to fit with the Modern Quilt Movement, and besides, this quilt is probably going to be a backup for dragging around since his grandmother, my sister-in-law Joanna, was already knitting blankets for his room in January.

Moo

The last baby quilt I put together was shipped off to Kansas a couple of weeks later to the grandson of one of Norris' cousins. So, when it dawned on me that a different cousin was to get a new grandson very soon, I searched through my fabric to find something suitable for a baby boy for fall in Oregon.


I worked on the design in software so that I could use the flannel Cow Jumping Over the Moon print with some others I had collected. Of course I didn't have everything I would need - but the internet is really a nice place to go shopping in a hurry. I ordered a herringbone type black and white flannel, and the backing which is a cow-hide printed cotton.

They keep telling us black and white is the first thing babies can identify, so Carson, born last week, needs to get this quilt right away.

I hand-guided the quilting with a pantograph by talented Australian designer Hermione Agee, called Swirling Clouds.

I decided the striated hand-dyed flannel could be a Western sunset, pulling the whole theme together. Happy birthday, Carson!

A small project

I had three nine-patch blocks leftover from a baby quilt I made many years ago. I also had leftover pieces of the purple gingham and pale green print I made the blocks from. Since I had more of the gingham than the green, I reversed the color scheme for most of the additional blocks to have enough for a little baby quilt. Blocks using the original color scheme are in the four corners for symmetry.


I had to piece some strips of both the green and the purple to get enough pieces big enough to complete all the blocks - the resulting squares are commonly called "poverty patches". The bright green backing is an alphabet print. This was another "leaders and enders" project - made one seam at a time when I was working on other things, so it's been hanging around on the studio design wall since late Spring.

The quilt has a lot of blue chalk on it from marking the border for even quilting, so I need to wash it, then it will wait until there's a baby who needs a quilt. I have other baby fabrics to use that have been taking up space in my fabric drawers for a few years - it's nice to have this one finished.