{Filled} : a finished quilt

My mom has been waiting - semi patiently - for me to post these pictures.


I finished my Women's Advent Tea quilt, for their raffel, just a few days before it was needed and about 12 hours before I started the stomach flu.

I chose to name the quilt {Filled} as that is how you feel when you're with such a great group of women.

 I used my Moda Figgy Pudding that I love.

And tried to go for a design that was fun, modern, and would also appeal to the more traditional women as well.

I saw somebody's "Jelly Filled" quilt online (pattern by Camille) and thought it would be a great solution.  Especially since I had a few Figgy Pudding Jelly rolls left that had been used as table decorations last year.

My favorite, cute winter Munki prints show up as little surpises.

The chocolate brown print was the perfect binding to frame the whole thing.

I had math fun with the back - I did fibonacci stripes.  Fibonacci really does give a nicely balanced/proportioned sequence of stripes.

At 58" x 58" it turned out to be a great lap quilt.  I hope it's enjoyed all winter long by the woman who won it at the raffle.

Mom! It was Taco Day Today!

NOT what one wants to hear as you're sitting with a bowl and the stomach flu.

As one child began the whole thing, and knowing the doom was coming for me, a marathon of basting - quilting - binding got my Advent Tea raffle quilt done at 11:00 the night before I was hit.

One more kid to go, and he's holding strong.  Let's hope it's over and I can stop cleaning and washing - I have quilt photos to edit and post!

Advent Tea 2010

Last year I made a ton of minis and one large quilt for the Women's Advent Tea my church does each year.  I had already decided I don't have the time to do a table myself, the way I would like to do it, for this year.

But one of the women in charge of the Tea called last weekend - she said that so many had talked about my quilty table, they hoped I could donate a quilt for the raffle this year.

Perfect!  I certainly have the time to make one lap quilt. 

  

Figgy Pudding is still my favorite holiday fabric, so I'm going that direction with color.

I pulled out the graph paper, some markers, and sketched away.  

(I could not find a maroon marker, so the purple had to stand in)

A little bit modern, a little bit traditional - hoping to grab the attention of both the younger and older crowd.   Due mid November.

It's like fruit flies, really...

Making all those Figgy Pudding minis - it was like breeding fruit flies to study, doing so many little projects quickly showed me a few things.

Most of them had to do with finishing off and binding. Crazy Mom Quilts has an awesome tutorial that I used, and Julie just did another recently.

Julie's mention of marking your 1/4" in the corners helps keep corners nice and even. And the way Amanda Jean explained how to join your binding ends was so helpful! I don't know what my problem was, but it never worked out for me until I started doing that measure-over-1/2" thing. Now my joins lay perfectly every time.

My own tip to add in, which is probably impractical on a large quilt but perfect for a mini, was marking the squared outer edge onto the quilted top. I lined the binding edge up to that mark and sewed. No wonky shapes on these!

Then I just used pinking shears to clip along the edge - careful not to get that fold! This eliminated one of my most hated things, the little unravely strings that fly all about while you hand stitch the back.

Go visit Julie or Amanda Jean for all their awesome step-by-step pictures if you want some more binding tips.
And now just one more picture that I took before the tea, of all my little {children} quilts in one place.

Mini eleven: Figgy Wreath

The last one! My sister in law decided she wanted to keep the snow man mini , so I only needed to make one for my Mom (to make up for the extra mini I kept!)

I've had this paper piece pattern (I've bought several of her patterns - love them!) in my quilts-to-do file for quite a while. Now they're popping up everywhere and I thought it would make a pretty Figgy Pudding wreath.

Since I didn't need to keep with the vertical and fits-the-chair thing like all the others, I was able to make this guy a bit bigger at 18" x 15". My mom really liked the brown Christmas tree one, so I went with the dark background for the paper pieced geese.

Knowing I was making it for Mom, I used two of her favorite prints. The poinsettia and that wonderful red damask pattern.

I had to sneak in just a few more Munki Munki snowmen. They look at home with the strips on the back.

Mark finished up all the pictures of the Advent Tea. Here's a link to his SmugMug page if you're curious what all the tables were like.

Now, go look at the cool pattern Julie just put up with my beloved Figgy Pudding. I have plenty for extra fabric to make my own. And I was just thinking that this would make a great charger for the settings for next year!

Spray N Wash...how I love thee

I feel like I survived! That was one crazy weekend. It started with the 11 year old's Lego birthday party. I quickly made some Lego cakes - nicely tinted frosting. That nice frosting color was strangely attracted to their ears, shirts, pants....my carpet.

As I'm sure you can guess, I used the Spray N Wash more than once this weekend. The table quilt was on the receiving end of a server that doesn't know how to pour coffee. I think I was in shock for a second.

It all came out after two runs through the wash with the stain treatment (and a color catcher in the mix just to be safe). It looks like new - even better, now that it's all crinkly and soft!

Luckily I didn't wash it before the tea. It went from about 77" square to 73". That would have been a bit short on that 66" banquet table! As it was, I think it sat perfectly. Guess I'll have to make a new one if I do another tea!

My sister in law Laura (left), Mom (right), and I went over to the club at 10:00 Sunday morning to start setting up. I was worried about how the chair backs would come together. But they went quickly and perfectly.

A huge part of the fun is spending the time setting the table and chatting with the other women doing theirs. Things went so smoothly, we even had time for a yummy bowl of soup at the golfer's restaurant downstairs.

My Grandpa made that little stool the dog is on in high school - early 1930's.

My husband is a hobby photographer, so he came with his nice lenses and special flashes to get some good photos in the strange ball-room light. He was grabbed by so many other women, that he ended up taking pictures of all 28 tables. Once he has them all cropped and loaded on the SmugMug site, I'll add a link for those who are curious. This is one I took with my little camera of a candy cane table that I loved.

My table was in the front row, just to the side of center, right next to the priest's table! So we had a good view of the singers. Fr. Tom commented after the tea that all the women at my table were lucky to have been going home with the little quilts. He enjoyed looking them over. That was nice.

I did get a new name while there - a large number of women dubbed me "over-achiever". And it was fun chatting with several who were quilters themselves. One was sure I had sent it out or had a long arm - nope.

All my invited friends seemed to have a great time, and I think they liked their little quilts. A most wonderful day!

Finished Tablecloth Quilt

I am done! This quilt will be the table cloth for my event this Sunday - at 77" square, it will just cover the top and the stars will hang at the edge. Hopefully any spills will land in the white area, for easy bleaching later! I'll be using it as a lap quilt after Sunday.

As I was lamenting how long it took to make one pass of stipple across the edge - after all those fun, fast minis - I came up with a plan. I quilted the double hourglass center on the diagonal, like a stained glass window. Then concentric squares in the boarders. The remaining stippling was super easy, and I lucked out with no bunchy wrinkles on either the front or back!

Speaking of the back, I used the Dvala Ikea sheet and love how it quilted up. Don't know what the shrinkage will be, I haven't washed it yet. So close to the day, I think I'd totally lose it if the washer ate my quilt!

mini nine, mini ten....and more!

Last evening I committed to making two more of these Figgy Pudding mini quilts. But that's my own fault.

I'm in the final bits of preparation for the big event on Sunday, and that meant getting the seating plan done and deciding who gets to take home which quilts.

There was much moaning and wailing as my husband and oldest laughed at the spectacle and wondered why I was doing this in the first place! Because it's fun, that's why. Please ignore the meltdown I'm having, thinking about all these little quilts leaving.

So, I talked to my mom and sister in law and suggested that I could make their favorites again, and I would assign two more of my favorites to their seats. That way I can keep three of these little things that I just CAN. NOT. part with, and they get a totally custom mini. I think they're OK with that - or they heard the hysteria in my voice and agreed so as not to upset the psycho.

Mini nine is 'Whirling Skaters', from my whirlygig love. I made a 2.5" wide template so that I could easily cut each piece from a jelly roll strip.

I thought this fabric looked like it had been twirled on already by lots of happy skaters!

Mini ten is a small, shrunken portion of the free pattern that Moda had with the Figgy Pudding line. Totally lazy, I didn't want to do the quilty math to get the tree sections the size I needed. So I just drafted it to scale and paper pieced it. That worked out perfectly!

My new thing on this quit was to use an invisible thread. I didn't want any more busy swirls in the dark background, and I though a dark thread would be too distracting in those pretty, light blocks. It went much better than expected - I thought I'd have lots of breakage and tangled messes. Not a one!

The sun is finally out today, so I should get some good pictures of the table cloth quilt. I'll also be spending some quality time with my little quilts that will be leaving. I have to make sure I don't embarrass myself on Sunday by tackling the women as they go.

mini eight: colors

I showed my Mom and Dad the Snippets quilt I did a while ago with two turnovers. My Dad especially liked it - the even geometry of the layout appealed to him as much as it had to me. So, I had to make a mini version for my tea table.

It was actually a bit easier - I find half square triangles from squares nicer to deal with than starting with triangles to begin with.

My mom helped me out and hand stitched the binding on this and one other quilt. She got attached and has claimed this as hers!

I have the big tablecloth quilt done, but need some non-gloomy weather to get good photos. I know I'm nearing the finish line, besides the fact that I am totally unable to come up with a good name for this little quilt, I went out and bought a bunch of fabrics and patterns for some new projects! I'll share those later this week, too.

(I turned off these comments since I keep getting spammed on this one message!)

mini seven: gnome

Gnomeling pattern by Sonja Callaghan

Why, hello there! A sweet little gnome and his mushroom

Snail pattern by Jennifer Ofenstein

Visited by a friendly woodland snail.

I wanted to do at least one paper pieced quilt, and with the gnome thing I had going so far, these cute guys were the obvious choice.

Once again, Figgy Pudding (with a linen mushroom stump and random stash white) I created the creatures, then played around until I could get them to look like a quilt. I really like the little windows-onto-the-woods thing I ended up with.

It's about 14"x16.5" and I don't know if I'll be able to give this one up!

Shhhhh don't tell the kids

I ate five of their Halloween candies this afternoon.

I had to. Really.

After the near-instant gratification of quilting ten minis, this large table cloth feels like it will never end. I am not above bribing myself.

Besides, the Reese's were totally calling my name.