a pinwheel quilt

My sweet friend Rachel moved on Friday, so we threw her a going away party/ baby shower because she’s expecting her 5th baby along with all the excitement of moving. I’m not good at taking photos of things when I’m busy, so you don’t get to see the flower arrangements I made with little paper pinwheels in them, but I did sneak in some pictures of her pinwheel quilt, even if they are in bad light.

The little pinwheels are little flaps for the baby to play with.

All the colored fabrics are from my scrap bags. I just bought a yard of white for the top and a yard of navy blue for the back and binding. Thrifty, eh?

Here’s a detail of the back. I pieced some scraps into a field of solid navy blue.

I’m hoping that this will insure that Rachel never forgets me…

I got this done while quarantined here with little boys with pink-eye and puking. This parenting thing is not for wimps.

a little bit of my dream come true

Ever since I got the sewing bug while I was pregnant with Brenna and in my last days of art school I’ve thought it would be fun to design fabric. Then I became a quilter, discovered designers like Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner (who also has 6 kids) and have thought over and over, “I could do that….. if I could just figure out how to do that.”

Well, I decided this is the year that I will learn to be a fabric designer. I got myself some books

which have helped me immensely. I learn by reading. If I can read about how to do something in a book, then I can do it, but reading directions on the computer, experimenting by trial and error– they just don’t do it for me. Kim Kight’s Field Guide to Fabric Design is fantastic. All the tutorials for digital design are for Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, but since those aren’t quite in the budget I’m having to translate things into GIMP and Inkscape, which are free. I also got a vector drawing app for my iPad call iDraw and a stylus so I can draw right on my iPad. It’s like a glorified sketchbook, though I have been using my real sketchbook a lot too.

And then there’s Spoonflower. I’ve known about it since it first started in 2008 or 2009 and signed up as soon as it wasn’t just by invitation only, but have never figured out how to make designs until now. And look!

My first test swatches came in the mail!!! My designs are printed on real fabric!!!

Anyone remember the story I told about Ian coming downstairs one morning and telling me, “Mom, we’re going to get a girl baby and her name is going to be Eva and she is going to be zero and she will have a pink shirt that is a dress”? Well, he further described that pink shirt that is a dress as having blue butterflies on it and a skirt that is blue with pink butterflies. I’ve been on the look out for pink shirts with blue butterflies, pink fabric with blue butterflies, blue fabric with pink butterflies. None. I guess I’ll have to make some.

And I can!! How fun is that?

carving out a corner

Here’s Eva’s corner in my room– full of things that could each be a blog post in and of themselves.

There’s the new Moses basket I designed that will be my next baby gear sewing pattern (the SweetPod Sleep Spot maybe?), new handknit booties and hat for a fresh head and toes…

the newborn diapers all freshly washed and waiting…

a newly slip-covered rocking chair and a hexagon stripe quilt…

On Monday I had contractions every 10 minutes ALL DAY LONG– from about 7:30 in the morning until 9:30 or so at night. While I could tell that it wasn’t quite the real thing yet I also felt like it could turn very real any second. I was on a roller coaster of thought and emotion. I wasn’t ready! I need this one last week! My shelves and refrigerator were empty– so a major grocery shopping trip was accomplished and eased some of the unready feelings. We braved the new Ikea to buy that new dresser we really needed when the last baby was born so we could have a place to keep clothes and blankies. I think my body was just trying to tell me to get with it, stop dilly-dallying. There will be a baby coming next week, or the next. My days with Hunter as the baby are numbered– as are my days of needing help rolling over in bed.

Last night, as the sky looked like this:

I relished in the wonderful day I had swimming with my kids and stocked my freezer with 3 pans of Chicken Enchiladas. Today is Lasagna day.

And I’m feeling ready– with each day a little more.

Brenna’s quilt

Remember the quilt Brenna and I were working on? It’s done! Instead of basting and free motion quilting it myself I decided to go with plan B. I sent the finished quilt top and back fabric to my mom who lives near the best quilt store I’ve ever been to. She can rent time on their long arm quilting machines and the work she does is always amazing. This one is no exception. Brenna LOVES it!

My mom even bound it too. It’s a truly 3 generation project, the 48 blocks pieced by Brenna, everything squared up and sewn together by me, and then finished to perfection by my mom. What a treasure.

Here’s a shot of the back:

The girl room is coming together. I think we can fit another one in there. During Barry’s long June the loft bed got built.

We’re getting there. About a month to go. The hot days go by so slowly, but the weeks are whizzing by.

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Category Archives: Quilting

a pinwheel quilt

a little bit of my dream come true

carving out a corner

Brenna’s quilt