Military quilt donations

I have always wanted to be a part of a quilt guild or club.  But with my work schedule and my boys schedule I have put that on my bucket list for when I retire.  I do however try to make donation quilts whenever I can, something that I know quilt guilds often participate in.  Recently I found out about a local quilt guild that makes quilts to donate to Veterans.  They meet monthly to make the quilts. Since I could not make the meetings I asked if I could make the quilts at home.  And the best part was that they only asked for the tops. They put the backing on themselves.  So I quickly put together these two quilts tops for donation.

The fabric was donated to me so I am glad that I was able to play it forward and use it for a donation quilt.

I used the same fabric for both quilts but just designed different patterns for each.

Both patterns are very simple but effective. I used some fabric with red starts and American flags. I hope they are enjoyed by their recipients.

Sleep Away Camp and Quilting

I don't know what my mom did when I went away to sleep away but when my kids go away I quilt. And quilt, and quilt.  I missed my boys but I loved all the free time to sew.

First up was finishing the barn quilt for my muse and the star quilt for her little sister.  This is from a book by Lori Holt from Bee in My Bonnet.  I just love her ideas.

My little muse loves Chickens so the back of the barn quilt has a chicken pattern. I cut out several of the chickens and made little plush chickens out of them.  I hear she is so enthralled with the quilt it has to be laid our perfect on her bed before she can fall asleep. And the first night she had it she woke her mama up at 3am because the quilt had become wrinkled.

Here is what her bed looked like before her new quilt.  The striped quilt is one I made for her a while ago. But the chevron quilt was one I made for her little sister which she stole.  I guess I don't blame her. I can't imagine what her bed looks like now!

My next project was to make my son a Batman quilt. Last summer I made my older twin a quilt that he had chosen.  So it was younger twins turn this summer. There was no pattern just a photo we found on Pinterest.  I think Batman came out pretty good.  I love how it looks like there are muscles.

I took his old bed sheet which was being replaced with a more grown up sheet and used it for the backing. This worked out perfect.  How could I have found more perfect fabric for the back of a batman quilt then this and this sheet is flannel so it will be extra cozy.

Next up was an art deco quilt. I had been wanting to try one of these and had looked at tons of pictures. Of course I had to made one of our dog Teddy.  I found a small photo of  lab, blew it up, and then used fusible webbing to add pieces.  I zig zagged around each piece to give it more definition.

I have tons of pillow inserts lying around so I just chose one and created a pillow shape around it.

Clouds for the back make it a dreamy pillow to nap or sleep with.

My son was super excited and the dog was mildly interested.  I don't thing he saw the resemblance.
My last project was this US Map.  I fell in love with this concept when I first saw it on Pinterest. I had to cut out each state and then fuse it to the background. I machine stitched around each state.

 I found a brown frame at Goodwill and spray painted it.  I hung it on a wall in my office.  It was a super busy summer in the quilting department and I hope to keep the momentum going as school starts up.

Teacher gifts, Farm Quilts, and Jamie

We have been super busy with end of the year events. But I did find time to make some teacher gifts. These are super cute mini clip boards with scrap booking paper.  Fun and easy to make.  Find directions here.  Note I did not end up using the Modge Podge and the paper did take some extra spraying to stay in place.

I am still working my way through Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage pattern book. I love how the barns and silo's came together. I have some chicken fabric to add to the back.

And then we have Jamie.  Oh, Jamie.  Who doesn't love the Outlander books.  And the television series is divine. I was lucky enough to go to an Outlander dinner and these sexy Jamie's on a stick were the party favors.

Awkword

My 10 year old son has written a book.  It is a collection of poems and short stories that he wrote all on his own.  He also decided that he would donate a portion of his book sales to the Los Angeles Public Library.  He feels that having access to so many books through the public library inspired him to write.  He also feels that it is important to encourage children to read and to use the public library. 

His book premiered at an event at his school called PJ's and Books.   This is an event where authors come in and read to the students and the students have the chance to ask questions.  There were three authors at the event and Dylan was the only child.

We self published his book using createspace.com.  This is a great self publishing tool that was totally free and very easy to use.  His book is now available on Amazon.  Please consider getting a copy.  You will not only be supporting my son's college fund but also the public library.  If you liked the book please leave a comment to share.

Link to book on Amazon

Shelter Quilts

I love shelter pets.  This is our Teddy.  He is our second adopted pet.  We got him from a family that was about to put him into a shelter.  He has been a great dog for our family despite his constant need to chew everything in site.  So when I saw a contest that involved making quilts for shelter animals I jumped right in.  I made these two quilts to donate to shelter animals.  Teddy is sitting on the one that has a dog panel.  And the one with a cat panel is in front of him.  Dog are not the best models so it almost took longer to get this photo then it did to make the quilts.  The contest is to win a new sewing machine.  If you would like to join the contest head over here.  If you would like to help me win the contest please head over here and vote for my photo.  Thanks and love to all adoptive and shelter pets.

Giant Star Quilt

At the last minute I decided to make a baby quilt for a friend. I had three days to do it.  And I did it. This star quilt goes together quickly and was super fun to make.  I got the idea from Diary of Quilter. She has links on her site to other styles of the star quilt.  I played around with the colors a bit and the number of colors and came up with this.

The back is a sweet pink striping.  Thanks to my quilt model who holds all my quilts for me when I photograph them I got some great pictures.  Next up I plan to finish my farm quilt and start a barn and silo quilt.