Girly-girl quilt for Nora

Like most quilters, I have an amazing stash.  I’ve taken a vow not to buy any more material until I can make an appreciable dent in what I already have.  This was put to the test with a quilt I’m making for my step-granddaughter, Nora.

I never got around to making a baby quilt for Nora when she was born a year ago.  Since she’s 13 months old already, Granny decided to make her a  big-girl quilt instead.

I already had a bunch of four-patch units I’d made up using the leaders and enders technique from Quiltville.  I went through my stash of pinks (which wasn’t huge to start with; I’m not a pink person!), and cut them up into 4-1/2 inch squares.  I had to piece some of them!

And here’s the result!  It came out really cute.  I made it bigger, about 51″ by 60″ so Nora will be able to use it for quite a while before outgrowing it.  All the pinks really work well together with the scrappy four-patches.  It’s a really girly-girl quilt!

I cut extra pink squares because I had planned to sew them together for the backing, but I’ve changed my mind on this.  I’m racing the stork to finish this quilt, along with another one, so that Andrew can take them with him when he goes to TN to see his new grandson (when he’s born).  So I think I’ll find a bigger piece of material in my stash to use as a backing instead to save time.

The leftover pink squares will find a home in another quilt, probably a baby quilt to donate.  And I’ve still got plenty of the four-patch units left for another quilt, probably a second one for the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS.

Little footprints in the snow

The weather has been quite pleasant lately, cold but sunny, so I’ve been getting out for walks in the afternoons.  When you sit in front of a sewing machine for hours, it’s good to get out for some exercise!

It was warm enough to walk along the beach yesterday, which is my favorite walk!

Here are some little animal tracks I found in the snow by the Coast Guard station.  I found the little hole where this critter lives,  and I followed his tracks as he meandered through the pine trees.  The little footprints cross here.  I think these were from a second critter, since they came from a different direction.  A friend or relative perhaps?  This made me think of a superhighway in the woods!

Well, I need to get busy.  I have to get a backing together, baste this quilt and a baby quilt, and get them machine quilted and bound.  So you know what I’ll be doing for the next couple of days!

Looks like our January thaw might be over for a bit.  But I sure enjoyed it  while it lasted!  Here are a few pictures from my walks along the Lake Superior beach last weekend.

Woo hoo, look at our thermometer! Been a while since it's been this warm!

Ice balls along the beach on Saturday. They were nearly melted the next day, so I'm glad I got this shot! They look like something from outer space, don't they?

Look at the neat designs in this chunk of ice. Be sure to click on it to enlarge it. This could be a quilting design!

Somebody built snowmen in these planters in Mattson Park at the Lower Harbor. They have petunias in them in the summer. Sitting on those benches right now would be a challenge, wouldn't it?

It was cloudy and overcast today, so I stayed in and sewed all day!

The big news is that I finished “Winter Journey,” my first Liberated Challenge Quilt!  By the time I finished the binding this afternoon, I didn’t feel like messing around with the camera.  Besides, I want to get out my light box and get some good photos, so I’ll do that in the morning.  I will tell you it came out really cool.  There will be pix tomorrow!

Strings! These are an inch and a half wide. Guess what I was doing today?

Leaders and enders. I wound up with over 100 little four-patches from this pile! Almost enough for another quilt top already. You can see that I'm getting liberated and using up all my old thread, too! Who says you have to piece with white thread?

Besides sewing loads of four-patches, I also finished piecing the borders for my barn-raising quilt, which I’m going to call Barn Dance.  I’ll get the borders sewed on tomorrow, and then that top will be ready for quilting.  Pix will follow!

So you can see I’ve been a busy little girl!  I’ve been sewing my heart out, and having a blast!

Is there such a thing as the perfect quilt?  Do you drive yourself nuts trying to make sure all your seams match?  Do you feel like the Quilt Police are looking disapprovingly over your shoulder as you work?  If so, you should read  “Perfection” from The House of Krom.

I have to say that the author hits the nail on the head.  I’ve spent so much time obsessing over trying to make all my quilts perfect.  But the truth is, that no matter how carefully I cut and sew and press, I STILL can’t get all my seams to match!  I actually stopped quilting for a while, out of frustration.  The joy was gone.

Now I’m approaching my quilting differently.  I want to enjoy the process, not drive myself crazy.  I guess that’s what liberated quilting is all about!  It’s not just about the wonky stars and creative piecing, as fun as all that is.  It’s really a mindshift.

Look closely, and you'll see that the seams on the patchwork are offset by a quarter inch!

Take a good look at the picture on the right.  Click on it to make it bigger, and you’ll see that the seams on the patchwork are offset by at least a good quarter-inch.  I suspect this has something to do with the fact that I cut the patchwork squares in half, and then sewed them to the brown triangles.

No matter what I did, these seams were NEVER going to match!

A year ago, I would have given up in total dismay.  But now?  Well, if they don’t line up, they don’t line up.  And you know what?  From a distance, you can’t even tell.

The quilting police better not look too closely! Not all the seams in the border match.

You can see that not every seam in my border matches either!  And I didn’t spend a lot of time pinning the daylights out of it, trying to make those seams line up.  All I did was to press the seams going one way on one pieced strip, and going the opposite way on the other one.  I put my walking foot on, lined everything up as best I could, and had at it.  Some seams match, some don’t.  And guess what?  From a distance, you can’t tell!

Molly is excited about the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge! She has carefully inspected this quilt, and says it meets with her approval!

And my quilt has found a home.  When it’s done, I’m going to donate it to the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS.  This challenge is open to any quilter who wants to donate a quilt.  The quilt should be at least 35 by 44 inches, and bed-sized quilts are even better.  The quilts will be given to people with ALS, and some will be auctioned, raffled off, or displayed to raise money for ALS research.  The challenge is open until July 31, 2010.

Anyone who donate a quilt will be entered into a drawing to win prizes provided by a wide range of sponsors.

This sounds like a win-win situation to me!  You can donate as many quilts as you want.  I already have another one about halfway pieced using Bonnie Hunter’s leaders and enders technique.  I’ll donate that one, too.  I love to make quilts, but you can only use so many of them, so it’s nice to find another place that can use them.

And it’s even nicer to use up all that fabric that has been sitting around here for years!  As Clare at Dordogne Quilter says, “Finished is better than perfect!”  I love it!

PS:  Brenda at Scraps and Strings has directions for making utility quilts to donate to the Mennonite Central Committee.  It’s pretty warm in Haiti, but I would guess those folks will need blankets at night.