Saturday, October 17, 2009

Quilts for my great-nieces

One of my goals when I started quilting was to follow the rule of the icon on the right side of the page (Buy Handmade) and give handmade gifts. I also decided that as often as possible, the handmade gifts would be made by me. But thirdly, I made a pledge to myself to make quilts for all my great nieces and nephews. Right now there are three - two little girls in North Carolina and a little boy in Lubbock, Texas. The two little girls in NC are the daughters of my nephew, and I've been developing a nice relationship with his wife - who is, get this, an English teacher like me! We've learned we have a lot in common, and keep in touch via our blogs. Hers is called Perpetually Creating, and you need to go visit it if you want to see some great ideas for vegeterian, vegan, and sometimes raw cooking. Right now she's busy with an infant, but the recipes will soon return. Anyway, the two quilts are below.


This one is a small rag quilt, which is just right for Baby J to lie on. I plan eventually to make her a larger quilt, but for now this is the one I chose to make for her.






The pattern for this quilt is called 5 and Dime, and I chose a set of cute little girl pinks that has large-eyed deer, mushrooms, ants, and other cute designs. This one is for Little J, since she's older and bigger than Baby J.

If you'd like to see photos that B took of the J's with their quilts, go to her blog, Perpetually Creating.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Carol Doak's Holiday Mini Challenge

Carol Doak designed this mini-quilt for her Yahoo Group. Since it had a blank white square in the middle, I thought it would be nice to add a design - and I had an already-stitched Santa ornament just waiting to be placed there.



The Santa has a garland around his head that has pretty red beads on it.

A few new paper-piecing converts

Last week I taught paper piecing to some ladies in the quilting class I take on Tuesdays with Nancy Fraley. I asked Carol Doak for her permission to use "Donna's Block" from her book 40 Bright & Bold Paper-Pieced Quilt Blocks. I felt that was a simple block to start with, and I was thrilled with the colors everyone chose - they were all different. Of the nine pictured above, I'd say that 7 are "converts" to paper-piecing. The other two were glad to learn how to do it but don't like it.