Quilt made, stash reduced just a bit

I seemed to have spent years acquiring fabric, yarn and other craft supplies based on the notion that these commodities might halt production and then whatever would I do with my free time? I’ve pared stashes down over the last few years, making some things, donating some supplies and tossing out a few things that just needed tossing.

When my sewing buddy and I used to go on an annual quilt shop hop here in SE Michigan (anywhere from 5-8 stores are involved in the annual Michigan Stash Dash), I was always drawn to baby and toddler quilts. I like the colors, especially the bright ones, and whimsical prints appeal to me. Once I was a purist about selecting my own fabric, cutting and piecing it and hand quilting it so that I could truthfully call it a handmade quilt. Then I found a printed panel for an “Eye Spy” quilt that I absolutely loved. I bought it, made it as a gift, and went back to buy 3 more panels. I still have one here to make up for Colton. He doesn’t need another blanket, but playing Eye Spy with it will be fun.

On one of the trips I saw this fabric and thought it might become the backing for the other panels. When my son asked me about making something for a co-worker’s baby, I decided to use this to make an easy quilt. The baby is a boy so the race car fabric (purchased for something else that never was made) is appropriate. What I like about a busy backing fabric is that the print hides some less than perfect stitching that might occur. I took the easy way out on this. I ran straight stitching following the lines of the hexagons, the green border stripe and the red banner with the words. The binding is a purchased binding also applied by machine. In this case, I think it worked just fine. Normally I take more time on a project like this, and likewise, my son would give me more of a heads up when asking for this kind of favor but the employees in charge put this together at nearly the last minute. Collecting money and shopping for baby gifts doesn’t take as long as making something. Money is really tight for my son right now and he knew I am trying to downsize my stash so this worked out to both our benefits.

I played with stamps, colored pencils and ribbon to make a gift card for the event
A recycled gift bag takes one more thing out of my closet. Now if I could keep up this momentum and avoid bringing anything new into the house, I’d really be getting somewhere!

On a serious note for a moment, I don’t know that I’ve ever asked for prayers, good vibes, and/or anything else positive in your belief systems, but I am asking for something today and apologize for being vague about this. All I feel comfortable saying at the moment is that it is that someone close to me needs a turn in their luck and encouragement. This person knows as I do, that luck doesn’t happen without you doing the work towards your goal, so neither of us is unrealistic. I believe that God knows what is in all of our hearts and what our needs are, but I also believe in the power of prayer. Asking for a little light to shine on both the person and their need would be very much appreciated.

Thanks. I will explain more when I feel that I can.

Friday, and Done!

Good news from my corner of the blog world. Unfortunately nothing that will bring meaning to your personal lives, but I think we can all take comfort in small bits of good news, especially if we listen to media news and wonder why we even got out of bed in the morning.

First, an update on my neighbor. He is HOME! He is bruised and swollen, but looks much better than I would have guessed and sounds like himself. Attending the funeral of his friend will be difficult, but he felt he had to be there today. After today he can recuperate at home, hopefully without set backs or side effects.

Back in April I complained commented on a sweater that I was concerned would never be finished and that I feared I was running short of yarn for the sleeves. The sweater was started to use up yarn that had been bought for a different project, then abandoned. The first time I had ever done that.    Honest. Oops!

I tracked down an internet source and ordered enough yarn for both sleeves (in case color matching was an issue, I thought two slightly 'off' sleeves would be better than one) and finally, the never ending sweater is done!

The other finished project that I am happy to say is done is a baby quilt for a friend of my younger son. The baby shower is a few weeks away, but so much is going on this month I was hoping to get it off my mind before this long holiday weekend. I succeeded! It is bright. These are not the colors of her baby's nursery, but I figure one of the grandmas is probably taking care of that. Between car travels, nap times at other homes and floor play, babies can always use extra blankets and quilts. The baby's parents are dear to me and I think they will be happy with this exuberant quilt called Animal Party.

The back of the quilt is the same bright green with small dots of many colors as the binding. Some of the squares are cut from Animal Party, a printed panel from Robert Kaufman fabrics.

The rest of the quilt was cut from coordinating fat quarters in a block design called Crazy Eights by Bits 'n Pieces.

 Happy weekend wishes to everyone.

Peek a boo!

I am a sucker for cute, and when it comes to colorful baby quilts, I don't think it gets much cuter than this. I saw this quilt made up at Bits 'N Pieces in Wayne, Michigan and knew the kit had to come home with me. The babies were printed on a panel to be cut into the center squares. The store selected the coordinating fabrics and bundled it all together, just waiting to jump into shopping baskets.

Given that I should be cleaning, baking and shopping for a party here in two days, I think I will have to put this aside and wait until next week to unearth batting and begin pinning the top, batting and backing together. I think I am going to hand quilt this but that isn't written in stone. I could write it in dust, but that is a different story.