Big Quilt Project

This is posted from my cousin Belinda Madsen, and the post she did over on her blog. I'm grateful for the chance I had to share my talents with her... And it was so great getting to know her better in the process.

I am the room mom in my son's first grade class. Earlier this year, one of his classmates lost her mother and we wanted to do something for her. His teacher, Mrs. Hollingshead, suggested that maybe we could make her a little blanket.

People shouldn't say things like that to me because my perfectionism always takes over and little projects become huge month-long endeavors requiring hours of work and lots of money.

One blanket turned into three since we couldn't leave out her brother and sister at a time like this. My little project became an enormous one and pretty overwhelming.

Of course, I had help. Plenty of it. We had an unbelievable number of fabric donations; money too. A certain mom even took her two-year-old twins to Joann (in my eyes, the ultimate sacrifice) to buy batting and the perfect fabrics.

One problem...

I had never made a quilt before in my life. I can barely sew a straight line.

I am so blessed to have wonderful, talented relatives, who can come to my rescue at times like these. My cousin, Johnny, an expert quilter, came up with such fun designs, each one different. He taught me how to sew a straight seam and put the pieces together. We made all three quilt tops in one day. Amazing, right?

Next, came the question of how to put them together. Some ladies suggested tying them. That just doesn't meet my standards, so I made a few phone calls and found the generous Denise Hone, who sweetly machine quilted all three for an amazing price.

Quilt in a Day? How about 3 in a day!

My cousin, Belinda, posted on Facebook about wanting some assistance with making a quilt for a classmate of one of her children. I told her i'd be glad to help her, so she sent a note home with all of the children in the class asking for donations of fabric, money, thread, etc that could be used to make this child a quilt. She got such a huge response that we decided to make one for this child's 2 siblings as well. 

I told her to try and find out what the kid's favorite colors were, so we could target our fabrics towards that. She wanted something bright and cheery because these kids had just lost their mother.  So, last week she came up at about 10 in the morning. We looked over what she had from donations and then set out to the fabric store to find some coordinating fabric.

These are what we came up with: 

This is the first one we did. She loved the large floral print, so we found a cute stripe and a dot to mix in with it. She really wanted to showcase the main fabric and not let anything else get in the way. 

We did a simple 4 patch of squared to go between the focus fabric. We looked for something for a border, but couldn't find quite the right fabric. She found a cute lemon solid that matched perfectly and added that as a border around the whole thing. 

Next is the one we made for her child's classmate: 

This was made mainly from fabric from my collection.  She really wanted bright and cheery fabrics that just seemed happy and cheerful. We found the chevron fabric at Brooks, in Bountiful, that brought all the colors together.  I like the way it turned out. 

Then we made one for the boy: 

We found the stripe and thought it was good for a boy and then put a gray dot, the black with lime dot's and turquoise solid to go with it.  Just basic squares, but its good for a boy! 

We did all three in one day. She found someone to machine quilt them and i'll help bind them if she needs it! It was a great day of quilting. 

Inspiration Sundays

I am adding a new weekly feature to my blog. It's called Inspiration Sundays. You can check out my Pinterest account if you want to see things that I have pinned over there for quilt ideas or just things that I love.

This past week was inspired by Scandinavian design. I went up to Farmington to see a movie with a buddy from high school. While I was waiting around, I was shopping at Home Goods and found some Marimekko pillow cases.  They are lime green and will be perfect on my bed or in a quilt. I just love Marimekko! such great stuff.

That's a great example of Marimekko from the Crate and Barrel website.  I also found this beauty in their new stuff:

I don't know about you- but it looks awfully similar to the quilt I made for my niece last summer. 

As I was leaving I picked up a bottle of Voss water... I just love that simple design for a bottle.

Then, the movie we saw was set in Sweden. They had some beautiful scandinavian furniture and design in the movie! It was great.

And lastly, I took two trips to Ikea. They had this tile design as a backsplash, but I think it would make an awesome quilt.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Today's post will be a little different. Its title: Be careful what you wish for. 

For the past few years i've been interested in things like The Secret, or manifesting what you want out of life.  A few years ago I made a vision board.  Looking back, I probably couldn't tell you exactly the things that were on that board, but I came across one of them tonight that was pretty breathtaking. 

To give you a little back story, for the past few years i've been "saving" my money for a TV. I had an old 27" box tv that worked fine, but I wanted a nice, new big, flat screen tv. I've been going to school full time working towards becoming a licensed massage therapist, so I had cut back on my hours i've been working and not really focused on saving. 

Well, one morning in December I was driving on the freeway and in the middle of the freeway was a huge box. People were swerving to miss it and just driving around it so it was causing a bit of trouble. I had the thought that I should get it out of traffic. As I passed the box, I noticed it was a TV box. A big TV box.  And I had the thought: "there might be a TV in that box."  So, I pulled over and dodged into traffic, and sure enough it was a brand new 60" TV, still in the box.  I waited a bit, and decided to just put it in my truck and take it home.  Unsure of how to find the real owners, I decided to keep it. I did check a few local lost and found sites to see if anyone was advertising it, but I haven't seen anything on it. I am the proud owner of a nice TV. 

Fast forward to tonight, January 13, 2012 as I'm sorting through some old papers I find the following picture that use to hang on my vision board:

This is the picture that was on my vision board - and the exact same TV that I found on the freeway. 

Call it fate, call it what you will... but be careful what you wish for!

So, here's what i'm posting on the vision board next:

I love my Bernina, but I'd love a fresh new one.

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Its time for a car. I'd love a Nissan Xterra

I've always wanted to have my own fabric store and fabric line. I love the vision and look of Joel Dewberry fabrics. 

And, i'd love to have a long arm again. I sold my Gammill to pay for surgery. I miss it.

A sneak peek

I have been working on a quilt for my sister Suzi for a few years. When she saw the multitude of pink blocks that I made (see previous posts) she wanted a quilt made out of them. I tried several ways to set the blocks but they just would not work.

I think we finally found the solution but I've decided to show an older one that didn't quite work out. I'm still going to use it as a border along the bottom of the completed quilt.


The panel below was done in my appliqué phase. (pictures of that to be shown later!) I thought they would look fun if it looked like they were "floating" on a pink background. So I appliquéd them to the pink fabric.

I like the end result but it took way too much time (for a queen sized quilt) and I got bored doing the appliqué.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Black and White

I have been collecting black and white fabric for many years but never made strictly a black and white quilt.

My niece Whitney wanted a black and white quilt so I made this for her wedding this past August. I like the way it turned out.

Up Next

I found a new fabric store yesterday. I love quilt shops and fabric stores. I know the ladies are always hesitant whenever I come in. I'm 6'3, and can appear a little bit intimidating. But when I bring up my bolts of pink and turquoise, and then squeal like a school girl over their black and white selections... they know I'm harmless.

They had a great black and white section a few new turquoise. But what I really loved was this grey dot that was on sale. Can't wait to get started on the next project. We are thinking black, white and turquoise. Should be fun!

I'm thinking of putting some quilts on Etsy. Anyone have any experience selling their quilts?  I am pretty new to this, so, not sure what to expect. If there is anyone out there reading this that has any advice, please let me know.

A Much Needed Break

So I took a little break from quilting to make a pot of chilli for some friends. My good friends Jenny and Dan have a new baby girl that has had some health problems. I have been so busy finishing up with school that I hadn't done anything for them. So I made a huge pot of my famous chilli and took a few containers up to them so they'd have something to throw in the freezer and heat up later for a quick lunch or dinner.

I did stop by my one of my favorite quilt shops up in Bountiful, Quilter's Haven. I've known Joanie the owner since I started quilting about 15 years ago. She has great taste and a great eye for fabric. I can always find something to fall in love with or something I "need".

So I picked up a few pinks to throw in the mix of my pink obsession. Can't wait to get sewing again!