Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2010

I am so glad that I saw this happening again! I have been very absent from blogging this year. Thank you, Amy, for hosting the great Blogger's Quilt Festival again! I love seeing everyone elses amazing work. It is always inspiring.

This quilt started as a small idea, two teachers retiring and somehow involving all of the students. I donated the time and material to make this quilt (and the next) and the PTO helped to cover the cost of a long-arm quilter to do the hard part! I had a short time frame, I think it was about a month.

Orginally I thought I would have each student do a 6" block but that was simply too daunting to prepare and sew with the time I had given myself. I chose a garden theme because it lends itself well to childrens creativity and both like to garden. I love this quilt because of it's long garden rows spaced by a great batik grass. Then surrounded by water/sky.

The garden spaces are made up of two classes each and the last row with the thank you block. It was great to watch the children put something in the garden and show their love for these teachers. It was great to work with the fabric pastels. I've used them on a couple of projects since then.

This was a great exercise for me to give over the creative license to the kids and even more to hand over the quilts to be quilted by someone else. My friend did a fantastic job and worked fast to help me meet the deadline. I could see myself getting carried away with the quilting and that would have taken away from the beautiful art.

Wrapping up the quilts I used the extra from the backing (there was a lot!) and made cases for them. We hung the quilts up at school for a couple of days for the kids and teachers to see the final project. They loved how it all came together and so did the recipients. Lots of love shared and tears shed.

Quilts at Last

I finally completed the quilts that were requested almost 2 years ago. Life happened and they were worked on, planned, designed, redesigned, and finally came to life. I had the opportunity to deliver them myself to my nieces and nephew in Montreal.

The trip might get some post time as it was a great time with family in a beautiful, bustling city.

I hope these quilts bring joy to their hearts and a smile to their faces when they use them.

Diapers!

So I guess I should say it's been a busy summer and the thought of trying to blog all the fun things we've been doing is too much. I have lots of fun things to post if I ever find the time!

So SR is 2. I am on my last box of Huggies and I've had enough of paying for diapers. I decided to try my hand a making my own cloth diapers. I have most of the supplies for this at home. I did have to buy the PUL and velcro. This is the first one. I used this pattern from Wee Weka. It needs a little more tweeking with the placement of velcro etc. As far as a pocket diaper goes it seems to be alright. I might try some other types as I go along. The only type of PUL that I can get locally is white so I added a layer of calico to make it cuter! The inside is lined with a microfleece that I have had for ages and didn't know what to do with it. Turns out its great for cloth diapering!

I will hopefully be able to order some touch tape and try it's superior sticking power. The insert (aka soaker) is three layers of cotton batting wrapped in two layers of flannel. We'll see how it does. I will be trying out microfiber (wrapped in flannel) to see if it really is better at absorbing.

Cloth diapering. What do you think?

More Aprons

These aprons are reversible. Note to self: dress better when you are being photographed and said photo will be posted!These aprons are LONG overdue. I think part of the reason is that I just hadn't found the right fabrics (or that is what I am telling myself!)



The vintage orange and white button on this one was a find in a bin of old buttons.
And these shoes were a "vintage" find for free! Too small for me but perfect for my friend so into the box they went with the apron.

Now this apron has a bit of a green organic feel. As in nature-like. The green button on this one is bigger than an inch and I had to wrangle the buttonhole to fit. Not my strong suit.

The Hedgehog is the first made of fleece animals from this book. This friend collects and adores these cute critters. While not as expert as her marvelous creations I am happy with it.