mermaids and star fish quilt from Sarah Jane

I love Sarah Jane fabrics for kids. The designs say childhood antics, old fashioned fun and lots of imagination. Her newest design set is called Out to Sea. I've already made some quilts from her ship fabric and map fabric, now it's time to take on the mermaids and octopuses.

I've had the mermaid fabric around the sewing a room awhile. I wasn't sure how to make it into a quilt. There's a lot of motion in the pattern with a red haired mermaid swimming and playing. There is also lots of open ocean, so to speak, or open space with just some tiny fish and water bubbles.

My last few kid's quilts have had large appliques to the side with most of the quilt left to show off the main fabric design. With the mermaid fabric, it seemed that the print wasn't telling the story by itself, it needed more. The problem then was that my mind needed to get out of the groove of single large appliques into something else. Finally it came to me.


The mermaid is holding a star fish, so I thought, why not add some more star fish to the quilt? Now the ocean spaces have bright star fish in them:)

The finished quilt and the pattern are available at Maryland Quilter. http://www.etsy.com/shop/marylandquilter?ref=si_shop

having Christmas fun early

I'm having such fun putting together Christmas quilts. I decided that whatever I wanted to make, I'd go ahead and make. So here are my latest two Christmas quilts, one is a geometric bit of everything and the other is a super traditional nod to Christmas past:

This geometric quilt came together like a painting. I started with preparing the canvas, the three quilt layers of top, batting and backing. These layers were pinned to keep them from shifting. Then the fun began. All my scraps and small pieces went flying everywhere and the best ones landed on the quilt. These were moved and trimmed and layered and finally pinned in place. Then they were sewn to the quilt. I love sewing the appliques and quilting at the same time. It is just a lovely economy of effort and creates a beautiful pattern on the back of the quilt. This holiday quilt is a bit expensive, $105.00, because there is a surprising lot of time and dense sewing invested.

The quilt above  was labor intensive, this one was just fun and easy. I loved quilting following the outline of the little winding road between the houses. Such fun and I could almost smell the pumpkin pie, can't you?

weathering the storm

Hi all,
I'm online with generator power hubby hooked up. We weathered the storm but it was hard. A pine tree fell and hit the deck but because it was rotten, it fell to bits and didn't damage anything.
A tree brought down live wires at out neighbors causing a huge fire in the woods below our house. Our two closest neighbors were evacuated in the middle of the hurricane and had to go to a church basement. The road on our side was blocked by the wires. We spent the night watching the fire and praying it didn't burn down the neighbor's house. He was calling us every couple hours to get updates through the night. Fortunately, some power guys helping from Ohio (thank you) came and turned off the power after about 8 hours of worry and jumping fire.
Now we just wait for the power to be restored.



The red cart is our neighbor's horse trailer. The fire was right next to it. I guess the forest was too wet to really burn because we saw few burn marks. This is out driveway with downed lines on it. The road is to the right.

 

once upon a fairy tale quilt

I really love the fabric line, Fairy Tale Friends by Moda. I bought a bundle of fat quarters through a great deal from Craftsy. The fabric is rich in color and has a great texture.

 I used 4 fat quarters in the same color family to make this first quilt. The bundle came with two craft panels with scenes from fairy tales. I knew I wanted the quilt to showcase parts of the panel, but it took  a bit of thought to decide how to do it. Finally I chose a mottled red flannel as a frame for the pictures. The flannel is also used for the back of the quilt.

The best part of the project is that I only used 1 of the 4 colorways in the fat quarter bundle, so I have lots more fabric to mess around and make more quilts with :) Yippee! I'm such a fabric addict :)

Autumn fun and adventure

Fall is my favorite time of the year! The trees are changing color, the air is crisp, and a bit of scary adventure lurks around the corner :)

This is the view from my deck-- a gorgeous tree called a katsura. We planted it some years ago and it fit on the back of our pickup truck. Time sure passes fast....

I'm really proud of this cape because it's the first clothing I've ever made by myself from one of those tissue paper patterns Simplicity sells. This is my hubby dressed for a horseman's hunt ride coming up in November. It took his encouragement to get me to make the costume-- I'm glad he pushed me, it was worth the effort and now I'm not intimidated to sew clothes.

 My littlest one hamming it up for the camera:)

Sarah Jane out to sea

I love Sarah Jane fabric. Here is a baby quilt I made from her new line called Out to Sea.  I enjoy Sarah Jane fabric because it reminds me of a vintage era of white picket fences and puppies and a slower lifestyle. I don't know if that world ever really existed but at least it lives in the imagination. When I sew with her patterns, it makes me happy :)

Hi Liz and everyone,
Sorry it's been awhile since I posted. I've been busy avoiding the blog, not entirely sure why, mainly I've been a bit discouraged. Anyway, I thought I should get up, brush the dust off the blog and write something.

I have been busy quilting, and here are my newest quilts.  They are mainly a bunch of baby quilts that are really satisfying to make because they are small and fast to work up. The Scottie dog ones are available as patterns in the shop, too.