Brilliant Banners: A Finished Quilt

I really wanted to make a Banner Year Quilt by Andrea Tsang-Jackson of 3rd Story Workshop since I saw her pictures of it on Instagram. I figured a year end teacher quilt was a perfect reason to put one together!

I also thought that this pattern screamed out to be made out of scraps and I always have an abundance of blues so I dumped out my bins and paired a whole bunch of solids with patterns so that each banner would have both. 

I did mess up the placement of one of the banners which caused another banner to be in the wrong place but I take this to be an artistic choice instead of a mistake. Are you with me?

Here is Brilliant Banners:

The lap size was slightly smaller than I expected but now I know for next time.

There ended up being a range of blues AND greens to create some interest (and use up more scraps).

The back is more trusty Lizzy House mini Pearl Bracelets in Dragonfly. There is a handwritten label (by my 5-year-old) in the corner which makes it even more special IMO.

This quilt went to my Junior Kindergarten's teacher, Ms. M. My JK LOVED school this year and absolutely thrived under Ms. M's care and so I was delighted to gift her this quilt and that she was totally surprised! (Honestly I thought that by now the teachers at that school would compare who had my kids since I always make a quilt! Ha!)

Summer Sampler 2019 So Far

I really enjoyed the Summer Sampler last year so I signed up again this year. My quilty friend A is also planning to do this but waited for her kit to arrive and hasn't yet jumped on board. I think she may start soon as we have a sewing day Monday!

I just wanted to share my blocks that I have created so far. I ended up challenging myself to do this as a monochromatic scheme (in all greens with white and grey accents) after last year doing it all in neutrals. So far it is challenging me just the right amount and I think I will like the end result. I even know who will be the recipient! (Though he doesn't know yet!). I also like that I am using up lots of green scraps!

Here are my blocks so far:

2019 Goals

So what are my plans for 2019? Last year I managed to accomplish every. single. goal. Wow! I am impressed with that. Maybe I can do the same in 2019!

Here are my goals:

1) Finish my Summer Sampler 2018. The top is all finished and I have the batting. I just need to buy some backing (7 yards of it!) and it is already spoken for. My mom hinted very strongly that she sure would like this one. So to Mom it goes!

2) Finish my Polaroid quilt. This top is made, and so is the backing. It is one of the one I will be basting at my friend A's house this week. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it and it isn't going anywhere. (Except nowhere near the dog).

3) Finish the quilt I started for my older daughter's teacher as her year end gift (end of June). The top and backing are made. This will be basted on Thursday.

4) Finish the quilt my now-10-year-old made when she was seven so I can donate it. It is quite the colour combination but she has lost total interest and with very little work it can be finished and donated.
5) Make a Stack quilt for my younger daughter's ECE. I haven't picked the fabric yet but I am dying to make a Stack quilt so I am excited. 

6) Make a Banner Year quilt for my younger daughter's Junior Kindergarten teacher. I haven't pulled this fabric yet either, but there is so much potential.

7) Make a Meadowland quilt for my best friend who is getting married in September. I have a fabric pull for it but I think I need to beef it up some more. Stay tuned for progress on this one!

8) Speaking of that wedding, I need to make about 70 fabric succulent pots for her wedding favours. Yikes! Wish me luck!

9) I have a whole bunch of Lizzy House fabric squares all cut. I want to add the newest Constellations fabric and then make a basic patchwork Lizzy House quilt with each square being different!

10) I have a bunch of red and white HSTs ready to sew into a baby quilt to donate.

11) I also have a bunch of turquoise and grey HSTs to sew into a baby quilt, also to donate.

12) I have assigned myself a BOM using the Doctor Who pattern from Quiet Play and A Joyful Fox. I will make one doctor a month (and hopefully she will make a Thirteenth Doctor before 2019 is out!)

13) I won a bunch of book cover blocks at West End Modern Quilt guild and had already cut fabric to make a ton more for a book quilt for my uncle.

14) Speaking of West End Modern Quilt guild, they are doing a BOM too, so I will participate in that. I'm hoping to do it in 100% scraps (with the exception of the background fabric).

15) A Sew Together bag for my mom. She saw the one I made for my MIL and commented on how much she liked it. I am thinking for her birthday in May.

And those are my goals! I think they are achievable, though I need to find a way to baste in my own house. Oh, which I guess brings me to:

16) Repair the three quilts my dumb dog damaged. Already almost done repairing my Christmas tree quilt. The one I made my husband for our anniversary is a much more serious case. And my quilt made of tiny text fabric squares just needs a binding repair. Note: Puppies and quilts do not mix! 

A Matter of Size

I have had this notion in my head that I would put together slabs from my extensive scraps and use my 10'x10" ruler to cut them into blocks. It is one of those "one day" projects.

Then this morning my youngest, a newly minted three-year-old, wanted to "play fabric" which means taking out my scrap bins and laying out the bits of fabric in ways she thinks are pretty. I started pulling orange scraps and soon had this in front of me:

Very improv fabric bits

Well, then I had to sew it together. I had it right there, after all. And so I put together this slab:

This seemed about ready for me to use the ruler.

When I actually put the ruler on the slab? It is actually quite comical. I think I did not have a true sense of scale when I was improv-ing my heart out.

I think I was a little over enthusiastic.

But rather than missing all those little blocks, I decided to cut it at 15" x 15" to preserve those precious bits and this is the end result:

Here is the orange block!

Now that I have made one I know that at any point I can just dig into my scraps and whip up another colour. Eventually I will have enough to put together into a VERY colourful quilt.

Improv piecing is fun, and using precious baby scraps (like that Basket print on the far bottom right or the Lotta scrap at the bottom left) is very rewarding. No measuring, no careful cutting...fabric therapy!

Thank You Stephanie: A Finished Quilt

My elder daughter has finished her grade two school year, and as has been tradition since she started Junior Kindergarten, I made her teacher a quilt. To be honest, the way I decided on this particular colour scheme and pattern was my overflowing "cool" scraps bin. I chopped up 3.5" squares from every blue scrap that seemed appropriate (not so much with the sharks, for example). I then went through my white scraps and found a big stack of white-on-white 3.5" squares from I don't even know what project. Meant to be! They formed the middle white squares of these nine patches. The only stash (instead of scrap) I needed to use for the quilt top was some Kona White for the sashing.

I love how all the light-to-dark blues results in so much movement in the quilt.

I did a free motion meandering stipple, despite my recent FMQ practice, because I needed it to be FAST.

 To be honest, if I was redoing this quilt I would do straight line quilting to be more in line with the boxy nature of the nine patches. I used a very light blue Aurafil and it worked out pretty well (good thing, since I was out of white) but the quilting is my least favourite part of the quilt.

Despite not being pieced so well, this particular block has my favourite combination of scraps. I kind want a whole quilt in navy now!

The backing involved this slightly minty print that I've had for ages but couldn't figure out when I would ever use it (or why I bought it!), some leftover Architectures by Carolyn Friedlander from the back of my Tranquility quilt, and some other blue that I had in my scraps.

That mint print is an odd one. What was I thinking? But it worked well for this quilt!

My daughter made the label for the quilt, just as she did last year. 

The teacher absolutely LOVED the quilt. Apparently she kept calling people over to open it up and show it to them. My daughter assures me that this was because she was so excited about the quilt. She sent a lovely thank you note home. As a teacher I know that gifts are always appreciated but not always fitting for the recipient (The flying dove sculpture I received from a student one year still stands out in my mind). I hope that her teacher really does love this gift. 

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts' Finish it Up Friday!

Quilt of Belonging: A Finished Quilt

It is finished! After collaborating with a lovely group of grade 2 students (mostly 7-year-olds), we have a finished Quilt of Belonging. Each block was created by an individual student to represent who he or she is. Then I added the colourful frames and black sashing to mimic the original quilt.

Finished!

 The kids were beyond thrilled to see it, wanting to touch their blocks and oooo and awwww over others' blocks. One kid said to me "My favourite colour is green and you put mine in green!" with a grin from ear to ear.

The teaching assistant used her embroidery machine to do this block.

 The back shows how I did each block with a different free motion quilting style. Some were more successful than others but the overall effect is pretty cool.

This is half navy and half black with that rainbow stripe made of scraps from the front. Then I had to piece in that other navy print because I wanted to use what I had and not spend any more money. The rainbow idea came from quilty friend C- thanks!

The quilt will hand permanently in the school. I am just working on the QR code that will accompany it, taking people on a journey through our journey!

I'm happy I finished it...and on time for the school opening!

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Those Pretty, Tiny Scraps

Quilting is an expensive hobby, with fabric being the easiest to acquire. It seems like a waste for even the smallest scrap to be thrown out, but what to do with them? The larger scraps I keep for scrappy future projects, especially paper piecing. The smaller scraps of weird sizes and the non-printed selvedges get sent to my daughter's school for art projects. That leaves these tiny little scraps, so pretty and so hard to throw out.

Don't they look pretty?

Some people, Jenn at A Quarter Inch from the Edge included, snap pictures of the scraps to make it easier to throw out. But I did some research and came up with another solution...suet cages.

Suet cages are meant to feed birds, but the cages can be stuffed with the tiny scraps instead for birds to use to make their nests. Just fill up the cage...

Stuff them in there!

Close it up...

Pretty in the cage, too!

And hang it up. Try to pull out a few thin strands so they attract the birds' attention.

Pretty even in the woods!

Of course you need to make sure only appropriate materials goes in there- no plastics or other synthetic materials.

I've been monitoring the cage and a few birds have been interested for sure. I feel much better knowing that even the beautiful tiny scraps are going to good use!

WIP Wednesday: The Blues

So what am I working on this Wednesday? Well, it is May, and May means the end of the school year is not so far away. The tradition thus far has been to make my daughter's teacher a quilt to thank her for caring for and educating my awesome kid.

My "cool" scrap bin has been getting unruly, so I knew I wanted to dig into my scraps and put together something that would be for her teacher but also cut down on my scrap problem.

I have a rather generous amount of blue scraps, so I pulled out everything I could find that seemed appropriate (not so much the shark fabric though) and cut a big stack of 3.5" squares.

To be clear, I still have lots of blues in my scrap bins but these did make a dent!

Then I pulled out some white scraps, where I found some white-on-white 3.5" squares that were cut but never used for a project from last year. It was meant to be! I used those as the centers and made 9-patch blue blocks. Then I played with them to get balance and came up with this organization:

I like this scrappy look!

I've now cut out the sashing (from Kona White) and I'll get to work making this a lap-sized quilt for her teacher. Nothing like a hard deadline to get the sewing mojo flowing!

Taggie Blankets

Babies love tags. They love to stroke them and chew them. Give them a toy or blanket with a tag and they'll gravitate right to it. There is even a line of products designed around this fascination.

Ages ago, when I first started quilting, I figured taggie blankets were something I could make with my very limited skills. I continue to pull this little trick out of my hat when I need a very fast gift.

When the March Birthday queen from my #birthdaybonusclub shared that she was also expecting a baby in March, I threw in a little extra gift for her new bundle:

Those dinosaurs, am I right? And is there any time when Lizzy House Pearl Bracelets aren't the best choice?

I used some scrap Lizzy House on the back, too.

And since I was making one for a baby of someone I don't even know, I knew I should make one for my nephew, Pork Chop, as well. His nursery is elephant themed, so I hunted through my scraps and made:

This side is flannelette.

And this side is pieced with elephants from Bungle Jungle.

My sister-in-law then posted a picture on Facebook of my nephew enjoying his taggie blanket. Because she tagged me (ha, see what happened there?) a work friend saw the post and sent me a not-so-subtle hint that her 10-month-old (the recipient of my Meow Mix quilt) reallllllly loves tags.

So here is the one I made for sweet baby R!

I went with similar colours as Meow Mix, based on mom's request. I made this one pretty girly!

These fun peacocks on the back seemed the perfect fit for this pink and teal taggie blanket!
Plus, donuts!
Tee hee.

These little blankets are usually 8" x 8" before sewing them together, so a perfect size to throw in the car seat or in a diaper bag to entertain a little one. And they only get softer and squishier with more use, so they are fun to use and abuse!

So those are some of the non-quilt things I've been making lately!

Birthday Bonus Club

Thanks to the initiative of one of my favourite bloggers, Jenn from A Quarter Inch from the Edge, I was invited to participate in a Facebook group called the Birthday Bonus Club which has people from across Canada shipping each other 50 2.5" squares based on a request during their birthday month.

My birthday isn't until August, so I will have a long time to wait for my many packages of fabric loveliness from across the country, but I've been having so much fun selecting fabrics to send to the birthday queens each month.

In January we had one birthday queen and she requested solids of any colour. Now that is an easy request! I dove into my scraps (one of the best parts of the Birthday Bonus Club!) and put together this playful, bright combination of solids:

This was for the January Birthday Queen, who requested solids of any colour. I dug into my scraps and put together this lovely warm stack. (All Kona, of course).

There were two February birthday queens, one of whom is the organizer herself, Jenn. She requested low volume, a risky ask because there are different interpretations of this and there is lots of room for disappointment. I wanted to pull out true low volume prints so some of these came from stash instead of scraps to make sure they were what I would consider low volume.

February Birthday Queen Jenn requested low volume. I had fun digging around for these. I tried to go with ones that had crisp white backgrounds and read very white.

The other birthday queen wanted 3/4 bright and 1/4 white. I dug into my scraps to pull out a rainbow of beautiful prints that I thought met her request.

The other February birthday Queen asked for 1/4 white and 3/4 brights in prints or solids. Wow, with those loose guidelines you can go wild! I tried to put together a really pretty rainbow for her, plus so Kona white of course!

The club has been so much fun, and being within Canada means that postage is not going to kill me every month. Plus I'm already drooling in anticipation of my birthday month when I get, I think, 28 packages or some such number? Ridiculous. And awesome!

Eagerly anticipating March 1st to find out what the next birthday queen wants!

Lynn

Welcome to Canada: A Finished Quilt

Check out the hashtag #quiltsforrefugees on Instagram and you will see the efforts of some local quilters who pooled their resources and had a sew in, as well as collecting quilts from around the Toronto area, to give to newcomers. With the Syrian refugee crisis looming in the media I wanted to do something to contribute and when @happysewlucky posted a call for quilts I got to work putting together something beautiful and scrappy.

Here is Welcome to Canada, a twin-sized quilt heading off to a new Canadian in the near future!

I've had this "design" in my head for ages now. I've often looked at my pile of scraps and wanted to make something just like this. #quiltsforrefugees made it a reality!

There are a lot of gems in there: Lotta Jansdotter, Honeymoon from C+S, Heather Bailey True Colours, Carolyn Friedlander Architextures, Alison Glass Bike Paths, Tim and Beck and on and on. I also used up some of my "not sure what I would ever do with these" scraps because it a scrappy quilt like this they look like they belong. This was especially true for the white-on-white scraps I had remaining from my Candy Cane quilt.

The backing is a Kona red, not sure which one, generously donated by quilty friend A. You can see the grid quilting I did in white Aurafil. Red and white- very Canadian, eh? (Plus you can really see how badly it needs a lint roller before I gift it-thanks, cats). My friend A also donated the batting, a twin-sized pack that was a really good quality.

 Berne, the woman who organized this drive, also printed Spoonflower labels for each quilt, and they're beautiful.

I was hoping for more snow in my picture but it is warm here today and all the snow from yesterday melted!

The binding is a very scrappy rainbow collection of leftover bindings from other quilts. It worked perfectly for this colourful quilt, and makes the back a bit more interesting because the binding pops against the red.

I feel good that I could take something I love to do and use it to help someone who is new to Canada adjust to their new home. I hope there is lots of snuggling underneath it, knowing they are welcome here!

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday with Crazy Mom Quilts.