New Life Inspires Creativity

My dearest friend Naomi had a baby girl yesterday morning! She is perfect! A few weeks ago, I made this baby raggy quilt for her. Little Amy looks so cozy cuddled up in it! I also made a matching dolly quilt out of the left over scraps for her big sister Mia.

Isn't the little ladybug material adorable! And, or course, the pink camo was for her Dad!

 When I went to start working on the quilt, my Singer (only a few years old, and barely used) decided that it no longer wanted to sew properly. The tension was extrememly messed up, and I couldn't figure out how to operate all the new-fangled knobs and dials. Several years ago, my Dad had made a great find at a garage sale, and bought me a really old sewing machine for really cheap. I had never used it before, but decided now was the time to give it a whirl. Boy does she sew! Things were made so much better and so much simpler years ago! The threading and tension adjustments are super easy and she sews like a dream! This may be my machine of choice from now on... unless I need a zig zag stitch that is! 

 I made up the pattern, and am really happy with how it turned out. I used a half meter of six different pink flannels, 3 dark and 3 light. Double sided, I cut 24 rectagles 3x6 inches from each colour. I arranged them from lightest to darkest and then placed them in alternating rows of vertical and horizontal pieces. The result is interlocking light and dark squares.

Here is a shot of each side before the snipping, washing and drying stages. It looks so much better once it is actually "raggy"! The most time consuming part of a raggy quilt is the "snipping" stage. It took me two and a half movies (about 4 1/2 hours) to snip all of the edges!

The Quilt Evolves

 A few posts ago, I showed my material and plans for a new quilt... the material is the same, but the plans have changed. I remembered that a few years ago my Mum gave me a really nice quilting book. Once I saw it, I knew exactly what kind of quilt I was going to make. I just happened to have mostly "polka dotted" material, and low and behold, right on the front cover was the quilt I wanted to make: the Log Cabin Polka.

I began cutting, and here we have the beginnings of my beautiful, colourful quilt! I can hardly wait until it is done and I can snuggle up on the couch and read a good book!

The four medium sized square/rectangles will be sewn together with a black centre square to form one large "log cabin" square. Each material chosen has "polka dots" of one kind or another.

My Quilting History

Through the years I have completed only a few quilts. When I was about 11 years old, I acquired an oval quilting frame from a friend (actually a large cross stitch frame, about 3 feet across). I had absolutely no idea where to begin, but I decided I wanted to make a baby quilt. Out came the thrift store material, scissors and sewing machine. I pieced on the sewing machine and then quilted the whole thing by hand...and here you have the result:

My second attempt at a quilt was much nicer, as my Mother and I took a quilting course when I was about 13 or 14. I had received this very bright coloured material as a Christmas gift from my Mom's best friend Sylvia the year before. We had a great time learning how to quilt and this first class inspired my Mom to go on to make many gorgeous full size quilts over the next few years. Both my sisters also became proficient quilters, especially my younger sister who started pumping out baby quilts for all of my cousins children.

I did not make any other quilts for several years, but mostly concentrated on scrapbooking and other crafts. Two or so years into University I began to quilt again during my summers at home. I designed and made this "People's of the World" quilt one summer....

During my third summer home from University, my family was all obsessed with the new quilting phenomenon... "raggy quilts." My Mom and sisters all made one (or more!), and of course I wanted one as well.  The quilt is done in all flannel and each piece is double sided. This type of quilt is very easy (and cheaper) to make as there is no batting or backing necessary. Once the pieces are all sewn together, the seam allowances are all "snipped" and then put in the dryer to "fluff," thus making a beautiful and "raggy" quilt.This is the first (and so far the only) full size quilt I have completed

Splashes of Colour...

I decided that I needed to make a quilt. It has been several years now since I have made a quilt and I have a whole lot of material sitting around,...so why not! I wasn't sure what I wanted to make, but I had a bunch of really bright coloured material that I thought would be nice to use up. Hmm... what to make... a conventional pattern, or something of my own creation? Out came the graph paper and the markers and my mind started working. This is what I have come up with so far... not really sure yet what it will end up being, but the colours sure look nice together!