Scrappy Americana

Here is a little story about one of the coolest quilts that I ever made.  It began about eight years ago, when my dear friend Liz and I were both living in St. Louis, Missouri.  We were downtown on the Fourth of July, enjoying all of the fun festivities while we waited for night to descend and the super spectacular fireworks show over the Arch to begin. A lady walked by with a red, white, and blue quilt in her arms and Liz said, "I've always wanted a red, white, and blue quilt." "Really?" I said nonchalantly.  "Yes," said Liz.  I made a mental note right then and there.  Step one: I would learn to quilt.  Step 2: I would make Liz a red, white, and blue quilt.

That was one of those nudging little thoughts that stayed with me for years.  I finally did learn to quilt and the thought never left me, "If I have learned to quilt then I need to make Liz a red, white, and blue quilt, because that is Step 2." When Liz's husband, Rob, joined the army, it seemed even more important to make her a patriotic quilt.

Years later, while I was working at The Sewing Circle, I was helping a woman named Ellen quilt a 4th of July table cloth and it struck me that the time had come to begin Liz's quilt.  I mentioned to my co-worker Diana that I thought I would make a repeat of a quilt I'd already made, but would substitute red and blue for the colors.  It was a relatively simple block pattern.  She told me, "No Karen, you can't make the same quilt twice.  You have to do something new."  Ellen reinforced this by telling me that she would share her scraps with me from her tablecloth.  So that is where I began.  I pieced together Ellen's scraps and recreated a star similar to hers.

Ellen's tablecloth star.

Then I just kept sewing.  I would sew a little here and a little there.  I would often tell people about my project and they would donate red, white, and blue fabric.  It was so fun.  It truly felt like a community quilt.  It was also the first time that I really just sewed fabric together without having a pattern.  It was so exciting and creative.

It took me a couple of years, but I finally finished the quilt.  I literally finished it a night or two before I flew to Tennessee to visit Liz.  I remember as I hand tacked the binding, I was sewing over fabric that was covered in fireworks.  It felt like a celebration to be finally finishing a project that had been years in the making.

Giving Liz the quilt is one of my happiest memories.  We laughed, we cried, we hugged, and shared all kinds of quilty happiness.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone. May it be a celebration of the good things in life.

The Scrappy Rambler

I recently joined the Fort Collins Modern Quilt Guild. It is so fun to get together once a month with inspiring gals who love to quilt as much as I do.  One of the things we're about to start is a roaming quilt bee. Everyone begins with a starter block that is passed around to all the participating members.  Each person adds to the quilt and then it is passed on again. It is similar to a "round robin" except that the additions to each quilt are not limited to borders.

I was so excited, I couldn't wait to sew my block.

The center piece is a label from a pair of pajama pants I acquired in either high school or college.  I still have the pants, and the little bag (I use it as a tiny pillowcase).  I saved the label because I loved the fun, retro look of it.  Sometimes (often) I will save things for years until I find the perfect use for them (my husband loves this, no he does not).

I framed it in a churn dash because I like to mix in old quilt block patterns that have been around for ages with fun, modern fabric.

Now, I figured my starter block was finished so I just let it be until it could begin its travels.

However, I kept thinking about how much I liked the little label because it reminded me of how women of yesteryear would sew with old flour sacks.  How thrifty! How fun!  Flour generally does not come in flour sacks anymore, but there is a Colorado brand that I saw on the shelves whenever I was grocery shopping with Michael. (He does the grocery shopping because he is full of awesomeness.)  I would always hint that we should buy that flour because I was coveting the bag.  He likes to bake with whole wheat flour so we never really needed that much white flour.  When my friend, Anna, had a cookie party last Christmas, imagine my happiness when Michael suggested we buy the Blue Bird flour to bake the cookies.  Yay!

I've been hanging on to that blue bird of happiness, waiting for the ideal project.  It seemed like the perfect fit to match with my old pants label.

I also included a block that I'd picked up at a fabric swap a long time ago that was made by Tara, another member of the Modern Quilt Guild.  Now my starter block is ready to begin its journey.  I've named the quilt "The Scrappy Rambler" and I'm very excited to see how it will grow.  I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Mr. Paws says, "Are you finished? You sure have a lot to say."

Michael's Office Quilt

Way back in the day when Michael was attending Concordia Seminary, I took a little class called Ecclesiastical Embroidery.  The idea was that you would learn how to do these fancy, hand-embroidered church symbols and then make a stole for your husband to wear when he was leading church services.  I showed up every week and enjoyed meeting with the other ladies. I also remember that I had no desire to actually make a stole.  That seemed like a lot of complicated sewing to me.   I remember asking the teacher, "What are we going to do with these squares when they're finished?" She said, "Nothing, they're just practice samples."  What!?  They were way too nice (in my opinion) to do nothing with them, not to mention the amount of work that it took to make them.

I remember one of the previous students came in with a simple banner that she had made with her samples squares.  It was to hang in her husband's office.  I was in awe.  I asked her how she knew how to make the banner and she said, "I just made it up."  What?!  I was blown away.  I had no idea that you could "just make up" a little banner, which was actually a miniature quilt.  I wanted to be her.  I wanted to have that skill.  I don't have a picture of her banner, but it looked something like this:

Dear lady who made the banner, I'm sorry I don't know your name, and I'm sorry that this little drawing does not give your little quilt the justice and credit it deserves.  It has been inspiring me for years.

Oh, how I longed to be quilter who just makes stuff up.

Fast forward 10 years later.  I was organizing my craft room and I unpacked those almost-finished squares.  Michael had just started his current job at our church and I knew that the time had come.  It was time to fulfill the quilty longing I felt when I was a newly married wife with zero sewing skills.

 Ta-da! I know how to quilt now.  Yay!

Here are my hand-embroidered "practice squares."

 

This phoenix is machine embroidered.  Michael has always loved the phoenix since its a symbol for resurrection. He always wanted a white stole with a phoenix on it to wear on Easter, but since he doesn't wear stoles for his current job, I thought I'd work it into the quilt instead.  (I'm still really happy that I never had to sew a stole.)

I also included some left over fabric from when Michael and I made some Advent paraments for our church in Saratoga.  (Now, before you guys are all like, "What!? Karen has the best husband ever! He does sewing projects with her."  This was our only joint sewing project, ever, and it was fun, but we don't sit around sewing together all the time.  However, I do have an awesome husband, just not a sewing one, which is okay.  I digress.)  Here are the paraments we made:

Here are the leftovers:

I also love this little leafy piece that I pilfered from my best friend Meghan's scrap bin.  It looks good with the little tree.

So that is the little quilt I made for Michael.  I think it really brightened up his office wall.

P.S.  For a baby who hasn't officially started crawling yet, she sure moved lickety-split across the floor to steal my drawing and photo-bomb my picture.  It was quite impressive, actually.

Henry's Quilt

I was really thrilled to make a quilt for my sister and her baby, Henry. I have made a number of quilts in the past, but for me personally, this was probably the most important quilt I've made.  If you paid any attention at all to my previous posts, you could figure out that Henry was born about a month after my baby was due to be born.  This was a time of truly mixed emotion for me, and probably still is to be quite honest.  I am so very thankful and feel so very blessed to have quilting in my life.  It allowed me to pour all the love that I have for my sister and for Henry into the quilt, when I was having such trouble expressing it in other areas. 

Did you have to stop reading for a moment and find a kleenex?  Me too.  Man, between this and the Harry Potter finale, I might never have a dry eye again.

Let's move on to the fun stuff, the quilt.  Yay! 

When I lived in Saratoga I made this fun quilt for myself.  I bought the kit for it at the San Diego quilt show and it was one of the first "real" quilts that I ever made.  I had such fun putting it together and I loved how it looked when it was finished.  I love all the randomness of the blocks.  Ever since then, I have always wanted to take a part of the pattern and make it into a baby quilt.  When I heard that baby Menz was on the way I knew he would be the perfect recipient. 

Emily did a lot of cute things putting together Henry's nursery.  With the help of my mom she made the bed skirt, curtains, rocking chair covers, and pillows (for the chair, not the crib).  Most of the fabric she used had been given to her by her mother-in-law, after she'd made a dress for Emily's niece.   I asked her to send me all the extra fabric.  (P.S.  Another thing I love about quilts is that the fabric itself often holds so many stories.)

When if finally arrived, I was so excited I started the quilt the very next day.  Luckily, I had the day off from work so I could spend the whole day working on it. Mr. Paws of course felt the need to help me with it, nothing new there.

I actually finished piecing the top that night.  I figured I was making good time since I wasn't leaving for Michigan for about 3 more weeks.  Sadly, my mom called a few days later with the news that my uncle had died.  (It's really sad folks, but I've used up my sad quota for this post already so I'm not going to expound.)  Anyhoo, instead of 3 weeks I now had 2 days to finish the quilt.  Lucky for me I work at a sewing store.  So, after working with a quilter all day, I threw Henry's quilt on Bella (our long arm quilter) and did the quilting, connecting the pieced top with the batting and backing.  The backing was a sweet piece of ticking fabric that my friend Debby gave me that had belonged to her grandmother.  I took the newly quilted quilt it to Bible study that night so I could work on pulling out all the basting stitches.  I was very tickled to see that my friend Dan was wearing a shirt made of the same exact fabric as the backing.  I have no idea why but it made me really happy.

Two days later, I sat in the airport, sewing on the binding as I waited for my flight.  (I'm so glad TSA didn't confiscate my needle.)  I finally finished it when I was in Michigan and here is is: 



Ta-da!

I love it!  Here's a closer view of some of the blocks.

 

I love this piece from a striped shirt.  I found it in a scrap bin from Mama Said Sew.  I really like including unexpected pieces of fabric into quilts. 

Here is some fabric from The Sewing Circle (best job ever) and some leftover from the original pink quilt.

The little flowered piece in the nine patch was also from a fabric swap at Mama Said Sew.  I probably wouldn't normally have included that design in a boy's quilt, but finding this fabric was a super great score.  My mom had made Emily and me a baby dress and doll bedding from this same material.  It seemed fitting to include it in Henry's quilt.

This plaid piece was from my (great) Grandma Goggy's stash.  I thought it was so cool to incorporate some of her fabric. 

My friend Glenda from work was awesome enough to machine embroider a label for the back for me.

Here is Henry's already cute, pre-quilt nursery.  

Here it is after.  

I love it!

And here is the proud quilt owner himself.  Now, who wouldn't want to make a quilt for this cute little guy.  One sweet quilt = lots of love to Henry from his Auntie Karen.