Handmade Happiness

Sometimes there are people that come into your life that are so special, you don't know how to express your love in any way other than making them a quilt.
Of course, I would love to make quilts for everyone I love, and I hope I get to some day.  Like for my grandmothers, and all my aunts.  For my cousins and all their children... maybe one day.
But sometimes, the timing is just right, and you'll find yourself with a person, an event, and just enough time to make them a quilt. 
Little B lives next door. 

She and George get along pretty well and her family has taken us in, treating us as one of their own, inviting us to every family party and making us feel not so alone out here. 

So when the invitation came for her birthday party a few weeks ago, I knew this was the year I'd make her a quilt.
I had some maverick star blocks in my UFO pile so I pulled them out, made a few more, squared them up, and added some sweet sashing.

 A big pink border and some swirly quilting and I had just the quilt I needed.  I won't lie, it was tough to get it pulled together in the 10 days I did.  I stayed up too late a few too many nights and for as happy as I was to quilt, I really think I should sleep more to keep my family happy. 

It didn't end up very big, just big enough for a little girl to cuddle under. 

I'm having fun reworking old UFOs this year.. it's making me look at my stash and quiltmaking in a new light and it's been refreshing.  I also like making smaller quilts (wasn't I complaining about that the last time?), they are just so much more manageable for the amount of time I have now.  Big projects seem so overwhelming and... messy.  I do want to get a new quilt (king size) on our bed before the end of the year, but we'll have to see how our routine changes when the school year begins.  For now, I'll keep piecing hexagons to keep my fingers busy, enjoy the quilts I have around me, and keep daydreaming of all the other things I hope to make someday.

Pink

So today, with some encouragement from Frederick and Chase, I'm working on this quilt.  I stripped away some of the blocks and a clearer design came into focus..

I've been reading (actually reading, not just looking at the pictures) Sunday Morning Quilts this week and I finally felt ready to build up some slabs of pink with crumbs and strings, in hopes of making giant HSTs (not unlike Lori's quilt, here) and turning this into a cheery medallion of a sort.

The crumb piecing is slow and the kids are needy interested in hanging out with me in the sewing room, but the idea is clear in my mind, so I'm determined to work on this as long as the mood keeps me.

 It's turning into a pretty beautiful Mother's Day-- the big guys are outside gardening, the little guy is asleep.. so it looks like I may get in a blog post AND sewing time this afternoon.  Hope you're just as lucky~
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there~

(Btw, I finished the baby quilt, it will get it's own post once it's out of the wash.)

43.5"

That's just about the width of a piece of yardage.. it's also the same size as the circumference of my belly..

So at 38 weeks 2 days, I'm feeling big, occasionally uncomfortable (especially when I don't get enough sleep), but generally pretty good. I'm trying to make the most of each day that I've got left. We've been spending tons of quality time just the 3 of us, I've visitied with lots of friends, and I've been quilting, quilting a LOT.

I had some orphan blocks I'd been playing with a few years ago (after this awesome retreat), and thought it was about time to make something out of them.. I thought they might become pillows, but before I knew it, I had a small quilt.

It's a bizzare size-- 51" x 40"(?)  do I stop here or keep adding? I pulled out Gwen & Freddy's book for inspiration and really, the possibilities are endless. We'll see what happens in the time I have..

ETA: I just measured the width.. it's 43.5" 
it's a sign, I guess I'm done.

Making

I read two really beautifully written blog posts last week, and they resonated with me in how I feel about quilting and the creative process.  How I feel about being a quilter.  First was this amazing post from Chase  (especially the paragraph under the 5th photo).  And then this one from Little Island Quilting, which I'll quote a bit of here:

"My quilts are all just an expression of who I am and the journey I took to get there."

It’s the end of the year (almost) and people are starting to get reflective.  I want to make more quilts that reflect who I am.  I guess I have been doing that, but I need to feel the satisfaction of having done that once I finish them.. maybe it’s a psychological thing.  But anyway..

I finshed something.
It’s big, REALLY big, but it’s not exactly done yet (they haven’t signed off and paid me yet..)

Oh Daruma, we're almost there!

You have no idea (well, some of you might) what it’s like to be at the end of this year-long journey, and project that seemed impossible from the start, manageable in my daydreams, and harder than anything I’ve ever done in reality. 

It kept me busy.  It made me think.  It brought me closer to friends and made me hone my skills.  I feel—accomplished. 

But it also caused a horrible amount of stress and sleep deprivation, tested my endurance and my marriage.. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, right? (Costas, I love you.)

And someone asked me lately, “Was it worth it?”  My answer, “I don’t know yet.”

I wanted to write this post to capture how I’ve been feeling this week, at the project’s end, but I really don’t know how I feel about the whole process until I can share it with you.  When it’s DONE done, I’ll let you know (probably by screaming from the rooftops), but until then I guess I just need to let the experience marinate, and perhaps move on to something else?

I’ve got an orphan block quilt up on the design wall.. it’s not what I’m “supposed” to be working on this month, but it’s really speaking to me, so I need to see where the idea takes me..

unintended consequences

There's a fun and catchy drive in some quilting circles to be spontaneous and improvisational all the time.  Usually, I love it.  really, I am not someone who likes to be told what to do, so rules & patterns never appealed to me. 
But sometimes too much improv can have unintended results.
Case in point:  my doghouse block.

Cute, no?  I knew something was off as I pieced it, totally spontaneous and unplanned. 

I had trouble with the set-in puppy and getting the grass level, and I ripped out one seam, cut down excess fabric --never any waste, just new scraps :) 

I was going for a  house block with character, so I added in a cute dog,  but my proportions were off.  at one point I was about to trim the roof, but thought it would make it look dog-housey.  Ended up looking that way regardless. Oh well, back to the drawing board (maybe a plan would have helped in the first place..) Nothing lost but a little time, and in exchange I gained some experience and another block for my future Orphan Soup quilt...

Have you made any good mistakes lately?