As many of you know, I had a baby seven months ago. Like all new mothers, life became completely absorbed into my little human. His waking and sleeping moments were literally all I thought about for several months straight.
Once he began to be more resilient and more self-sufficient, I started to realize just how much I was missing quilting. It’s been part of who I am for so long that I can’t really imagine myself without it. I’m sure many quilters feel the same way.
Thankfully, I already had a couple of projects ready to be broken out and worked on. I’m still not sure how I originally ended up with hundreds of flannel 2 1/2 inch squares, but they are turning into something amazing!
I started fiddling around with what to do, and have settled upon a fall-themed throw. Actually, two of them. My best friend LOVES all things fall, and I’m making us matching throws.
It was hard to decide exactly how to go about making the center pumpkin. Below are several of the possibilities.
Some of the differences are super subtle, and I’m genuinely not sure which version I like best. Thankfully, I’m making my friend’s throw first, so she was able to pick her centerpiece, which is now done.
Forgive the poor lighting. I’m sewing in a guest room converted to sewing space after the arrival of a baby.
As many of you know, my husband and I were expecting a baby in August. I am delighted to report that he has arrived safely! This is why I’ve been so absent. While away, I have not been idle!
Because of the pregnancy, when July rolled around I left my job and took a month to get everything in order at our home before my son arrived. By that, I mostly mean finish up some quilting projects that desperately needed it.
The most urgent of these projects was a toddler quilt. Not for my baby, but for a dear friend who had her son just a few months before my baby was due.
She had the charming idea of doing a vehicle quilt so that her daughter (age three) could help teach the new baby about different vehicles. I thought this was a darling concept, so I ran with it. Some of these blocks are from free patterns I found online, some are inspired by other quilter’s ideas, and the train blocks are my own creation because I couldn’t find any I liked.
While I was drafting the pattern for the train my husband looked at me like I was slightly deranged. I pointed out to him that making a 50+ piece block that I didn’t even like made much less sense than making a 30 (ish) piece block that was exactly what I wanted even if I had to design it myself.
Here is the finished (almost) product. I couldn’t quite get the top and backing off to the quilters before things got too exciting around here, so it is awaiting a binding still, but it will be fully completed very soon and off to its new home.
This quilt does not have a name yet, and I would like it to. Any ideas?
Look out for an upcoming post about my son’s quilt as that gets underway!
Hello all! I am sorry for having taken such a long break from posting. I do have a good reason, and good news that I am very excited to be sharing with you all.
I am going to be a mama! My husband and I are having a baby boy in August. I’ve had a really good pregnancy and I’m excited to get started on his baby quilt. I do apologize for letting the overwhelm of early pregnancy keep me away from posting regularly! Work-life-quilting balance has never been my strongest talent.
On the sewing front, my best friend’s graduation quilt is making incredible progress. All of the star blocks for the next row are done, and I finally decided on what the middle panel was going to look like. She is such an outdoor enthusiast that it was hard to decide, but this mountain motif seemed like a very reasonable solution.
Once the next border and the stars go on, I’ll be sending this top off to be quilted! My friend graduated with the Spring class of 2023 (yes, I know it wasn’t done on time, but again, baby), and I am so very proud of her accomplishments. I actually have one more quilt that I need to get going before my baby gets his quilt, so keep an eye out for an upcoming baby quilt for one of my mama friends and a quilt for my own little guy!
My quilt room is slowly and surely being converted into a nursery as the fabric and UFO boxes move over into our extra room. Is “Fabric Stash” and properly chic theme for the guest room? Is it weird to have an open ironing board as a travel desk? One way or the other, I need sewing space. It keeps me sane!
What are your thoughts on this eclectic desert graduation quilt? Do you have any excellent baby or parenting advice? I’d love to hear from you all.
Time has such a way of getting away from us, doesn’t it?
Between the holidays and the beginning of tax season, I have found myself almost too busy to get any sewing done. I work as an accountant, and between January and mid-April, we get to run through the gauntlet a little bit. Due to the excessive business, I haven’t been able to work on any of my little side projects at all. Any snippets of time I’ve managed to grab have been devoted to my best friend’s graduation gift.
My best friend and I have known each other since we were quite young but became close in college. She is an incredibly bright woman who loves the outdoors and is a little wild, so I was not at all surprised when she wanted a succulent/cactus quilt as a graduation gift. Finding the pattern was a pain, but they are so cute!
The quilt is going to get a whole lot funkier as it progresses, but I am close to finishing a dozen cactuses that I need for that particular element of her gift. While I wish I had a little more time to sew right now, I am glad I get to spend the time that I do have on something so cute!
Once I have more of the quilt done I will post the pattern that I got off of Etsy for anyone who also wants to make these charming little cactuses!
One expected, but not simple, consequence of moving far away from all of the extended family that my husband and I dearly love is that we travel extensively over the holidays. We enjoy and miss all of our respective in-laws, so our Thanksgivings and Christmases have already proved very hectic at times, even so early on in our marriage. It’s a wonderful and sometimes stressful situation.
Because of the aforementioned holiday chaos, I have had very little sewing and writing time over the last several weeks. I have gotten a few things done, but I’ve had to choose between posting and stitching, so my inanimate tasks have been getting a disproportionate amount of my time and attention. Not to mention the fact that so little has been completed that there wasn’t much to be posting to you all about.
So here it is! I have been working away at a lovely little tree skirt for my home with my husband and cats. This project has been a new challenge for me as it needed a lot of skills I either haven’t learned or have not needed to use in a long while.
The first major issue was that I somehow neglected to notice that the color scheme was exceptionally patriotic. The fabric was gifted to me and is very Christmas-y, so it seemed perfect for a tree skirt! We are a very patriotic household (family in the military as well as veterans), but somehow it didn’t feel like a Christmas project because of it. My husband missed the color scheme issue as well originally but then offered a green binding as a solution. It helped, but I still feel that it is a little unbalanced. Oh well. We live and we learn.
I do have a few warnings: firstly, this pattern calls for more fabric than you need, with the exception of the backing. If you have pieces that are close, feel free. Secondly, the instructions for the final trim on the panels are… Lacking? Almost non-existent? I was a bit frustrated, to be honest. I ended up freehanding the trimming of the panels with the 45-degree lines on my rotary board, which was a passable fix, but having more specific measurements would have made my segments more exact. Proceed with caution.
I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday that is safe and full of love. I know that holidays are a mixed bag for many people, and I wish you and your family joy.
After my traveling post earlier this week, I wanted to check in and let you all know where some of my previously posted projects are at. The baby quilt has been sent out and is busy bringing joy to its tiny and adorable recipient. I really love babies and making baby quilts and we are always glad to have another one in the family. My husband comes from a very large family, which means that it is very likely that you will all be seeing a lot of baby quilts for his side of the family in the upcoming years!
The Christmas quilt is done just in time for the holidays, and I am somewhat obsessed with all its joyfully eclectic and festive charm. This year will be my first Christmas in my own house with my own husband and I am very excited to be able to decorate and turn our home into a cozy winter wonderland. Last year we traveled during pretty much all of the festive season, and the result was a sad, cold, and empty house when we returned home. It was positively depressing! So this year, I have bought a ridiculous amount of tinsel, baubles, and other adorable useless objects and this quilt is my favorite touch I’ve made for the house. I’ve never dipped my toes into crafting decorations very much, so I would love some pattern suggestions from you all! I desperately need a tree skirt pattern. I haven’t found a tree skirt that I love, and I have some great fabric that I think would be perfect for the project once I have a solid guide.
The only other things I have had time for in the last couple of weeks has been a little bit of experimentation with the flannel scrap that I was asking you all about. After finding no patterns that quite fit the fabric that I currently have, I started digging into designing a custom pattern just for the specific sizes that I have. The first attempt was a little… Disproportionate. It’s a bit more like a patty pan squash than a pumpkin, has a wonky stem, and was over-stuffed and under-enforced. Yikes! Sometimes the best ideas have poor execution. I threatened to throw it away, but my husband said that it added interest to the little ensemble we have going so I want to add a leaf and try to make it a bit more presentable.
Try number two was vastly more successful. It is supremely pumpkin-like! The stem has much more character and perk, and the overall shape is much rounder and more believable. I still neglected to add a leaf onto this second try as well, so it will probably get one added on once I have a better feel for how I want to attach it.
Try number three was a wonderful success! It looks like a pumpkin and has much more interest because of its nice little leaf and strong color contrast. It also has a slightly larger diameter, but I like both the larger and smaller size. I want to experiment with making them a little taller on some future attempts, but for now, I feel like this is a solid pattern option. I am at a pause point for the time being due to a depleted stash of poly-fil stuffing. I haven’t had a chance to go to the craft store for more. What do you think I can change on attempt number four?
Of course, the cat critic had much to say on the subject of pumpkin design and not being fed promptly. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving for those who celebrate it. – Sparkle Jane
This is not a travel blog, but I do very much enjoy traveling. My husband and I spent the end of October in Rome, Italy seeing the sights and eating the amazing food, so I figured that I ought to share a few insights that we gathered while planning this trip as well as a few pictures just because I can.
First and foremost, it should be said that a trip outside of your native country is never cheap. After doing a fair bit of research, my husband and I laid out a budget and then saved for this trip for about 18 months to make sure that we had enough to have a lot of fun and some money for souvenirs. Our biggest expense was airfare, which was made even worse due to the fact that I married a man that is both 6’4″ and quite long-legged, which means he requires extra legroom seating to survive lengthy flights. We were in one airport or the other for almost 24 hours but made it to Rome quite reasonably when considering the chaos surrounding air travel right now.
We spent the entirety of our trip in old Rome seeing the many treasures of history contained within the main city and Vatican City State. For anyone who hasn’t already tried it out, consider using Airbnb when traveling to heavy tourist destinations. Hotels in the area we wanted to stay in were hundreds of dollars per night, but we stayed at an ADORABLE Airbnb for only about a third of the cost. It was wonderful to stay in a home-like space while in the city and be able to cook breakfast rather than eat out for every meal. After landing, we took a 4 hour nap and then headed out for dinner. My husband sent me mostly pictures of my own face when I asked for trip pictures to post, because according to him “they were the best ones!” We got some incredible pizza at a local restaurant just a three-minute walk from where we were staying.
One of the biggest highlights for me was being able to visit the temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that was built in the newer part of Rome recently. I’ve wanted to visit since the construction of the building was started, and was so struck by how strongly you can feel the love of God on the grounds and inside.
The rest of our trip was spent visiting various monuments, historical sites, and beautiful museums. Rome is such a historic city, and I strongly recommend that everyone put it on their bucket list. The sheer amount of history contained in and around the city makes it well worth the expense and effort, not even to mention the incredible food and amazing people.
We will call that both the beginning and the end of my attempts as a food and travel blogger. I finished some stuffed pumpkin decorations out of the fabric that I talked about in my last post, so the blog will be back to its crafty roots in my next post.
You can look forward to two separate posts this week because a lot has been going on. My husband and I went on a trip to Rome, Italy, and were out of the country for eight days, thusly the lack of posting for the last week. This week I wanted to continue sharing my many different quilting “loves” with you all, as well as pick your brains for potential suggestions or help on a new project. You can all expect vacation pictures and details in the next post because this is a quilting blog after all!
One of my very favorite quilting challenges is to take on what I like to think of as “quilt rescues.” Bits of blocks and tops that have been rejected or moved away from by other people fascinate me. I also love other people’s UFOs and problem projects. They give me a lot of joy in the same way that many people like to solve jigsaw puzzles. My greatest enjoyment from these adopted projects comes from trying to decipher and honor the original maker’s vision as much as possible. I always find myself asking “why did they choose/do this?” “how did they hope that this would look?” and I sincerely hope that I get the right idea MOST of the time. Sometimes it takes me a while, but I normally get there. The project I am working on right now is the exception to that. Let me introduce you to this massive flannel monster that I have learned so little about.
Due to my excessive jet lag over the last few days since we got back into the United States, I have been focusing on low-effort project sorting so that my tired brain doesn’t sew too many backward seams (we all know how it goes when you piece while tired). My mother dropped off a massive black garbage bag of flannel scraps to me just before we left for Italy, and the bag has been taking up valuable sewing room space since then. It seemed like an obvious starting point when we got back. What I failed to realize was just how much of a hole I was getting myself into by starting to sort out the tumble of cut fabric inside the bag. The progress you see in these pictures has taken me 3-4 hours at this point, and there’s probably another half as much still left over to sort. I am trying desperately to see what the plan was, and I am at a complete loss. For lack of any other idea, I am going to catalog for you all what fabric there is to work with and see if any of you have the faintest idea what the intention may have been, or if anyone has an idea for some projects that may fairly efficiently utilize what I have now. To sum up what I have found so far:
3″x5.5″ Small rectangles in 6 different fall colors with the VAST majority being dark gray.
2.5″ Squares in the same fall colors in roughly even proportions.
4″ Cream colored squares (a few).
2″x6.5″ Brown strips (MANY).
4″x10.5″ Dark grey strips (also a few).
3″x4″ Dark grey rectangles.
In general, my instinct here is that these are cast-off cuts from something else. This is somewhat amazing to me when taking into consideration just how much of it there is, but below is a picture of the way the fabric is mostly arranged in the bag that is leading me to the cast-off conclusion. There are several hundred little stacks all neatly piled up together in the same order.
At the end of the day, I suspect that honoring the original maker’s intentions is going to be tricky since I am unsure if there was any intentionality left over for these pieces. I have a few ideas for what to do with SOME of this massive treasure trove, but certainly not all. Here’s what my pumpkin-minded self has produced so far:
Do you ever have one of THOSE weeks? Life moves entirely too fast, the world is spinning, and you don’t have enough sewing time to help you properly process all of that? Yep, this last week was one of those. It was a week of serious stress, even though it was good stress. Because of that, the only sewing I really managed to get done was attaching a binding to the baby quilt that really ought to be done already. Oh well. I’ll finish stitching the whole thing down by the end of this week and have it on its way to the new owner.
To continue updating you all on the progress of my life over the last couple of years, I want to introduce you to the two tiny family members that my husband and I adopted a few months ago.
Meet Badger and Crow, our two rescue kittens (named by my spouse, of course). These sweet little brothers were struggling in a neglectful situation that was not good for a cat of any size, let alone babies. Neither of us felt like we could leave them where they were, so they came home with us and never left. The cats both fancy themselves to be sewing assistants, even though they aren’t allowed in my quilting room. I am starting to notice that most people who sew also seem to be preferential to cats, so perhaps it was only a matter of time until we ended up with at least one in our home.
What about you all? Do you have cats?
Thanks once again for all the endless support. It means the world to me.
My husband and I recently bought an adorable 3 bedroom house. While the new space has been perfect for me to have a sewing and crafting space, I do not have sufficient room (or funds) to get a long-arm quilting machine at the moment. Someday, but not yet. Because of this, I only quilt very small objects for myself, such as table runners or hot pads. Anything larger or more complicated requires someone with more skills and resources.
For the last several years I have been sending all of my quilts to a good friend of my mother and mine named Jennifer. She is an amazing artist when it comes to her long-arm work and never fails to impress me with her skills. Despite the current distance between her and me, I consider the cost of a flat-rate shipping box completely worth the work she does. I don’t wish to share her contact information publically, but if you would like her contact information I would be happy to share it with you via email.
This post will be fairly short, but I needed to post a quick thank you to Jennifer because she saved a quilt from disaster for me. I had a piece of backing for a baby quilt that shrank VASTLY more than I expected after washing. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice this fact and sent the quilt and washed backing to Jennifer without a second thought. As the baby quilt in question is for a baby that is due quite soon, I needed the quilt back fairly promptly. Rather than making me send something new, this absolute saint of a woman found something in her stash that was suitable and got everything done in record time. I have learned two things because of this: buy your flannel significantly bigger than you think you need, and always try to have a quilter that you would trust with even your most problematic project.
In addition to the adorable baby quilt, I also sent her a quilt that is a lot more “me.” I love quirky, scrappy, warm quilts! This Christmas will be the first major holiday that my husband and I have ever spent at home together, so we are going all in on decorating for the occasion. That means a new quilt of course! My “Quilting Grandma,” Susan, over at https://desertskyquilts.com/ sent me these amazing red and green scraps that lent themselves perfectly to my purpose. Jennifer also just finished quilting this one for me, and you can expect more complete pictures as soon as I finish binding them both.
The baby quilt already has a designated leafy green binding, but I am torn on what to bind the Christmas throw with. Green or red? What do you all think?
An archive of posts by Lillian about cooking, quilting, knitting, and memories of family and the past. Open her cupboard and discover the treasures she stored there.
Sparkle Jane 