Charlie's quilt...

Those of you who live in the Rocky Mountains know the crazy weather "patterns" in our neck of the woods, but this last week has even surprised a veteran like me.  The last couple of days we have seen buckets of rain, freezing temperatures, and a bunch of snow, which left me with a lot of time to sew. Truthfully, I'd rather be planting flowers this time of the year. However, I'm excited to show you this quilt that I just finished for Charlie, our seven-year-old grandson.

I don't know if you have a perpetually smiling child in your life, but I hope you do.  Charlie loves life, and that enthusiasm is manifest in a constant, winning smile! Because of his zest for life, I wanted to choose a fabric for his quilt that was fun-loving and happy. Here's the fabric I chose to build Charlie's quilt around.

Because of Charlie's good nature and fun-loving spirit, a "party animal" print suits him to a T! This is Dear Stella Foxtail Forest Treetop Party print. I love it. I made the quilt in a herringbone pattern and used the party print as the "background" fabric. It makes for a very busy quilt, for a very busy boy. I paired this print with several other woodland or party prints from Dear Stella...

We're talking wood prints, banners, feathers, canoes, and the like to round out this fun quilt...

This outdoor party-in-the-woods themed quilt suits Charlie perfectly. He's an outdoor dog, if you know what I mean!

One more to check off the list!

Jared's Quilt...

When I first embarked on this quest to make a lap quilt for each of our children and grandchildren for Christmas 2017, I asked them each to tell me their favorite color/s and an interest. I received word that Jared liked the colors blue, black and red and that his interests were Legos and Star Wars. Hmmm. I usually try to pick a color or an interest and design around one of them. It's really rare when I can find the color and interest in one fabric or coordinating fabrics.

For Jared, I chose to concentrate on the colors red and black. I also added a lot of gray to soften the starkness of those two colors. It became a true crazy quilt with lots of different fabrics, and I love how it turned out!

I used some of the Kaufman Burley Beaver collection that I'd purchased with a lot of other fabrics in addition.

Again I used a swirly design for the quilting. I think the circular design mitigates the stark geometric design of the quilt.

For the back I chose an arrow fabric and added some scraps from fabrics I used on the front of the quilt...

(The vertical stripes you see on the quilt is just the sunlight shining through the fence pickets.)

Hopefully this nine-year-old will like this quilt made just for him!

Jack's Quilt...

I have a two-year-old grandson, Jack, that calls me on the phone often. Actually, it's his mother that {usually} calls, but he is always sitting next to her wanting to talk... and talk he does. I'm fairly certain this kid will be a inspirational speaker or car salesman when he grows up. Jack always greets me with a "hello," and then promptly asks if Beau is available to chat. Beau is our dog. Here's a picture of Beau last year in puppyhood...

I think Jack calls me just to get a glimpse of Beau. He loves Beau. Last Thanksgiving when Jack's family was visiting, Beau wanted nothing to do with Jack. Beau avoided Jack at all costs, but Jack was undeterred by Beau's nonchalant attitude. Jack continues to love on Beau long distance, and Beau continues to be unimpressed by Jack's loyalty. The fact is Jack is a doggie lover, so I couldn't help but make this quilt for him...

I wanted to showcase the dog fabric {Kaufman Urban Zoologie Weenie Dogs Red} so I kept those blocks nice and big and framed them with two fabrics I purchased at Hobby Lobby {dog paw prints and arrows}.

I love the swirly design that I chose for the quilting. It's cute and playful -- much like Jack.

Sometimes fabric choices are made in heaven, like this one...

For the back of the quilt, I used the arrow fabric with scraps from the quilt...

{Those funny vertical lines in the photos are the sunlight coming through the slats in the fence.}

I'm really pleased with how this quilt turned out, and I can't wait till Jack opens his quilt on Christmas morning!

Not so bad after all...

A few weeks ago I published a post that detailed the cold hard facts of fabric selection. To sum it up, I'd bought some fabric and pieced a quilt that I wasn't very fond of. The colors went well together, but it wasn't very girly. That fact really grated on me, because after all one puts a lot of time and effort into these babies!

 Several of you made comments that I should step away from it and maybe it would look better in a couple of weeks. The last few weeks that quilt has been at the longarm quilter's being finished and when I got it back, I kind of loved it...

Having a quilt longarm quilted makes everything look better! The longarm quilter that I use runs a business out of her home. It's quite an enterprise. I love going there because she has gorgeous quilts lining her walls, and a stack of quilts to be quilted a mile high. So fun.

Anyway, after I picked up this quilt, it looked so much better than I remembered it.

Little two-year-old Emery, the intended recipient of this quilt, is pretty much a girly, girl -- except when she launches herself into a swimming pool like a banshee yelling "cannonball!" -- so I wasn't sure she'd like the colors in the quilt. But, after picking it up from the quilter's home the pink fabric stood out more, so I think there's hope... 

I love the pattern of quilting that was done on this quilt. It's a flowery bumblebee pattern...

The inspiration fabric for this quilt is called Cosmo Forest Delight, designed by Cosmo Japan for Springs Creative. It's a cute foresty bear print...

I bought a bright, colorful fabric for the back of the quilt. As I'd said in the previous post, I didn't realize till I got it home that it was cat eyes {ugh... sigh}. But I turned the pattern on its side, so it looks more like a geometric print. Hopefully Emery won't get nightmares or have an aversion to cats after being gifted with this "beauty."

Anyway, I'm more pleased with this crazy quilt than I thought I'd be. That just goes to show if you don't like something you've created, put it aside for a few days and when you come back to it, maybe it will have grown on you!

New quilt pattern...

It feels good to show a quilt made from a different pattern. People have asked me what patterns I use. I just make them up. They are all very simple designs, and I've sewn enough over the years to use math and design to come up with different patterns. This particular quilt is for a teenager, so it's larger than the ones I've been making lately...

The finished measurements for this quilt is about 50" x 60". It's plenty big for a lap quilt for an adult.

This quilt is a true scrap quilt. I love looking at it because I remember where and when I used each of those fabrics. The teenager who is getting this quilt loves the color blue, so I think I hit the nail on the head with the colors for this one.

I tried a different design for the longarm quilting on this one. The quilter recommended it, and I really like how it turned out...

The design is more geometric (rather than swirly), and it feels a little retro. She also used a grayish-blue thread, which helps the design stand out on the white fabric and not fight with the blue fabrics. I kind of love it...

This week I'm picking up five quilts from the longarm quilter that have been quilted
and dropping four more off.