vintage baby book quilt

Here's a blast from the past! This is the vintage baby book quilt I made for Frances before she was born. I don't know if I put much stock in that old story that you wait to go into labor until you finish the last thing for the baby, but Frances was born less than 24 hours after I finished binding this quilt!

The blocks are from a fabric baby book that my grandmother Granny Lou gave my mom when she was born. If you look closely you can see her name Rebecca Mary written above the title. She gave me the idea for the quilt for my baby Frances Rebecca.

I love the primary colors and old school illustrations. I don't think you can see in the pictures but I hand quilted around the animals and children.

The whole thing is hand quilted on the diagonal. It hung in Frances's room when she was little. I was thrilled when we repainted her room a few years ago and she asked to have it up again!

9-patch mini-quilt

Last time I showed off my inheritance of blue boxes full of 2x2 inch squares. Here's the quick, cool project I made with some of them.

I chose my favorite blues to make something that could become a Hanukkah decoration and I used the quick piecing method of fusing the squares to interfacing...

and then stitching the long perpendicular seams. (Just Google it--somebody else has already explained it better than I could.) These 9-patch squares go together lickety-split. No kidding, I pieced all 23 of them for this quilt in just a couple of hours.

Details of the blocks and the binding--it looks black but it's really a very deep blue.

A pretty Kona gray on the back (Can I still be allowed to be a real quilter/blogger if I don't remember which one?) and one extra 9-patch. I quilted a simple straight-line pattern with my walking foot. Fun to make, and it was done before I grew to hate the sight of it! Maybe I will use more of those eensy-weensy little squares!

blue boxes

Another treasure from Nana's fabric stash. But not just matching blue boxes (incidentally, there are three more out in the garage).

 Matching blue boxes chock-full of color-sorted already-cut 2x2 inch squares.

Boxes and boxes of them. I can't begin to imagine how much time went into measuring and cutting these squares. 

Check this: the red and white 2x2 inch square is pieced. Those Depression-era quilters really learned to use every last bit. Makes me feel like a real spendthrift.

Nana really liked patterns with these teensy little pieces. Me not so much. But I did learn the nifty trick of quick piecing with fusible interfacing. Magic. I have a cool project to show off later!

zipper bag trio

Aren't these fabrics great? I had a great time planning this set of bags for Gregg's Christmas present. I went straight to M&L for this graphic leaf print I had seen when I bought the christmas pillowcase fabric. I couldn't remember exactly what it looked like but I remembered that I loved it and I remembered exactly where it was in the store. Well they rearranged that section! But after some searching, I found it (along with another collection to be made into more bags, but that's another project, another post).

I'm so pleased with the way they turned out. It's such a great pattern from Noodlehead and I love the way the fabrics came together.

I was determined to have that stripe on the lining fabric go up-and-down even though it was printed side-to-side. Yeah, that would have been fine if I had bought more than a plain-old-non-fat-quarter of it. As it turned out, you can hardly even see the 7-piece Franken-lining on the smallest bag. Though when I talk to Gregg on Christmas morning, I'll probably point it out to her. She will understand what I went through.

And I'm still so infatuated with the look of those labels! They spiff everything up!

a smaller version of my stuff

Ironing Board Workshop: a tiny little subsidiary of Kitchen Table Workshop.

christmas pillowcases

I had a "Pinspiration" to make Christmas pillowcases for some of our kid friends and relatives this year. I used these directions and a pile of super cute Christmas fabrics I found at M & L.

I made four combinations:

Two for the girls

And two for the boys. (Personally I am for non-gender specific color choices, but I wasn't sure some of my uber-masculine nephews would really appreciate the pink.)

I tucked in a gift card (for the older kids) or a book (for the toddlers) and sent them off. It was a quick and fun project and a great excuse to use some adorable holiday fabric.

they're here!

My labels are here!

I ordered them from World Wide Label through Etsy and I just love them!

They look so professional in my finished work. I was excited they arrived in time to be sewn into some Christmas presents before I shipped them.

Now I feel very official.