Another woman's quilt blocks

Last Thursday I was getting my hair cut by my long-time hairdresser Kim and I was telling her of my new found love of quilting.  She mentioned that years ago her mother was learning how to quilt when she was sick so she could make a quilt for each of her grandchildren.  She died before she finished the last one ...  for Kim's youngest son.  Recently Kim found all the finished blocks and fabric and had been wondering how she could find someone that could put them together and finish the quilt.

I am so honored to be able to sew these blocks together and complete the wishes of a woman who wanted to leave each of her grandchildren a memento of her love.  I've thought of her a lot as I've been pressing and trimming and sewing the blocks that she made with hopes of leaving a gift of comfort for her grandson. 

I'm going to add a border and hand quilt and then bind with navy blue.  I really hope I can do this quilt justice and make it as nice as she would have and that a young boy thinks of her as he snuggles with it. 

The Assistant is on the job

I'm all set to pin baste a sweet little patchwork but can't decide on my quilting lines.  Diagonals lines to make diamond shapes?  Straight lines to make squares on the squares?  I don't know just yet and can't pin until I commit to a design.   

Jada and I were discussing this and she said she was going to "sleep on it."   Alas .... no pinning for a while. 

Bento Box Baby Quilt

I'm currently working on a bento box quilt for a soon-to-arrive baby girl. I love the ease of making only twelve squares and getting to use such pretty pink fabric. I'm not a girly girl so I don't have much pink around my house, especially with all boys, but it's fun to see such feminine fabric touching each other every whichaway.

I varied the strip sizes just a bit because my original idea was to have a sort of fractured windowpane look. I like the idea of the soft, pretty fabrics being slightly mismatched and really defining the squares in the block. If I was keeping this quilt or giving it to one of my family members I'd sew it up in a minute.



Forgive the blurry phone picture

Now my self-doubt is kicking in ..... I'm making this quilt for my boss's daughter and I don't know her or the rest of their family at all. Will everyone else get it or will they be fingering it and shaking their heads sadly over the seams?  Now I'm thinking I might change my layout to something different. Making a gift for someone I don't know is hard for me and I'm sure I'm thinking about it too much. Anyone have trouble making gifts? Part of my problem is that I think my quilts have feelings and I don't want them to be ostracized and banished to a closet never to see the light of day.

This is my first time linking up with Lily's Sew Fresh day and I realize I'm a day behind but this isn't a school project with a due date so I'm sure she won't dock me any points. Will you Lily??



The Hexagon Process

Rossie recently posted a pledge for quilting bloggers to talk more about their process, delve into their thought process a little more as opposed to showing a finished quilt with one journal entry.  This works out great for me because I don't have many finished quilts to show off.  Especially this time of year when the weather is so nice and the sewing room is sooooo indoors. 

I didn't think I had a process but then I realized there are many times I have to stop working on my quilt to just think.  I have to think about what I've sewn so far and what I need to do next to get it to feel the way I want.  Sometimes I put it aside for a week or so but it's in my thoughts many times during the day.    I also like to incorporate embroidery on my quilt tops and that can be tailored to the individual who will receive the quilt.  There are always so many ways I could go but I usually feel right about it in the end.   

I'm now working on two quilts.  One is a hexagon quilt-a-long with my flickr quilt peeps and the other is a wonky star quilt that is my own creation.  Well .... I guess as much as it can be .... I mean I didn't invent the wonky star or anything, but I'm working on it with no pattern so I can say it's my own creation.  It is on the back burner at the moment just simmering, but almost ready for a breakthrough.  I'll keep you posted.

The hexagon thought process:  Since this is a quilt-a-long and I'm not sure how these are sewed together yet it's a little hard for me to plan ahead so I take it a little at a time.  I'm planning on giving this quilt to a someone in her mid-twenties, she is totally cool and hip, but still a classy girl.  I  picked out some fun, flirty fabric for the hexagons.  I got some ochre kona cotton solid and it's so beautiful, oh ... so beautiful.  It's my new favorite quilt color. 

I love the classic look of solids in a quilt, and I think she will too, but I still want something a little funky. So what I'd like end up with a quilt with some swathes of colorful, printed hexagons in various strips or partial strips.  And then some rows of hexagons with just solids to break them up.  Maybe some strips of solid in there too.   I would like to make the print hexagons kind of random so they are there ... but don't dominate the whole quilt.  I was trying to do some drawings,  but,  have you tried to draw hexagons??  It's HARD!  So, it's all kind of in my head at this point.  I'm also a little worried about my hexagons. Some are slightly curved.  I'm hoping they just end up OK after a lot of steam ironing. 

 

Quilt a longs can be fun, but they can be frustrating too when you really don't know the next step.  How WILL all these hexagons get sewn together??   

Here's a cautionary image for you.  This is what happens when your sewing area is a disorganized mess and you store your rulers on the floor.  Very sad .... very sad....

I promise I will read the book to my camera very soon and figure out why all my pictures are so dim and yellow.  Promise!