Kaffe Fassett Quilt Done

At last I finally finished my Kaffe Fasset Quilt.  I had wanted to bind it with the purple fabric that I used in the background, but I ran out of that fabric and so did my local quilt shop.  I settled on a black border.  I think it works ok.  As a fairly new quilter, I am always looking for ways to make my quilting easier.  I love the way to make a continuous lenght of quilt binding by marking lines, sewing edges together to make a sleve, and cutting one long strip.  Missouri Star has a great video demo.  I highly recommend you check it out.  Speaking of binding, I recently discovered and found that I prefer binding with single fold bias fabric - for this quilt I cut the strips 2 1/4".  It seems that the single fold bias binding is more fool-proof (at least for me) than the double fold method.  With this quilt I felt I bound it quite skillfully.  When I sew on binding I get frustrated keeping the binding under control as I sew.  I decide to try a new method to manage the binding.  I rolled it around my hand and lift and set down the leg of my extension table in the center of the roll.  I took a picture to demonstrate.  It worked VERY well.   The binding did not get tangled or twisted and was right there as I sewed.  Yea!  

Worth mentioning, in reading past posts, I finished the quilt top about a month ago.  Oh well.  

The binding...

The quilt front:

The quilt back:

Doctor Who Quilt

My amazing daughter made this amazing quilt.  She is a student at NYU and some kids decided to make gifts for each other - kind of like "secret santa" for freshmen.  The exchange takes place during welcome week - the week before school starts.    They are given the recipients name and information on likes, dislikes, ...  They can spend no more than $20. Happily, Madison's recipient is a Doctor Who fan.  Madison likes The Doctor, too.  She decided to make a Tardis quilt.  She mapped it out, figured out yardage, and made the whole quilt herself - I was allowed to iron.  It turned out beautifully.  I cannot wait to hear what her new friend thinks of it.  I think we are going to sell the pattern on Etsy.  I may even make Madison one.  

Cowboy Boot Block

I have admired the many cowboy boot quilts on the web.  As a Texas, I think one would make a lovely gift for someone expecting a baby boy.  Unfortunately, upon closer inspection, I was not pleased with the shape of the boots.  Either the heel was too high, the toe too pointy, or too square.  Since I wanted the perfect boot, i decided to craft my own.  I found a coloring page with the outline of a boot that I liked.  Then I squared off parts of the boot to make manageable blocks.  Next, I cut out the pattern, and got to work on the pieces.  I now know why people charge so much for patterns.  It is not easy.  Below is a picture of the finished block.  I think I still need to tweak the pattern, but I am pretty pleased with the end result.  Who knows, maybe I will start selling patterns!

Gift Quilt for Special Dean

My daughter's school has "deans" who guide students through their high school experience toward the goal of college.  Our dean, Mrs. Doran was, in my opinion, the best dean in the school.  She guided my daughter to take certain courses to make her marketable to the universities and programs that she wanted to attend.  In the end, my daughter got into her first choice university and a few others to boot.  Mrs. Doran decided to go out on her own and leave the school at the end of this school year. I was (my whole family was) so grateful for her guidance and so glad she was there throughout our daughters high school years that I wanted to create a lasting memory for her.  I got one of my "brilliant ideas" to make her a quilt.  I asked all seniors to come up with one word to comes to mind when they think of Mrs. Doran.  My plan was to have those words quilted into the quilt.  Of course, true to my nature, this brilliant idea came to me just weeks before graduation.  I quickly decided on the fabric - I used bright colors and white in alternating strips - the words to be quilted in the white strips in a coordinating thread color.  I fervently sewed the strip quilt, and added the border.   The hardest part was getting the students to come up with the words.  The school does not provide email lists of students to parents, and I was not about to type in each students email address from the directory, so I came to a senior breakfast, notebook in hand and gathered words.  There were plenty of words repeated by numerous students, but in the end, I had enough words to create a quilt.  I hired a professional quilter, Jane Plisga, thinking she would use a quilting machine and rapidly write out the words.  She instead, used her sewing machine to quilt the words.  Absolutely amazing!  She even backed and bound the quilt for me.  The final result Is below.  Mrs. Doran cried when it was presented.