Project S-02 Girlie Onesies and Project Q-96 Studio Stitch Block of the Month

"Onesie" Dress for new baby

Wednesday morning waiting at Wake Forest Baptist Medical University Center for my husband to finish a CT scan.  I hope the news is good.  There hasn’t been a lot of time for serious quilting this last week because I’ve been working on several small projects.  

Denim Re-Do

I love wearing comfortable denim dresses because they last forever, but the length “dates” them.  In previous decades we wore them a bit longer.  So I spent a little time cutting six inches off the bottom of several of them and hemming them up.  (Not too short now....I am fifty years old.  Don’t want to try to look like my students!!!)

Onesie Dress

I was also excited to take a “onesie” class at Studio Stitch in Greensboro, NC this last Saturday.    Our instructor, Gail, showed us how to  deconstruct part of the onesie and add a ruffle to it to turn it into a onesie dress.  Since I have two very good friends and a niece expecting little girls within the next couple of months, this was a good time to take up this project.  I wish I had purchased a slightly better quality onesie to take to class to work on because it turned out better than I thought it would.  I gave it as a gift to my niece the day after I finished it.  She’s only four months pregnant, but I wanted to give her her first baby gift.  I also gave her two of the burp clothes I talked about last week.  

Since this niece has an older sister who has a six month old boy, there are going to be lots of “boy onesies” that we can turn into “girl onesies” by adding a  pretty ruffle.  It actually takes less than thirty minutes to turn a onesie into a “dressie”

July BOM from Studio Stitch, Greensboro, N

 Studio Stitch Block of the Month- July 

I attended the block of the month class at Studio Stitch in Greensboro last night and picked up my July block. Justiann at Studio Stitch is in charge of this and is doing a great job introducing us to simple patterns.  This pattern has a lot of potential.  I can see myself using it for the “cross motif” that is expressed if I choose my colors to emphasize the cross. (As a matter of fact, I have a quilt in my head with this right now using Freedom Fabric manufactured in the U.K.  I was wondering how I was going to use that fabric!!!!  It has Celtic crosses that can be fussy cut for the middle of this block.  )   I can also see this block used as a friendship signature block.  It could also work to feature specific fussy cut motifs in the middle of the block for a baby quilt.   

Oh, no, here’s another idea for this block!  One of my closest friends is a Mexican and her baby will be born an American.  One set of the three color blocks in the main block could be the three colors of the Mexican flag.  One set could be the three colors of the American flag.  I could alternate the main section of the block with a mini Mexican rose pattern.  Hum..... I need to think on that one.  

I’m using a quilt-as-you go method for these blocks.  Doing it this way means I’m not left with 12 blocks that I have to incorporate into a quilt at the beginning of the year when I’m ready to start on another BOM project!  I do so hate to have tons of blocks stacked up waiting to be joined into quilt tops.  (For some reason I don’t mind have twenty quilt tops waiting to be quilted.  I just don’t like having stacks of blocks.  Go figure what the difference is there.  I’m sure it gives some deep psychological insight into my personality.)

I’m doing both color ways for the BOM  and I finished one last night and then finished the cutting for the other one last night as well.  I started the piecing on the second one this morning before heading out to the hospital.  This “cancer journey” with my husband means that my quilting has to be done in fits and starts.  But it’s all good.  It does get done and if it’s not as precise as I would like I remind myself that  I do it for the love of it, not for any desire for perfection.  

Project 01-S - Baby Burp Cloths

Burp Cloths in progress.
(Blue one on the right is finished.,
and properly folded!

Wednesday evening after a day of computer work at school, I had just finished straightening in the sewing room and it was late.  But I needed to satisfy my sewing addiction and I didn’t want to stay up too late.  I needed something that would allow me to see some immediate progress.  Baby burp cloths to the rescue.

I had already done the preliminary work, so it was just going to be a quick sewing job.    

Yet let’s talk a minute about choosing a pattern for a baby burp cloth.  Should be very simple, right?  I had researched patterns for the cloths.  Did you know there is one website where a sewist has gathered 38 different burp cloth patterns?  My stars, how many ways can you sew fabric onto a cloth nappy so that a baby can spit on it?

After going through all 38 of the website links this sewist collected, I had already picked out my pattern and was planning to use my embroidery machine to put cute phrases on the cloths before sewing them together.    I had previously asked my friend how many she wanted.  She said a few.  I asked her to be more specific and she said five.  So I thought I would make five very cute embrodiered clothes.  No problem, right?

A couple of days earlier, I had gone to FIVE different stores before I found cloth nappies.  I had boiled them to make sure they were really pre-shrunk and that any residual chemicals used in their manufacture were gone.  I dried them.  I ironed them. (I REALLY ironed them.  Do you know how easy it is to stretch cloth nappies off grain if you are not careful?)  I cut the flannel and I pinned it in place.  I then set them aside for sewing on another day.

The next day I spent a couple of hours with my five month old great nephew.  It was an epiphany moment.  My friend did not mean five burp cloths.  She meant five HUNDRED.  You can only use those things one time before you have to get another one.  How much can a baby spit up?  And on top of that, why was I going to do beautiful embroidery for a baby to SPIT STINKY STUFF ON?  This was a nasty experience (Although my great nephew is perfect, his spit up leaves a lot to be desired!)

So this evening after straightening my sewing room, I went into production model.  My friend is getting a bunch of simple, simple burp cloths and they don’t have embroidery on them. (And my sister-in-law in Argentina is getting some to give her friends too!)  It may not be such a beautiful gift without embroidery, ribbons and bows, but at least it will keep that clabbered sticky stinky stuff off of her neck!  And that's what friends are for, isn't it? -- to protect other friends from clabbered sticky stinky stuff! (PS - The finished blue one in the picture is not my friends. It was for practice. She's having a girl!)

Project 98 - Chocolate Table Mats

Another new project!!!!    However, this one doesn’t count either since I merely helped my mother with it and didn’t do it all myself.  (Did you know that if someone else buys the fabric, the project doesn’t count as a real UFO - unfinished project?  It’s an SEP - someone else’s project!).  

My niece saw some table mats that mom and I had made for her mother and decided she wanted a set.  We asked her what color and she said it “didn’t matter.”  Obviously she is an alien inhabiting the body of my niece.  No one related to me EVER says that color “doesn’t matter.”  

My mom has always done very traditional quilting but we wanted this project to go quickly so we could get back to real UFO’s.  So  I taught her to do this using a quilt-as-you-go method.  I cut the strips and the backing and placed the center strip on the wadding and backing for her.  She added the strips and I finished it all with a French fold binding.  (It’s so much fun working on projects with my mom.  I feel like that by helping her  I’m paying her back for all the fingerpaint, glitter, glue, threads, etc that she let me trail through the house when I was little.)

Now if you look closely (don’t!), you will see that somehow mom didn’t keep the additional strips precisely “squared.”  However, we decided that since they were table mats and were probably going to be covered by round plates, who was going to notice?  In addition, my niece has a 3 year old and a 6 month old so they were going to be covered with food before it was over anyway!!

If you hang out very much around this blog, you will find that I don’t do work “for show.”  I come from a rural farming family and both of my parents were used to making every scrap count for something useful.  So, crooked stripes on a table mat are perfectly fine if the table mats are useful.

Now, I do promise I am going to work on some projects  already in process next.  The weather has cooled down, so I’m mounting  a ladybug quilt  (project 91) on the frame in the cabin and getting started on  quilting it this weekend.  

New Project - Crazy Pinks

Project 97


Okay, I admit it.  I had to start a new project, even though I have many in various stages of completion.  But it’s not as bad as it sounds.  I’m using only scraps of previously purchased fabric.  I’m not buying a single piece of new fabric for this project.  I’m calling it “Crazy Pinks” because it’s a crazy quilt design using up my pink scraps.  

I saw a Crazy Quilt top that a friend posted on Facebook in red, white, and blues.  I have wanted to do a Crazy Quilt for a long time and this friend’s project was the encouragement I needed.  I had a tiny box of scraps left over from a pink and cranberry BOM twin quilt I completed last year for my mom (Project 37).  The scraps were so beautiful that I couldn’t dispose of them even though they were tiny.  This looked like the perfect project for these scraps.

I did a quick Internet search on foundation block patterns for Crazy Quilts.  After doing a bit of reading and reconsidering, I decided to skip the foundation block patterns and just wing it.  


I don’t think early crazy quilters used patterns.  Many of them used the Sears Roebuck Catalog as the foundation paper for their blocks.  I used embroidery stabilizer to support the blocks (instead of catalog pages) and just started by placing a small “pretty” piece of fabric in the middle of a 9 ½ inch square of stabilizer.  Then I just picked through my scraps and continued to grow the block by adding scraps around the outer edges of the center pieces.  It took about four hours on Sunday evening to complete six blocks but I was pleased with the results.  

I returned home from work today (Monday) and decided to continue the project.  I did two more blocks and then connected them with a deep beige sashing that I had in my scrap collection.  I tried the piece out on the bottom of my mom’s twin bed and it looks great as a bed runner to keep your feet warm on a cool evening.

I’m going to go through my fabric stash tomorrow evening to look for a burgundy or wine piece to make a two inch border and then back and bind it with the same deep cream I used for the sashings.  

And wonder of wonders, I actually threw the teeny tiny scraps left from this project into the rubbish bin!  I NEVER put fabric in a rubbish bin.  It was a truly freeing experience (but they were very, very, very tiny pieces!) However, guess where mom and I are going tomorrow!! - To the FABRIC STORE! I figure I've emptied a couple of yards out of my stash, so I deserve to refill it. We do that with our gasoline tanks don't we?

Project 2 & Only ONE month left

I have only one month left before “officially” returning to school work.  (We all know that I do school work all summer!  It irritates the custodians that I’m in and out of my rooms all summer.  I think it’s because they want free rein of the kitchen labs while school is out!  I kind of rain on their parade by working in my labs).  Yet here at home for the summer,  I’m busy trying to get a lot of my quilting done, along with yard work, and professional education.  I’m taking an online class that is dealing with blogging, so this blog will continue to change and evolve as I incorporate the things I’m learning.  I’m also enjoying getting to spend time with mom and being able to get to daily Mass.  

But back to the purpose of this blog!!!  I finished binding project 2 - Green Log Cabins and I’ve made two pillow slips to go along with it.  Now I just need to embroider a label for the project before giving it to my brother.  I think this project has turned out so well, but I am definitely glad it is complete.  I do solemnly promise that I am NEVER going to tackle a quilt this large again (until next time, of course!)  Last night I was applying over 350 inches of hand binding.  It took about five hours to get that last little component done.  My goal is to finish the embroidered label this afternoon and present the quilt to my brother and his wife tonight.  Wish me luck.

As for this professional education class that covers blogging, the instructor is recommending that we complete our writing in a word processor to allow for easier editing.  Then we can copy into the blog after we’ve proofed our work.  So, you should be seeing fewer errors in my postings.  We will see how that works out.