Stormy's Anchor ~~ Finish!

Shower Invitation

A coworker is expecting a baby girl in late November. They plan to name her Stormy Rae and her nursery is donned in nautical colors with lots of whales and anchors. Mom is a big fan of anchors.


The baby shower is in a week, so my plans to make a pink quilt with a big navy anchor were demanding my attention. Luckily I had put together a pink tumbler quilt over the summer that still had not been quilted, so it was an easy matter of appliqueing the anchor on and finishing up the quilt. 

Bedding

Wait, who has a huge anchor applique just sitting around? Well, not me, so I actually started by drawing half of an anchor on the newsprint that I keep especially for these kinds of projects. I decided on the size (based on the size of the quilt), folded the paper in half and drew the right half of the anchor starting from the fold and working out. 



Then it was a matter of cutting out the paper pattern so that when I opened it up, voila! a full pattern perfectly matched. I didn't have a big enough piece of navy (that I liked for the anchor) so I chose to cut it in pieces and matching them up as I pressed it to the quilt. Easy method and I was ready for the sewing in no time at all.

My idea was to introduce a bit pink into the room but still coordinate with the nursery. I'm quite pleased with the little quilt. Check out how well it coordinates with the invitation that another friend created – hot pink, polka dots, lime green – are all in both pieces. That's just sheer luck because we were working at the same time and, surprisingly, didn't get to talk about the shower plans. Sometimes great minds do think alike!

To quilt it I used pebbles in the solid pink tumblers and straight line quilting in the prints. Of course I echoed once around the anchor to help it stand out but it's a bit stiff, so I'm hoping that when the quilt gets washed the anchor will soften some.

Finally, I used up some of the last of my pink calicoes for a pieces backing. I'm hoping that these calicoes, which are very soft after washing, will be smooth and comfy for the baby's sensitive skin.

	Quilt Stats
Name:	Stormy’s Anchor
Size:	50” x 50”
Fabrics:	Scrap fabrics – variety of pink prints and Kona light pink solid for top, pink calico for backing
Binding:	Kona light pink
Pattern:	tumbler
Quilting:	Free Motion Quilting – pebbles, straight lines
Completed:	Sept 2016

 Linking up with

Crazy Mom Quilts

My Quilt Infatuation

TGIFF is at Celtic Thistle Stitches 
Em's Scrap Bag 
Fort Worth Fabric Studio 
A Quilting Reader's Garden

Wow, I somehow managed to make it to quite a few linky parties...and I'm having a blast!

Pin It Weekly #172

Now's the time to visit the Bloggers' Quilt Festival if you haven't done so already! Goodness, the quilts are fabulous. It's an honor just being able to put a couple of my quilts in the festival. Of course, it's open to all bloggers, so there's that, but really to know that some of my "quilt heroes" also have quilts in the show is pretty awesome. 

Okay so enough gushing, already. There's some news on the quilting front: Amanda Jean Nyberg, who we all know and love as one of the authors of Sunday Morning Quilts, has a new book coming out in February. It's titled No Scrap Left Behind, which is a play on the No Child Left Behind legislation, so it's pretty funny for those of us who are teachers.  Anyway, I just thought I'd share the exciting news. You should visit Amanda Jean's blog, Crazy Mom Quilts, and see for yourself what it's all about. 




And now on to Pin It Weekly: I've been too busy with school (I think I say that every week...) but I did manage to get a little pinning in over the weekend. For one, I put a few more of my quilts up on my "TRUNK, SHOW" board. It occurred to me somehow that I hadn't added any of the more recent quilts. 


That done, I pinned all manner of random stuff: from upholstery, to chickens, to baby lambs--aren't they just too cute?

Fall is definitely here and it's beginning to show in the leaves, the pumpkins, the Halloween decor....they are all out in full force. 

Look at this little gray darling playing in the fall leaves. Our son rescued two kittens a few months ago and brought them to our house, "so all the grands can enjoy them." They are thriving and growing, and Richard and I have become attached. One looks very much like the kitten in this picture. 

The other is yellowish with odd coloring on her ears, feet and tail. The poor thing was so ugly when we first got her that I named her Gizmo (from the Gremlins movie), but worm meds, food, and love made all the difference. Now that she's grown into her ears, she's just the cutest of kittens.  

Everyone here in Louisiana is hoping, praying, for cooler weather. Here's hoping that your weather is cooling off or warming up, depending on what you need. And I suppose, that could mean some of you are seeing the beginning of  spring or are experiencing perfect weather! 

Don't forget to visit Amy's Creative Side and vote for your favorite quilts in several categories!

"Modern Crosses" Revisited

Over the summer Richard and I visited the Great Lakes region, traveling in our camper from one state or national park to the next. We planned to be gone three or four weeks, and I knew that would be much too long to go without sewing. 

So I decided to put together some quilt kits to sew when I'd have a bit of down time. We do have to rest, after all. One of the kits that I enjoyed was this modern bright cross quilt. 

By the time we returned home, the top was completed. That meant loading the quilt on the long-arm and having fun as soon as we returned. 

I quilted the negative space in lines, some echoing the shapes between the crosses, others just straight or diagonal. The crosses, though, got a special treatment: I quilted each color with a different motif. Pink has shells, green has pebbles, orange in scrolls, yellow in tiles, and so on. To keep track I had to write the motifs and colors down, but that was an easy fix. 

This one is perhaps one of my favorite quilts. I love the bright colors, the fun design and the quilting. Just for added interest, I extended the quilting colors on some of the crosses. The back is also very pretty since the thread colors create a muted design. 

Because I love this one so much, I decided to put it in the Bloggers Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side. You should run over to see the many (really very many) beautiful quilts and vote for your favorites. 
Happy Quilting!

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: D E N I M

Okay, okay, I know it's Monday. I spent too much time in the studio yesterday to get everything done. The good news--aside from being in the studio for quite some time--is that I got lots of papers graded, including the last of the essays! 

Quilts in denim . . . 

"That Big Chevron" and Bloggers' Quilt Festival

Early this month I finished the king size quilt that I had started for our youngest son and his wife. You can read about it here and here. They recently bought a house and, because they have the space, they replaced their bedroom suite. That meant the queen quilt that I gave them right after their wedding is not big enough.

Enter the biggest quilt I've made to date. I had just designed a new pattern which can be used to create a chevron design. Happily it's in vogue now and the kids must like it since they often wear clothing with a chevron pattern. I took my cues from that and pictures the couple sent of the colors they wanted to have in their bedroom. (Pictures of the paint chips are in the collage above.)

Rory sent pictures of the quilt after they had washed it. Thank goodness I recommended that they toss in some Color Catcher sheets. He told me later that they worked really well and apparently there was lots of bleeding from the burnt plum color.

It turns out that the original wall paint--a neutral light khaki--is perfect for the colors in the quilt, and they've decided not to repaint, at least for a while. 

I had promised myself that I would include one quilt in the Bloggers Quilt Festival this year. I almost missed it, but when I read about it on a couple of blogs last night, I decided that it's really time to keep some of my promises to myself. 

Since this is my absolutely largest quilt ever, it deserves a little recognition. There ya go! Problem solved, promises kept, person relieved. 

Soon I'll start the quilt I will make for the oldest son and his sweet wife. I've been delaying that in the hopes that some inspiration will strike and I'll be off and done in no time at all. It's another king, so expectations may be rather high.

Go by the Bloggers' Quilt Festival to see some amazing quilts. You can also vote for your favorite in each category. Have fun!