Baby Dolls and Quilts

Know what you can do when you don't have to go to work?  Anything.  Anything at all. Anything you want to do.  Anything, even if it's useless.  That's what I did today.  Anything useless.  I made a couple of baby doll quilts.  For the little granddaughters, of course, but it's not as if they asked for the quilts, and the baby dolls surely didn't ask.  But what the heck....I had an idea.  And, since I don't have to work, I chose to play.

Baby dolls need quilts, too, don't they?  Can't have those babies getting cold.  Especially since they got strollers and beds and bouncy seats for Christmas.  It only makes sense that I make a couple of quilts to add to the hoard.  

Ta da!  Three little quilts: a red, a purple and a pink.  I decided to up the ante and set some rules.  First, I wanted to use leftover scraps and strips.  No cutting into the real stash and absolutely no purchasing.  That could not happen.  I did use some white from the stash but I tried to use up scraps and pieces when possible.  

It worked well, but it didn't make much of a dent in the scraps stash.  In fact, I don't know that it shows at all, but I had fun with the charge, anyway.  The little quilts were easy enough to make and once I made the first one, I decided to make the two other tops and quilt them together.  
That really moved things along and, obviously, I finished them up in no time.  Now they are just waiting for a visit from some little mommies.  That should happen this weekend.  I'm pretty excited to share these little quilties.  

What are you working on during the break?  Big or little projects?  Fun or difficult projects?  Anything unusual?

Tea Party Anyone?

Oh, I should begin by saying this is a real tea party, with cups and plates and goodies and dolls and a sweet little doll quilt.  All manner of political hits or misses aside, please.  This blog is about anything but politics.  Back to the tea party and the sweet little quilt.

I discovered a quilt on Pinterest a few weeks back and loved the look.  In no time I'd figured out that the block is really quite easy, so I drew out a quick pattern and figured out the square sizes.  In no time I had a block completed.  But I made a discovery: while the quilt is pretty, I don't want to make one.  So there sat one little block--too big for AAQI and too small for much of anything except a baby doll.

This afternoon I had a moment to myself with no papers to grade...finally!  So I wandered around the studio looking for something to do and spied the block.  Well, why not?  Make the doll quilt and toss it into the toy basket already.

Don't you know that I had fun....then I had more fun taking pictures.  I carried out a favorite baby doll and a few tea party items since the outdoors makes for the best photo shoots and tea parties.  Dolly and I set everything up, had tea, snapped a few pics and chatted for a while.  Turns out Dolly loves the quilt so much she agreed to a nap.

 

I watched a video of Angela Walters' Quiltcon talk on her process for quilting and decided to apply some of the ideas I got to this little quilt.  Walters suggests extending the lines of a block out into the quilt--simply draw the lines out and see what happens.  I decided to test it by drawing the line from the little point that sticks out of the flower.  In the picture below that line is on the left side of the picture and separates the pebbles and the swirls. 

 

 

Another of Walters' suggestions is to treat each of the resulting areas with a different quilting motif. 

 

 Finally Walters' showed how she uses quilting to add movement to a quilt.  While she showed quilts with swirls and lots of long lines, I didn't have the space for either, so I quilted lines with different distances between them to add variety and dimension. 

 



 

By changing thread colors, I was able to quickly add in small loops on each petal.  Because I added an extra layer of batting right behind the purple flower and quilted outside of the flower with tight motifs, the flower details add the look of trapunto to the quilt.

 



 



I know it seems like lots of work for a toy quilt, but it really did not take very long and I learned a few techniques along the way and had loads of fun!  Don't you think the little granddaughters are going to love this doll quilt?  They will be allowed to play, drag, and what ever else they can think to do with it. 

 

Have you made a doll quilt before?  What do you do with orphan blocks? 

Etsy Shop Profile: Averylee Designs

I'm beginning to feel human again.  It's amazing how much a good night of rest will do for the body.  Since I am up to an interview today, say "hello" to Sheryl and Peggy, two grandmothers from Oregon who just happen to create some of the prettiest needlecrafts for their Etsy shop Averylee Designs.  They happen to be great friends who met in one of my favorite places....a quilt class!


1. Explain your business partnership.  Our business partnership was birthed from a long term friendship. One that is seasoned with the joy's and challenges that life delivers. All it took for us to begin crafting together was taking a beginning quilt class. Since taking that class we have delighted in each other’s developing artistic skills and started Averylee Designs a year ago with the desire to help others grow in creativity and teach the skills we had to share. Recently we opened an Etsy shop to sell our creations.

2. Where/when did you learn to make such beautiful cross-stitch and needlework? Peggy was introduced to needlework while thumbing through a magazine about twenty five years ago and was inspired to learn the craft. Through trial and error it began to blossom in design and intricacy. Sheryl was first introduced to needlework as a young school girl. In the fifth grade her teacher had each student create an embroidered piece on burlap. She remembers very vividly the owl in the tree she stitched. The other wonderful gift of needlework is that it allows us to relax and have a peaceful moment.

3. What are some of your favorite designs to make?  Peggy chooses design by color. She is always drawn by the seasons and her favorite season is autumn. Sheryl really enjoys the French Country designs with the "hidden treasures", such as suddenly you see a squirrel in the center of the design. 

4. How would you describe your creative process?  The creative process is like an adventure, a discovery process. You cannot be overtly perfectionist when you are being creative. Auditioning each medium or project and then committing to starting and finishing fulfils the intrinsic desire in each of us to be creative.

5. Who has influenced your art the most? In what way(s) did this person influence you?   Both of us believe that creation itself speaks volumes and cries out to be duplicated in likeness. Sheryl also gives credit to her mom who allowed and encouraged her creativity as a child.

6. What does "handmade" mean to you?   Handmade is equal to a personal touch. When we hand stitch a piece we not only spend a lengthy amount of time creating, but we also find ourselves emotionally investing in the piece, curiously wondering who will be the recipient of this lovingly created artwork. 

Is there anything else you'd like others to know about yourself or your shop?   Our greatest treasure are our grandchildren of which our business name is created from. Avery is one of six grandsons that Sheryl has been blessed with and Rylee is Peggy’s granddaughter. If you put the two names together it forms the name AveRYlee.


To visit Sheryl and Peggy, go to their shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/AveryleeDesigns.

A First!

My first doll quilt.  Having raised boys (not the girls I wanted), I had little need for doll quilts.  When I began making quilts eons ago, those quilts were utilitarian....they did not need to be pretty or decorative, or anything but warm.  After all, I was making quilts meant to keep those boys warm during our cold, damp winters.

After the boys grew up and there were enough quilts to go around, the little sewing I did was mostly for myself.  I'd become a working mom and needed professional clothes.  I made a few quilts but the bug had not really hit.  Then one day I woke up with a beautiful quilt in my head.



I chatted with my mom about the quilt in my mind and with her encouragement, made a pretty quilt for my sister's Christmas gift.  That quilt was a fussy cut Dresden Plate which I called Sid's Dresden.  It was supposed to match the tableware she had purchased while stationed in Europe.  Turns out the colors I remembered seeing a year earlier were a bit off.  But the quilt was beautiful nonetheless.

Since then, I've made so many quilts I've lost count.  Most of those quilts have been big, queen sized quilts still meant to be put on a bed, but some were made for aesthetic reasons, others have been baby quilts.

But now I've made a different quilt altogether--I've made a doll quilt that is just meant to be pretty.

There isn't a doll to snuggle under it, but I have a feeling that with six grand-daughters, I should be able to find one baby doll.
Of course, there's a reason for the doll quilt.  I'm presenting fussy cut Dresden plates at our next guild meeting.  I do have one or two quilts that will serve to show how fussy cutting the wedges can make an interesting pattern in the plate.


Still, I want to show other ways to use the wedges.  I also want to show that although fussy cutting fabric can waste quite a bit of fabric, it's possible to use the waste to make something else.  To make this little quilt, I pinned the castoffs before cutting out the wedges to keep the stack together.  After cutting enough wedges for a large quilt, I cut small wedges from the waste fabric and made this quilt.  I've got additional wedges to use as flower petal appliques on a little dress for one of the granddaughters.  I'm hopeful that I'll be able to work on that dress tomorrow.

On a different note, I received my Connecting Threads order today.  I received their catalog last week and found that they were having a great sale on some of the solids that I like.  I wanted the stacks and jelly rolls, but they were completely sold out!  So, I settled for 1/2 yard cuts instead.  Poor me!   Don't you feel sorry for me that I HAD to purchase such large pieces to be able to take advantage of the sale?

Here are some photos of the fabrics I purchased.  I want them for applique purposes.  I really prefer solids for applique most of the time.

 Check these out!  I could not resist even though I was interested in solids.  The top one (I think) is called "Bayou."  Now you know a Louisiana girl can't resist that!

Yummy purples, oranges, and yellows.  One is called sunshine.....it's stunning.


















Blues for flowers and birds.  I have got to start using birds.  I see them in other quilts and they are always so cheerful.  That's a goal for this summer.  Remind me later if you haven't seen a bird in one of my quilts.





 These greens are for leaves and vines.  The greens are really much more saturated than they appear here, but I can't fix everything in my pictures.  I'm a horrible photographer, but you've seen my photos before, so it's not a surprise, I'm sure.

Of course, some of these are in two photos so that you can really see the contrasts.  There are 36 pieces in all, each one a half yard.  I really don't plan to use them for piecing, so half yard cuts are perfect.

What do you think?  Added to the stash, they will blend beautifully, but I'm seriously considering separating the solids and prints.  It's driving me crazy that it takes me so long to find the perfect piece of fabric.  I'm thinking that if the solids are separated but close by, I can save time by looking at a smaller stack when I want a solid for applique.

I'm sure that a new system will also make me nutty, especially having to reorganize everything.  But I'm about to have to move everything anyway, so maybe I'll take advantage of  the work and find a better system for my stash.  What do you do to make finding the right fabric less work?  I've read that other quilters sort by color and value, but I'm not that ambitious.  And though I don't want to spend an hour searching for one fabric, I do want an opportunity to stroke and touch and play with my pretties!

Okay, you know what's next: your turn.  What's your system?  Does it work?  What is the best thing about your system?  Share time!  Get to typing.