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!

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: Easy Quilts

Ever just want to work on an easy project?  Something that your hands can do while your brain is fiddling with something else?  I've found that straight line sewing with scrap pieces is the best for easy quilting.  

from Cotton Quilters Guild Show 2013

Using the paper bag method, which is just tossing all the pieces into a bag and pulling them out as they come, allows the brain to work on a different problem than which color or piece is next. 

from Cotton Quilters' Guild Show 2013

Plus, there's the added benefit of strip piecing.  Square pieces of any size works, as do thimble/tumbler blocks and strips.  Just sew as it comes and don't over-think the process. 

These are also called one-block quilts and generally don't take very long to make, especially if they are lap or baby quilts, but even the larger ones are pretty fast about coming together.  

And the best part is that there are so many easy shapes and blocks that you can make several before you get tired of them.  Stick to a color scheme, or don't.  That's part of the fun of easy quilts.

All photos from Pinterest unless otherwise noted.

Another bit of the fun is that you can churn them out while your brain is multi-tasking.  

Liebster Award and Picket Fence milestone

This award is given to new bloggers with fewer than 200 followers.  Translated from German, it means one of your favorite blogs.


And yes, I won!  Imagine that!  This award is a way of getting smaller blogs noticed and recognized.  Once a blogger wins, all he/she must do is say thank you in such nice ways as linking back to the person who awarded the prize--in this case, Stacey of  TwirllyGirls blog, which I just found not so long ago. You really have to visit, it's such a pretty, fun place!  After I left a comment on her blog, she decided to come on over to Fleur de Lis Quilts and check us out.  Next thing I know, there's an award in the transaction.  

Now I get to nominate a few blogs, but I'm going to take a day or two to make my decision.  I have a few in mind, but I visited so many that I really like during the blog hop party, that I'll just have to revisit to finalize my decision.  And you, my dear reader, get to meet other bloggers!  That's a nice little side bonus, isn't it?  

I've been a little busy.  The week is going to fly by, so I'm trying to make the most of it before returning to school.  Today, I picked up tax papers, went to a guild meeting, arranged flowers for church, helped Rich put in a new dishwasher and then helped him take it back out (new, but broken), cleaned and swept the studio, and (breathe) stitched on the label for the quilt I finished last week.


These are the flowers.  we're donating them in memory of mom and dad.  Father Ibe and I talked and decided on neutral colors, so I used white with some soft greens and yellows.  They are silk and the two bouquets above are matching in size to put on the tabernacle table (one on each side).  The larger one is meant to be put on the floor in front of the altar.  It doesn't appear so tall in the photo, but it is about 2 1/2 feet from top to bottom.  I don't want it to reach above the table but I do want it to be dramatic. 

How does your garden grow?
#3 Nursery Rhymes series

How about this little tumbler quilt?  It's finished!  Yay!  This is the one I wrote about one day last week here.  


I really had fun with the quilting.  I decided to take advantage of those daisies.  They aren't all whole flowers, though, so I made them into whole flowers with the quilting and added a few in places where there were no flowers at all, connecting them with a big stippling.


Yes, definitely fun!  Check out the quilting in this photo.




 So that done, it's time to get to another quilt, or two.  Right now there are two on the design wall.  Both tops are finished and waiting on the long arm.  In fact, I'd have loaded the first one, had it not been for that darn dishwasher.  What could have been an hour, quickly became two.  Aggravation and frustration to boot!  So tomorrow I'll load this little sweet one!


It's a modern quilt I'll name "Round pegs and square holes."  


I think I'll quilt it with circles and squares interconnected, but we'll see.  Who knows?


Then it'll be the other one's turn.  I have no idea what this is, honestly.  The dark blue is really purple.  The huge flowers are supposed to be daisies.  I wanted to give it some personality, but I'm not real sure what, exactly, is going on.  I think I need some help.  I'm taking suggestions.


Please leave a comment with any ideas you might have.  Do I add more flowers?  Leave it as the mess it is?   Then there's the quilting....
oh, well, win some, lose some.  I can always donate it, right?


Oh yes, the second part of the title!  Fleur de Lis Quilts blog has passed 200 votes on Picket Fence!  That's all the way to page 17 of 154!  Go you voters!  Thanks!


Happy Quilting, 
Mary

On my design wall

is about half of a twin size quilt for my sister's grandson.  I had worked on an idea for a while last spring, but now that I'm back on her projects, I really don't want to work on that quilt.  It will make a great baby quilt but I'm not so sure about turning it into a twin.

I found a little extra time to play this afternoon and decided to cut lots of green tumblers for Angie's quilt.  I want the quilt to have a bit of a relaxed, scrappy look to it but not be too scrappy.  Deciding on the green theme was easy...Angie's daughter, Stacy, has two boys and the older one likes green.  Since the younger one is too young to choose, we're going with green for both boys.  This way their quilts will match some but not be exactly the same.  


I managed to stitch up the tumblers into rows.  It takes 14 blocks per row and 16 rows to complete the quilt.  That's 224 blocks total. Luckily the tumbler die I have is fairly large--4 1/2 inches wide and 6 1/2 inches tall.  

The photos below are of the quilt that I made for Stacy's older son.  Think the little boy who favors green will like this one?

I've named it "Seth's Quilt (The Green Monster)" because it just wouldn't cooperate with me.  I made a huge mistake that took some time and brain power to fix, but it worked out.

How about the swirls and twists in the quilting?  He's an active little guy with a great imagination, so I think he'll enjoy playing with the lines and finding shapes in the stippling.  


I'm calling the rectangles on the outer edges subway tiles.  Another sister, Sid, was visiting and said they reminded her of the subway tiles in a city in Germany.  Sorry, I can't remember the name of the city, but since it works so well for her, I decided to go with it......subway tiles they are!


And for my final word: don't forget about the great giveaway I'm hosting to celebrate National Sewing Month.  Click here to go to the original post where you can see the ways to enter and the items that are included.  One of the items is a pack of 20 tumbler blocks just like the ones in this post, except you get to choose the color theme. The giveaway ends on Saturday, so only three days left!