Selvage Quilt by From Three to Insanity

Quilt Market is officially over!  Although by the looks of all the things we dragged into Heather's craft room we'll be working for several more hours.  It's been fun and exhausting.  We have run the gamut of emotions from giddy to crying!!  We met up with a lot of really amazing people and cannot wait to share some pictures and stories with you.  But we're saving that for a couple more days so we can restore some peace to our lives :)

Today we've got Julie of From Three to Insanity.  She's got a great selvage quilt to share....so eye catching!  I love how she's got each block in it's own color, so cute.  After you check out her feature, stop by her shop and see the darling little dresses and other goodies she sells.

It's done!! The Selvage Quilt is done!!

I don't even know where to begin. I am so glad to have this one done - it really was a labor of love. I wish that the photos did it justice, but there are so many tiny details in each piece of selvage that so much gets lost in a picture. I love looking at each individual square, each tiny scrap of fabric, and each memory that goes with that fabric.


The quilt was made using string squares 8" squares, 80 in all, that are sashed in Kona Navy. On average, each square has about 14 selvages, which means that I used upwards of 1,100 strips of selvage. The flannel backing is All Star Blue Dots by Riley Blake. Binding is Alexander Henry's Raindrop Stripe (thank you Amber, for that awesome call).


This was sent to the long-arm quilter - there was no way that I was going to risk unsightly puckers on this quilt. The quilting is slightly more dense than I though it would end up, but I do like the way the pattern plays off of the diamond pattern of the string blocks.

(The color is way off here, but you can see the quilting design easily.)

This quilt was initially intended to be a lap quilt, but I was talked into making it a twin size - the finished size is 68"x85". Because I will still probably use it to cuddle on the couch with my sweetie and because I like some serious heft in my blankets, I had the quilter use two layers of batting when she quilted it. This quilt is seriously heavy - maybe a bit more so than I had intended. That said, it's going to be awesome come next winter.


A huge thank you to everyone who traded or donated selvages for this project - I couldn't have done it without you. Thank yous also to everyone who supported me as I obsessed, complained, and sewed (a lot!) through this project.

City House Studio twin doll quilts...

Check out these darling twin quilts and these twin dolls!  I want to make them! Michelle from City House Studio  made them as a gift. Super darling!  Make sure to check out her blog,  she has fun projects for the home. Loads of quilting and sewing projects, and darling  twins she dresses up!  

Our friends Ella and Zoe are turning 5 next week, and their Rainbow Birthday Party is today!  We met in an Early Childhood/Family Education class when they were 2 and my girls were 3.  Their mom is just about the sweetest person in the world, and it has been such fun to compare notes on being a mom of twin girls.

So I knew I wanted to make something really special for their birthday.

Here is what I came up with!

"Ruby Lou" doll pattern can be found at Sew Much Ado

Twin Rainbow Quilts
My own creation, but was inspired by this quilt I found on flickr.

Close up of the pebble quilting.
Fun to do, and I LOVE how it turned out!

Soft minky dots for the backing.

One skirt just wouldn't be enough, would it?
A girl needs a change of clothing!

These little dolls were a really fun project, and I had lots of help along the way from my twins, complete with planning how they wanted their dolls to look -- I promised to make them each one after these gifts were finished!  It turns out that 5 year old fingers are perfect for stuffing those narrow arms and legs.  And it was really fun to see the amazed look on their faces after I sewed the heads together and then turned them inside out - it was like the dolls came alive!  The only thing that I would change about the pattern is to embroider the faces first -- this seemed much easier, rather than waiting until the end and having to bury the embroidery knots up in the hairline somewhere.  I also lined the face and the body with interfacing prior to doing the embroidery.  And the faces/arms/legs are just a neutral Kona cotton, not muslin as the pattern suggests.

Sue Spargo Robin Run the Hedge

Today's feature is of a super talented quilter/teacher/designer Sue Spargo. Sue used all sorts of mediums on her quilts, felts, scrap, beads, and embroidery. Her designs are fresh, new and very detailed. We are truly inspired by her work. She holds several workshops all over the country, and some out of the country. Sue is truly an inspired quilter and we are honored to feature her work here. Make sure to go check out her website and her blog.

Each year I do a BOM on through my website. It is very popular and is limited to 300 participants. The center of this quilt was the BOM from last year. I absolutely loved creating it. It was inspired by my visits to Italy and the wonderful birds that flew in and out of the hedgerows in the Tuscan hills.

It has 13 different birds on the vine which are all embellished with different ribbons.  The background is a combination of different hand dyed wools and the applique is fun cottons, hand dyed wool and velvet and taffeta silks.

 I am very fortunate as my sister Wendy does all the dyeing of my wools and velvets so I have a wonderful assortment of colors to pull from. Once I had finished the center I decided to make mine into a queen size quilt adding the large applique borders. I am very please with the finished quilt.

I wrote a book 'Robin Run the Hedge' in May and now you have the opportunity to make a wallhanging or bed quilt for your self. I have taught this quilt many times which can be viewed on my blog using different color combinations.

Sue will be posting her new BOM for 2011 this week. It will be called 'Imperial Blooms' - large flowers heavily embellished with stitching.  This will be very popular, so get signed up!

Thank you Sue, gorgeous work!

Bellgirl's Avalon Quilt

We met Bellgirl not long ago when she was the winner of one of our pattern giveaways!  Since then we've spent time perusing her blog and found many adorable projects!!  Just check out this cute giraffe t-shirt tutorial.  She's also a big gardener and has a list of what's growing in her garden on her sidebar.  Raise your hand if you'll mock me for not knowing what coriander is? 

Here is a darling quilt Annabel made for her little Bug:

Here at last is the Bug's new quilt. It's Kathy Doughty's 'Avalon' pattern from Doughty and Sarah Fleike's book Material Obsession.

I like the authors' philosophy of the "One" inspiration (p.11): 'What is it about quilts that invites you to make one?'. For me it is the wish to give it to a particular person, in this case my Bug. They also suggest 'Start with the one fabric that makes you sing'. Here it was Alexander Henry's 2-D Zoo fabric, in the Bug's favorite colours of blue and green. I thought for a long time about the pattern, then my quilting guru Taccolina suggested the Avalon, and it was indeed the One. The back is Alexander Henry's Blakely Stripe, so the quilt is reversible for when the Bug is older. My other quilting guru Lynne suggested the argyle design for the hand-quilting and the bias-striped binding in the same Blakely Stripe. I'm lucky to have my gurus!

In Arthurian legend, Avalon is the island where the sword Excalibur was forged, and in some versions Arthur was taken there after he was mortally wounded. It is known as the "Isle of Apples". As my family name is Orchard, and I am writing a Ph.D dissertation on mythological weapons and armour, it was obviously the quilt pattern for me!

If you look closely you may see Michal Miller's apple fabric in the bottom right square. I'm thinking of adding an apple to all of my quilts, a sort of coded signature, either in the fabric, the quilting or in applique.

I'm delighted that my quilt is being featured, and that it was only a couple of months ago that I won your opening giveaway, and Quiltstory is such an institution already!

Annabel

Thanks Annabel!!  I just have to say I LOVE your apple signature idea...I'm considering changing my last name to Orchard.  Seriously.

Linking with AmyLouWho.

Sew Fresh Fabrics adorable house quilts!

We came across Becca from Sew Fresh Fabrics through the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  And when you see these quilts you'll know why we had to ask for a feature!  We've been seeing these house blocks popping up all over the place online and they are just too cute!  Let me emphasize that there are two separate quilts posted below...Becca is part of an couple of online bees and used their blocks and her own to create these funky whimsical quilts!  (Be sure to click on the bee's links and see all their blocks.)

These quilts are the result of two online bees I am in and will soon be living on my 7yr old's bunks. For the first group- Hip To Bee Square- I sent out an assortment of fabrics and asked for blocks any size and any design- sewer's choice.  

For the second group- Bee Addicted 3- I sent out similar fabrics and asked for houses- again any type - any size. The blocks I received back were just amazing!! So bright and fun and amazingly inspired! (Thank you all!). I knew I wanted to mix them together to get 2 quilts out of them - and here they are.

It's a virtual I-Spy of characters and creatures and where they live. There's a mushroom house, a light house and a kooky witch hat house.

The process of putting them together was so like a puzzle- adding strips and blocks where needed to make them work together as a unit. Then I added a cobblestone border and lots of little blocks around that. One is finished, washed, and on the bed. The other still needs the binding sewn to the back and a spin through the washer and dryer for that soft crinkly goodness. I love these and even more so because the blocks were made by many women around the globe!!

Thank you so much for sharing!  Becca and Peg (from Ivy Arts) share this blog together and have an Etsy shop where they sell to die for fabric, check it out!

Also, check out our Fresh Poppy Blog and help me decide which quilt block I should use for my next quilt!  I haven't done a traditionally pieced quilt before so I am trying to decide the block and layout, come help me!

Linking at amylouwho

Nap time Quilter...Roots

Okay folks, this is the epitomy of a quilt story. When we got this quilt submitted from nap time quilter
we knew we had to feature it! What an amazing and beautiful quilt. It tells the story of her father and where he came from. Such an amazing and original design. We are truly impressed!

Roots

May 2010

Approximately Twin Sized

100% cotton, original design

Here it is, aptly named, my Dad's quilt: Roots. Roots for the garden growth that sustained my Baba and Dido as well as our family. Roots for the foundation of where we come from. Roots to acknowledge such an important part of our family legacy. Roots to impart growth the the family as the next generations arrive and thrive.

This was a true family project. My sister and sister-in-law and I pieced together the top, with a few helpful hands from my daughters and husband. Hubby and my brother watched the 6 kids so we could get that done, while my Mom kept the secret and took care of my sister's dog when she was away to get the top done. Then my brother and sister-in-law found the fabric for the back (so much Mark Lipinksi Krakow - how appropriate). They, with their kids, basted the quilt. I quilted it, again with input from Hubby and help from the girls. Here are my brother and I putting the finishing touches on the quilt. Me, the binding, and he, the label. (This picture entertains me so, the surgeon doing hand stitching.)

 Here is a broader view of the quilt, off the back deck of my brother's house. A house my Dad built for them. My Dad is a builder, always has been. He is one of those guys that doesn't know how not to work, so he is always happy to be putting something together. Of late, he's been spending some time with crochet hooks instead of hammer and nail.

Now, some details. This is part of the flower patch. A 2 inch checkerboard, with free motion quilting. See those little flowers interspersed here and there?

This is the house. Baba and Dido's house was this tiny house that my Dad himself help build, probably back in high school. It was probably less than 500 square feet. It consisted of a sitting room, an eat-in kitchen, one bedroom plus another sleeping area, and an entry/pantry. At some point my Dad added on another room, creating two bedrooms in total. And I still remember, back in the 80s, when the bathroom, and running water, was added.

It was quite a shock to the system to visit the house - we were suburban kids. I hated using the outhouse, and our arrival meant sleeping in stuffy beds, listening to the drinking and yelling of Ukrainian visits. Even to this day, it shows me what one can do in a small house.

On two sides of the house was a boardwalk made of wood. A small forest was on the back side, and a small lawn on the front. Otherwise the house was surrounded by garden.

No Ukrainian garden would be complete without dill and onions! Each of the veggies in the garden was quilted individually, with some brown, tight stipple in between. In fact, looking at these close-ups, you will see that each section was quilted individually. I would say I used at least 20 different threads throughout the quilt. Time-consuming and frustrating at times, but worth it.

The white picket fence that led up to the house was a perfect spot to really personalize the quilt. I practiced my cursive writing and put the family's names on the fence. This frames the yard with the picnic table, complete with a box of drying onions on it.

This Toe-Catcher photo shows the slough/dug out at the front of the property, complete with the little dock where we stood to gather water for the garden. Or where we caught frogs to freak out my Mom.

This is the label for the quilt. My brother is a label star. He found the grain elevator image. It was perfect because both my parents grew up across the street from the grain elevator. He played with the image, adding the town name and the necessary details about the quilt.

And here we are sharing the quilt with Dad, at a family brunch. It was presented with little fuss, but we all spent a lot time pouring over the details. I didn't see any tears from my Dad, but that isn't surprising. He's a gruff, tough man. But he knew what it was right away and definitely appreciated it. I only hope that it keeps him warm for all his upcoming naps on the couch.