Blissful stepping stones

I finished putting together my Blissful Stepping Stones quilt top. It is made from part of a layer cake from the Bliss line. I loved the pinks and greens.

This quilt is lap sized and used 14 of the fabrics. The pattern called for putting a 2.5" sashing on all 4 sides of 12 layer cake blocks. I mixed in a couple more, so I actually have some blocks left to use on the back too or maybe for a matching pillow.

Once you put the sashing on, then all of the blocks are cut into equal quarters. That gives you a smaller block with a colored square and background on 2 sides. There are a lot of different ways to turn them to make different patterns. But I chose a stepping stones variation.

Now I need to find some backing and get it quilted.

Family heirlooms & vintage fabric

Yesterday I delivered a family heirloom to my oldest daughter to use for her first baby. It's a cradle, hand made in 1954 by my uncle Doug (my mother's brother) as a baby gift for my parents on the occasion of my birth. It's a beautiful cradle and I can't wait to see my grandchildren sleeping in it.

Both of my girls slept in that cradle for the first couple of months of their lives. And now my first grandchild will sleep in that cradle too. And hopefully it will go to my other daughter's home some day too.

The original mattress was wrapped in this cute quilted fabric. The mystery for me is this - was this fabric from 1954 and put there by my mother? Or was this fabric from 1981 and put there by my mother when she gave the cradle to me for my first baby? Anyone have any ideas on the age of this fabric?

My dresden selvage pillow

I forgot to post a photo of my dresden plate/selvage pillow when I finished it. Can't say that it turned out quite as I pictured. I think I needed to use a smaller dresden plate in order to make the selvages show up better on this 16" square pillow. The back also is done with selvages.

It will look cute in my sewing room.

Design Wall Monday

This is what is currently on my design wall. I used about half of a layer cake of Bliss that I bought at least a year ago. I loved the colors, but had no idea what I wanted to do with it.

But I saw a quilt done in this manner and decided I had just the right fabric to do this justice. I have all of the blocks done, but not up on the design wall yet.

I will share more later in the week.

A little finish

In a previous post I showed the beginnings of the Twister project I had begun. Well yesterday I finished cutting the 2 inch squares out of the foundation piece with my newly purchased small rotary cutter. This is the result - a whole lacey sheet of 1.5" squares all connected. Isn't that fun?

And here is my finished Twister placemat. Batiks were from a charm pack and a couple of scraps to fill it out. I love the colors and patterns in batiks and this little placemat should look really good on my kitchen counter. I'm going to add just a little hand quilting and a bright batik binding.

Twister

OK - my little "food for the soul" project has a good start. The first step was to cut the 3.5 inch blocks and sew them together to make a foundation. I used a charm pack of batiks plus some scraps.

Next step was to add the white borders. And then the fun begins. Using the little 2 inch twister ruler, I started to cut the pieces. Twist and then sew back together forming little pinwheels.

But I hit a snag - and so the rest will have to happen this weekend. I thought I had a small rotary cutter. But a thorough searching of drawers in the sewing room failed to produce it. So - tomorrow after work I'm going to buy one. That will speed up the cutting process considerably.

Food for the soul

A new project - food for the soul.

I needed a NEW project to play with! And I should be able to use stash to do it, so I can avoid the guilt of buying more fabric.

A couple of nights ago I attended a fun little evening program at the Pin Cushion where all of the projects shown were done with pre-cuts: layer cakes, charm packs, jelly rolles, etc.

I ended up buying this cute pattern and the small ruler that came with it. The ruler is just 2 inches square! Hope I don't lose it! And just an FYI - there is even a smaller version (ITTY BITTY).

This little pattern from Primitive Gatherings uses 3.5" squares that can be cut from charm packs or even just from scraps. I have lots of scraps that should be large enough to use for this. Can't wait to come home from work tonight and play with this project.