Cicely Mary Barker Flower Fairy Quilt

Look what I made in little snippets of time over the past week...a quilt!  (Yes, I do still have a queen sized quilt top that needs to be layered with batting, backing, and then quilted, but we won't talk about that right now!)  The design is my own.  Each square measures 6", and the whole quilt is approximately 59"x 77".

 

On a recent trip to my favorite fabric store, I came across this lovely panel of fabric by Michael Miller, depicting the Cicely Mary Barker Flower Fairies.  I fell in love with the vibrant blues and purples and instantly knew it had to come home with me, especially since it was the last one.  (I couldn't let it slip away and regret it later, now could I?)  I had all the fabrics I needed in my stash to complete the piecing for the top, except I did splurge and buy the white print with pretty bluebirds in the snowball block because it matched so perfectly.  But it really wasn't too much of an expense since the fabric was on sale for only $4 a yard.  I adore little birds, and I figured that since fairies and birds both have wings, they could work together on a quilt.

 

Close up of the sweet, little, bluebird fabric.  I bought 2 yards and still have over a yard left over from this quilt, so I'm sure this print will show up in some future projects.

This quilt has two layers of cotton batting, as all my recent quilts do, because I love how warm and substantial this makes them feel.  I also always use flannel for the backing.  This one matched so perfectly with it's purple and green flower design on a crisp, white background.

I used a simple geometric quilting design across the blocks and borders, but since I didn't want random stitches possibly wandering across the fairies' faces in the center panel, I outlined each fairy with a simple machine stitch to hold all the layers together.

 

Before this quilt was even pieced together, Sophie claimed it for her own.  She was the only one of my kids for whom I hadn't yet made a large quilt.  Problem solved!  She was so excited when I said it could be all hers.  Every day she inquired about it's state of completion, and whether or not it would be ready for her to snuggle up with that evening.  Tonight is finally the night!

 

And just because I don't have enough fabric to keep me busy for the rest of my life, I purchased a second  Cicely Mary Barker Flower Fairy panel.  How cute is it?  Stay tuned...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quilt Progress and Other News

Here is the progress on my quilt top so far:

 

I love the way all the colors look together.  There was another pink which I had initially used in five of the blocks, but when I started assembling the top, I just didn't like how they looked.  Too pink.  They stuck out like a sore thumb.  So I ripped them all out and replaced that pink with a pale blue scattered with small roses.  Much better.

 

As I started assembling the top, I realized that I didn't already have every fabric I needed in my stash.  (Hard to believe, right?!)    So in addition to having to buy the batting, I also had to get a few yards for the border.  I chose the beautiful, light blue fabric with rose bouquets above.

 

I am still contemplating how I'm going to put this whole thing together.  I was thinking about quilting the top and side borders separately, and then attaching them after everything has been quilted.  I also want to scallop the border edges.  The logistics of how all this can work out is still stumping me, so I just keep looking at my pretty quilt top and envisioning how it will finally look.  Hopefully, I will come up a solution soon!  I could just assemble the entire quilt top and borders as one piece and the machine quilt them as usual, but I was trying to come up with a way to avoid having all that fabric bunched around/over/under my sewing machine.  I have still not forgotten what I went through to make my son and daughter-in-law's quilt last summer, and I'd love to find an easier way.

 

Here it is, hanging out on the line.  I was having a hard time getting a photo, since it is a windy day, and it kept wanting to spin around.  So far, it measures approximately 71" wide by 82" long.  But because we have a deep, pillow top mattress, I'm going to add an extra 10" border along all sides so that it'll cover the mattress when it's on our bed.    I just love how quilts look like stained glass windows when they are back-lit.

 

In other news, we have started looking for our new home.  We have been renting for the past 8 1/2 years, and are ready to become homeowners again.  In this time frame, we have moved out of state twice, only to discover that "there's no place like home". Why we ever thought that moving across the country, away from friends and family and the only place my husband and I have ever known is beyond me.  I guess we'll just chalk that up to a "learning experience".  What we do know is that barring an unforeseen event, we NEVER plan on moving far away again.  This is where we belong.   We currently live in the suburbs, but long for a little bit space in the country.  We used to live on five acres and I miss it so much.  I am a country girl through and through.

 

So here is a little piece of heaven we found this past weekend.  5 acres of gently sloping and wooded land about 45 minutes away from where we currently live.  It was so quiet...all we heard (besides our children's excited voices!) was the wind rustling through the trees.

 

Since most of it is wooded, we would have to do a bunch of clearing, at least a couple of acres worth.  This can be a big expense, but since the property already has a well installed, it kind of evens out.  We found elk tracks in the dirt!

 

One of the best things about this property is that it is almost at the end of a long, paved road ending in a cul-de-sac.    I can just see all my kids having a blast riding their bikes and scooters without having to worry about traffic.

 

We are taking another look at it this weekend, along with talking to a home builder which can hopefully finance us.  I'm so excited.  I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much, because a lot of things could still happen.  Maybe somebody else will buy this property before we get the chance.  Or maybe we won't be able to get financing after all.  We have just started this wonderful, anxiety-ridden journey, and who knows what's in store for us?  If not this piece of land, then I'm sure God has something better for us right around the corner.

 

And last but not least, here are the two feline members of our family, Delilah and Bunny.  Bunny was rescued from the animal shelter a couple of months ago.  She is a total lap cat and loves to snuggle.  Delilah, on the other hand, is NOT.  She prefers to be left alone, and only occasionally shows some affection towards us when she's hungry.  So it was pretty rare to get a photo of the two of them together.  They don't hate each other; rather, it's more of a polite tolerance with a sprinkling of affection thrown in here and there.

 

Tomorrow is Friday, which means the weekend is almost here.  And since it's a long weekend, we'll have one, extra day to play and enjoy daddy's company.  I have a doll show lined up for Saturday, as well as looking at the property again.  Hope you have a wonderful weekend!



A New Project...

I want to make this quilt:

 

It is from this book:

 

Last summer, my daughter-in-law requested a queen-sized quilt for her new bed.  And because I like to quilt, I eagerly agreed.  We visited the fabric store and she picked out the main fabric and a flannel for the back--everything else came from my stash.  I started that quilt with great enthusiasm, and admired it's beauty when I had the top completely pieced together.  But then it came time to sandwich all four layers together (yes, I said four layers, because I decided to use two layers of cotton batting for extra warmth), and I almost cried.  Trying to machine quilt a queen-sized quilt with four layers on a standard sewing machine was one of the most difficult and frustrating things I had ever tried.  But I did it.  And when it was done, it was a thing of beauty.  But I never wanted to sew another quilt again for a very long time.  Now, since finishing son #4's quilt, I have once again been inspired to sew a quilt for my bed.  I bought the fabric ages ago and set it aside, waiting for the perfect time.  Well, I think that time has finally come.  I am ready once again to wrestle copious amounts of fabric under a machine not meant for that purpose.  But I know it can be done!

 

Here is the fabric.  The rose print will be the main blocks, and the other fabrics will make up the rest of the quilt.  Again, every single one of these fabrics comes from my stash/hoard.  I even have the flannel for the back. The only thing I don't have is the cotton batting.   One of these days, I will take a picture of my attic space where I keep all my fabric boxes so you can get a visual of just how much fabric I really have.  It's a little bit embarrassing.  Which is why I have severely restricted myself on bringing in any new fabric, and am focusing on using up as much as possible of what I already own.  Even my daughter has been visiting my fabric boxes quite frequently, making quilts and tote bags and headbands.  Yet my boxes are still full to overflowing!

I have started cutting the bazillion pieces needed, and hopefully will start assembling some blocks by this evening.  Stay tuned!



My Daughter Quilts!

Isn't the dream of every mother who sews to eventually have a daughter follow in her footsteps?  Well, I finally got my wish!  This week, my 15 year old worked off and on for three days to piece the front of this beautiful quilt, with NO HELP at all from me.  I'm so proud.  When she announced last week that she wanted to make a quilt that she saw in a book, I took her out right away to my favorite fabric stores and let her pick out the fabrics.  Yes, I have plenty of fabric in my stash, but I really wanted this to be HER quilt, and her tastes in colors and patterns run a bit different from mine.  So we bought the majority of what she needed.  However, she did find a few prints in my hoard that worked into her color scheme.

Here's the book which features the quilt she did on the front cover.  We found it at our local library.

And here's a close up of the squares.  Didn't she do a great job in matching up all the corners?  I'm so impressed.  This quilt isn't finished yet--it still needs batting and a backing.  We will head out again tomorrow for a cozy flannel for the back.  I always back all the quilts I make with flannel...they are just so soft and warm.  She plans on "stitching in the ditch" to secure the layers.  I will be sure to post more pictures when it is completely finished.  This is one proud mama!



Good-bye, Ratty Blue Comfortor

My sweet little Jackson did a lot of this today. He woke up with a fever, and spent most of the day curled up in his quilt in front of the woodstove.

After much "persuasion", Sophie decided to take her nap on the living room couch. Yes, I know she's almost three and still has a pacifier. We're working on that.

So while both my little ones were dreaming sweet dreams, I was able to finish the "great comfortor rehabilitation" that I started a couple of nights ago. I wish I had a "before" picture of my daughter's old comfortor. Let's just say that after eight years of heavy use, it was ready for the rag box. But my daughter didn't want to let it go. She LOVED that comfortor. It was flannel and oh, so cozy. But it had definitely seen better days. Kids had puked on it and the puppy had chewed holes in it. I finally decided she needed something new. After thinking about it (and pricing the cost of batting) I decided to just use the old comfortor as the filling and get new fabrics to cover it. So off we went to our favorite fabric store (Fabric Depot, of course!) and I let her pick out new fabrics. She is a teenager, and very into the popular color combination of teal and brown, so that's what we ended up with. The back side is a cozy, brown flannel with teal dots.

The front is made up of two, coordinating prints. I sandwiched the three layers together (front, old comfortor, and flannel back), and machine quilted them with simple, diagonal lines. I added a binding around the outside edge, just like I do when I make quilts. However, instead of sewing the binding to the front side, turning it to the back and then handstitching it in place, I opted to sew it to the backside first, then turn it to the front and machine stitch it with a zig-zag stitch. This was much faster, and I was really ready to be done with this project!

And here it is on my daughter's bed, with the coordinating throw pillows she made a while back to go along with the comfortor. A note about the pillows: After pricing pillow forms at JoAnn's (and getting sticker shock) I got the bright idea to buy regular, old, throw pillows from our neighborhood thriftstore for just fifty cents a piece! Can't beat that. They go straight into a hot water wash, and then the drier, just in case there are any bugs or germs. Once they get new covers, no one is any wiser where the pillow forms once came from. I love the way the comfortor turned out. So does my daughter. So do all the kids, unfortunately. Because now they're ALL asking for me to recover THEIR comfortors. Oh no, what have I started?!?