Quilts and Pillowcases

When I taught myself how to piece a quilt over 15 years ago, I made it my goal to create a personal-sized quilt for each of my children.  A quilt they could drag around, cuddle up in, take on long car rides, or just keep on their beds for extra warmth.

 

 

Son #4 has been asking when I would make his quilt, ever since I completed son #5's quilt back in December.  He complained many times that he didn't think it was fair that his younger brother got a quilt before him.  He was right.  And I didn't really have a good answer for him, except that I really liked the fabric I had picked out for his younger brother, so that's the one I was excited to make first.

 

Anyway, I finally got the urge this past week to start on his quilt.  And it just so happened to be on one of the hottest days we've had this summer--over 100 degrees.  And my sewing room happens to be in the one part of the house that doesn't have air-conditioning.  Yeah.  I don't know what I was thinking.  There was lots of sweating.   But once I got started on it, I couldn't stop.  The colors all came together beautifully.  It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the light colored center block has a wild west/cowboy theme.  The pattern is from the July 2003 issue of THE QUILTER, and it's called Garden Steps.  I added more squares so that it would end up the size I wanted--approximately 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 feet.  Like all of my quilts, it is backed in a cozy flannel for extra warmth, and this one also has two layers of cotton batting.  It is machine quilted in diagonal rows, and most importantly, every single piece of fabric for this project came from my stash. 

 

I had just enough fabric left over to make a matching pillowcase.  Here it is, hanging up against the back side of the quilt.

 

And while we're on the topic, here's the quilt I made for son #5 back in December.  I used a pattern from the book, BLENDED QUILTS II, by Marsha McCloskey.  It also has a cowboy/wild west theme.  The cowboy print is on a beautiful, blue background, and the fabric strips along the edges have tiny horse heads on the them.  Too cute.

 

Another matching pillowcase against the flannel back of son #5's quilt.

 

This is son #3's quilt--one of the very first quilts I ever made.  It's a very simple pattern from the book MORE QUILTS FOR BABY by Ursula Raikes.  I pretty much learned how to quilt from this book.   I quilted it by stitching "in the ditch".  I remember how proud I was when it was finally completed.  I'm almost embarrassed now by how simple it looks, but my son loves it.  LOVES IT.  He has used it nearly everyday for 13 years, and it shows.  The binding is threadbare, and there are many holes scattered throughout the quilt.  I have offered to make him a new quilt, a more grown-up pattern, but he won't hear of it.  I suggested that we could use this quilt as the batting in a new quilt, but he only stared at me in horror.  I guess I should feel good that this 18 year old son of mine has such a fondness for the fabrics that I pieced together for him when he was only five.  This quilt has been LOVED...to pieces.  So now I've been re-evaluating it, thinking about how I can give it some new life which will still meet my son's approval.  Perhaps a new flannel backing, binding, and some patches to the holes?  Hmm, now that I'm thinking of it,  I might have better luck with this conservation project when he's not around!