Perfect Start to Summer...

This last week or two has been a real whirl-wind.  I've had four quilts that needed to be finished up during the last two weeks of school...

Two kids in baseball which finishes up this week...

Seth "graduated" from Kindergarten in addition to all the other end of year activities (field day, spring concert, etc).

 (That page says he wants to be Harry Potter when he grows up.)

We had fun kicking off our summer with the annual Histio Heros Walk & Bike-a-thon to earn money to research Histiocytosis (a rare cancer-like disease that our neighbor has).  The kids all rode their bikes in it. 

More Works in Progress

It seems like I've mostly been posting works in progress lately than posting full tutorials or finished pieces.  That's mostly because I've been in the middle of quite a few big projects (blog/craft related and otherwise), so I haven't taken the time to sit down and write things up.

But, I promise I've got a few fun things coming up in the next few weeks...some fun giveaways...a quilt-along, and more.  I've just got to get through the next week and then I'll buckle down and get the blog in shape.

I've been busy scoring SATs this last week which has been taking up most of my sewing/blogging time, but as usual I can't stay away from my sewing machine entirely.

Becca and I have been planning a particularly special quilt for a friend of hers for a while.  She's been after me forever to start it.  I let her sort the colors and lay out the squares just so she'd feel like we'd really started.

Then I had to actually sew the squares together so I could clean up my sewing area without completely undoing her work.  This is one of five blocks so far.  The quilt has a theme...can you guess?

I finally did it...I tried free-motion quilting for the first time.  I did it on my Dr. Seuss quilt.  Now Dr. Seuss just needs a binding and it will be ready for the bike-a-thon/raffle on Saturday.  The result is far from perfect...but I think it turned out passably well...and I forgot to take a picture, so maybe if you check back later today, I'll have added a picture.

My first Hexies-By-Halfies quilt got it's finishing touches of signatures last week and was given to our high school principal who is retiring after somewhere around 20 years of being principal.  This is the back...and stay tuned because it's the Hexies-By-Halfsies that we'll be doing for a quilt-along.  I've got another Hexies-By-Halfsies that is mostly done for the bike-a-thon this weekend.

And I just found out less than two weeks ago that Katie's 2nd grade teacher is also retiring this year as well...and I felt like she needed a special quilt of her own.  (Afterall, doesn't every teacher deserve to go out with a bang?  This might be a dangerous precedent to start in a small town, though...)  Because of the rush to get it done and have it at the school in time to be signed by students and staff, this quilt has actually been finished, but I don't have any finished pictures of it.  Never fear, though, we know her outside of school, so after things have calmed down a bit, I'll just borrow it back for a day to get it photographed.  She loves to read and I included the harp, temple, and apple to symbolize the music, faith, and teaching that have also been important parts of her life.

90 Seconds to Make a Dream Come True

The Quilt Story is one of my favorite blogs to follow.  Heather and Megan make many beautiful quilts of their own and highlight the quilts of many others.  They're also super nice and have left many sweet  & encouraging comments on my blog.

Today they posted about their Uncle Dean who is living with brain cancer and needs your vote to be able to run in one more Ironman.  I've copied the information an picture below from their blog.  It only takes a minute to watch the video and you don't have to sign up for anything to vote.

Here's what Heather and Megan have to say about him...

This is our Uncle Dean. Our Mom's brother. He was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of brain cancer just last year.  

He has run dozens of marathons in his life, and a handful of Ironmans, but wants to run one more. And Kona Ironman is apparently the best, and has always been his dream! Up til June 15th we can vote for him to run this race. He is in the finals, but we need your help. Go watch this video, shed a tear, and vote for our Uncle. (on all your devices.) 

THANK YOU!

VOTE FOR DEAN

Paper Airplane and Bunting Baby Boy Quilt

I haven't been posting much because between the end-of-the-school-year craziness, baseball, yard work, and I've been working like crazy on a couple quilts, I just haven't had much time free to type things up...but I decided I'd make a little time tonight.  I really can't take credit for this quilt because my Aurora did most of the sewing and quilting on it, but it turned out so well that I just had to show it off, and at least I can take credit for the pattern.

Several months ago my friend Aurora asked me if I would help her make a quilt for her son's teacher.  The teacher had really clicked with her son and helped him have a great year and she was about to go out on maternity leave to have her first child.

She'd seen Becca's Bird & Bunting Quilt and thought that would be a good choice.  (A template for the buntings can be found here and detailed directions for doing this kind of applique can be found here.  I did a google image search for paper airplane clipart and there were lots to choose from.)  I assured her it was an easy pattern and told her that if she bought the background fabric that her son could come over and go through my stash to choose whatever fabric he wanted to make the flags.  The plan had been to use different colorful fabrics similar to Becca's.

But when Aurora showed me the backing fabric, it just seems to be a perfect match for some of the Children at Play fabric left from Anson's quilt (yeah...I know...it's still not finished).  It was the perfect blue to contrast with both the blue background and the white background on the print.  I showed them the Children at Play fabric and gave him the option to use it or choose his own random prints.  We all agreed the Children at Play fabric was perfect.

The paper airplane looks like it could fly right into the sky...

And it just seemed perfect to add a paper airplane to the quilt instead of the bird.  It matched the fabric and was just more boyish.  Aurora added some quilting detail to give the paper airplane a little tail.  It's also quilted around both sides of the buntings and a curved line in the wide space between them.

We got it finished just in time...a day or two before his teacher's maternity leave.  He was super proud of it and excited to give it to her.

It was a really fun project to help with...and of course I love quilting on it's own, but getting to do it with company is a real treat.

And I have to say that even though Aurora had never really sewn a quilt before, she's an amazing seamstress in her own right.  She sews her kids the most AWESOME Halloween costumes you've ever need.  She made her youngest son (the one in these pictures) an amazing Revolutionary War Soldier costume that year.


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Hexies, Helpers, and the Yard

I haven't been posting much lately, mostly because there has been so much going on that I haven't had much time at the computer with my hands free to type.

I've had three quilts that I need to get done by the end of the school year.  One black and gold hexie quilt is finished.

The Dr. Seuss quilt is still waiting to be quilted and bound.

And another black and gold hexie quilt has the top all sewn together, but I need to piece the back and get it quilted and bound.

I've had lots of help with the quilts though.

Anson loves anything with buttons which unfortunately means he wants my sewing machine...especially if he can play with my machine while sitting on my lap.

He also LOVES the basting spray can because of the little button inside that you push to make the spray come out.  No more basting quilts while Anson is awake for me.  (This picture was taken in the ten seconds he was actually happy between being given the can and realizing that he couldn't get the lid off to get to the button.)

We've also been doing The Big Sort for our most recent I-Spy Swap.  Becca has always loved helping me sort the squares.

Sneak Peek: More Hexies and Dr. Seuss

This was meant to be a Saturday Sneak Peak...but I didn't get it posted in time.  I didn't think I'd get much sewing done this weekend because I've been scoring SAT essays over the computer.  Since I only do that for a few weeks a year and it pays pretty well, I generally focus on that during most of my "free" time...but Eric needed the computer to work on a project was up against a deadline, so I got some sewing in after all.

Another hexagon quilt...the construction of this one is a little different from the one I'm making for Anson (which still isn't done) and it sews up SO fast.  I'm really in love with it.  I promised to make some quilts for the raffle for an upcoming fundraiser.  I wanted one grown-up quilt and we decided to go with black and gold since those are our town/school colors.  All the black and white fabrics are some I've ordered from Sisters and Quilters a while ago (and have been hoarding) and the gold fabrics I picked up a couple different places.  I'm planning on writing up the pattern for this.  It's easy enough that I think anyone with basic sewing skills would be successful.  Anyone interested in a little quilt along?  I'll have more details soon.

And I wanted one to be something kids would get really excited about, and that's the Dr. Seuss quilt...which still isn't finished, but did get it's white border added this week.  (This is the This Way and That pattern from Sister's and Quilters.  Their pattern has a thicker patterned border, but I liked the simplicity with just white (and I might be hoarding the rest of my Dr. Seuss fabric.)

And I also got a back made and it's basted and ready for quilting.  It's just a simple white back, with the random leftover ends I had from each row of strip piecing.  I think it was just what the back needed to spice it up from boring to fun...and give my backing the extra width it needed to fit.

And if you've been looking closely, you might have noticed the last little sneak peek into a new direction I'm taking the blog soon.  Anybody notice?

I've got some more projects to show you soon...but probably not until the SAT project is done.

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Tuxedo Collection Fabric Bundle - From Sisters and Quilters

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Kindergarten Book Quilts (Bloggers Quilt Festival Entry)

In the reading program at my children's school, the kids learn about a different letter each week, and during Q week, they read some stories about quilts.  I offered to help the class make a quilt of their own.  I gave the teacher a couple options that I thought would be easy quilts to put together that would have the kids involved in some way. 

I'm using this as my second entry in the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side in the Group/Bee division.

Title:Kindergarten Book Quilts

Made by: Me (Polly Carlson)

Size: Approx 30"x30"

Division: Group/Bee Quilt

Techniques: Home Machine Quilting

She chose the book quilt option.

I figured as long as we were making one for the teacher to keep in the classroom, we'd also make a duplicate quilt for the elementary school librarian.  She's a wonderful librarian and has been especially nice to my bookworm kids.

I-Spy...A Unicorn (Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry)

If you're a regular of my blog, then you've seen this quilt before, but I've decided to enter it in the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side in the ROYGBIV division and that requires a new post.

Title: I-Spy....A Unicorns

Made by: Me (Polly Carlson)

Size: Approx 42"x56"

Division: ROYGBIV

Techniques: Home Machine Quilting, freezer paper stenciling, fabric printing.  There are 2 or 3 duplicate squares, but otherwise, each print is different.

I made this quilt for my newest niece.  My brother and his wife choose pretty unique names for their kids that have meanings and stories behind them.

This baby will get to hear stories about unicorns as she grows up, so I thought it would be good to incorporate unicorns into the quilt as I could.  (My next job for them is to come up with a stuffed phoenix for their oldest child.)  The only trouble was that this was the only square that had a unicorn on it.

So I started having a little fun and added a few.   I used fabric marker and some paint to turn a few horses into unicorns.

I also used some freezer paper stenciling to add a few unicorns in some other places.