Paperdoll Quilt WIP

My daughter Lindsay and I took this class from Lori Holt, the "master" of applique, everything vintage and all things beautiful!

It is Lori's "Paperdoll" Quilt.

I think our class was 6 or 7 years ago!

Our family moved to Florida, and now we are in California.

I have been working on this gorgeous quilt off and on over the years.

The blocks are all complete, I just have to sew the sashing and the borders.

Sashing and borders doesn't sound too bad, does it?

Did I tell you what the sashing consists of???

That's right!!!

Lori told me to enjoy the journey, so I am :)

Square by square, I may be a little obsessive, but I match each and every color.

Sewing, sewing, sewing, pressing seams open, sewing some more, pressing more seams open, watching old Bette Davis movies, stopping to prepare dinner, sewing and pressing some more.

I'm making some progress :)

A bunch of rows are completed but there's so much more to sew and press.

Stay tuned, I will post my progress on this adorable paperdoll quilt every Friday until it's finished.

That's my promise to myself, and I'm sticking to it :)

Flags for Lac-Megantic

On July 6, an 80 car train derailed and exploded.  

It blew up the town of Lac Megantic, Quebec in the Eastern Townships, 155 miles east of Montreal.

30 buildings were destroyed and they think it killed 50 people.

An investigation is still ongoing.

You can read about it here. 

I grew up 10 minutes south of Montreal, in St. Lambert.

I wanted to help in my own little way, so I made some flags for Lac- Megantic. 
 They only wanted blues, greens and purples, no fire colors.  

I don't know if that many people have made flags, so if you and/or your quilting guild could help, that would be wonderful!

I think that rows and rows of flags would help cheer the citizens of Lac-Megantic.  

It would show that the rest of the world cares about them :)

If you click the blue Lac-Megantic button on the right of my blog, it will take you to a blog with instructions for making flags.

They need them by August 24.

It takes a little longer to send envelopes to Canada :)

Here are my flags, I made 8 of them.

I sure hope you'll be able to make some flags and show your love and support for the people who have suffered such tragedy and trauma in Lac-Megantic.

Lucy Jane's quilt!

I wrote about this quilt here, and now it is machine quilted!

My friend Cindy Paulson is fabulous :)

She always makes me so happy when I see her gorgeous quilting on my quilts!

Cindy quilted baby rosebuds all over Lucy Jane's quilt :)

This pink polka dot minky is the softest fabric in the world!

Baby rosebuds and delicate leaves, Lucy Jane will love being snuggled up in it!

I chose a pastel pink fabric with baby birds to bind the quilt.

Usually I pick a contrasting color for the binding, but the border color is so soft, I didn't want to detract from it.

Isn't the quilt pretty hanging from my purple plum tree?

Lucy Jane is due to make her arrival in the middle of August.

I can hardly wait to see her :)

The Quilty Barn Along, Silo Barn #3

I love making these barns!  How many times can I say that?

The block on this barn is called "peas and carrots".

I was lucky to have fabric in my stash that met my needs :)

My stash is growing at a rapid rate, so it's not surprising!!!

I copied Lori with her aqua color scheme on the barn, using some Denyse Schmidt prints.

Here is Lori's tutorial if you are interested in following her "Quilty Barn Along".

RBD Mystery Block of the Month - July

This month's block is called "There is No Place Like Home".

Sounds a little bit like the Wizard of Oz, doesn't it?  LOL!

July is block #6, there will be 9 in all.

If you would like to look at my board on Pinterest, I have pinned all the tutorials and posted the blocks I have made as well.

I've kept all my blocks really pink with a touch of pale blue.

I'm anxious to do something really different with the sashing!

A Minky Photo Book Tutorial

I wanted to make a soft photo book for my grand daughter Kylie, who is 6 months old.  Her mom saved all of her empty, crinkly wet wipe containers for me :)

I wanted to make the pages out of minky fabric and print photos onto fabric that goes through an ink jet printer.

We have a black ink laser printer, but it is too hot and would smudge the ink on the fabric. I bought this pack at a quilt shop.

I selected the photos I wanted on my computer and chose wallet size.  I fed two sheets into the printer one at a time, and they printed perfectly!

Since the photo book will be made out of soft minky, I want it to be round so there won't be any corners to flop around.

There is a transparent film on the back of the fabric that peels off.

The fabric needs to soak in a sink full of water for 5 minutes to set the ink.

I let the fabric dry on a towel and then pressed them on the ironing board, face down.

Here are the wet wipe containers that my sweet daughter in law saved for me.  They can be any brand, it's the crinkly sound that babies like.

I found a round object that had the size circle I wanted, and traced one wet wipe circle for each page.
Then I made a pattern out of freezer paper.
The diameter of the circles is 5 l/4", and the connecter piece in the middle is l" tall by l l/2" wide.

I guess I was in a hurry to finish this photo book, but I neglected to take pictures of the minky cut out!  
I laid each minky piece on the table, one on top of each other.
I used 5 different minky colors.
I machine basted a wet wipe circle to each page, before I blanket stitched the photos onto the minky.

I added a narrow piece of lace around the cover page.

That is cute little Kylie on the front :)

I ironed some woven iron on stabilizer to the back of the fabric sheet of photos for durability.  

I also ironed on some fusible heat n bond.  I always use a cloth to iron on top of the minky.  Sometimes the heat can melt it so you have to be careful about that.

I placed the photo on the minky and ironed it in place.

I sewed the photo fabric circle to the minky and wet wipe plastic with a blanket stitch on my sewing machine.

These two photos are Kylie's dad when he was a baby :)

These two photos are Kylie's older sister, Neo :)

This is the middle of the photo book.

Can you see the shape that I cut each page out with the tab in the middle?

At first, I tried turning the pages right side out throught the tab.....impossible!!!!  Then I just left the bottom middle third unsewn and turned the page right side out.

I turned the rest of the book under at the seam and topstitched.
I sewed a rectangle around the tab in the middle of the book to reinforce it, and another stitching line down the middle.

The rest of the photos are Kylie's cousins on her father's side of the family.

I sewed different textures of ribbon randomly around some of the pages.

Here's Kylie again, at the end of the book!

I sewed a big button really, really well onto the back.  

I sewed a hair elastic to the front page and it closes by folding over the button.  It looks cute but I went to bed worrying that what if......Kylie went to bed with the book and was able to bite the button off?  It bothered me a lot.......so the next morning I very painstakinly took out the stitches, which I could barely see because they were buried in the minky fur :).

This is much better and safer for my little grand daughter!  I sewed a tab into the seam of the front and it connects to the back with velcro.

I won't have to worry about Kylie anymore, her book is baby safe :)

I got a little carried away by putting all six of Kylie's cousin's photos in her book, it's a little thick.....

It would have been just as cute with only her own family's photos.

Here's another cute little toy I made for Kylie with "fairy" fabric on the front, crinkly wet wipe plastic on the inside and minky on the back.  Babies love to squish these and chew on them :)

Here's little Kylie with her photo book.

Doesn't she have the cutest little doll face, and beautiful curly hair?

Something magical happens to you when you become a grandmother, I know it did to me!!!

The Quilty Barn Along #9

This block is called Country Crossroads.

I really love the colors and prints, the block almost looks three dimensional.

I love this cute little barn with the chevron roof!

Aren't the dogs adorable?  I had to fussy cut the fabric to get those little scoundrels looking out the door and the window.

Woof!  Woof!

You can find Lori's tutorial for the quilt block and the barn here, at Bee in my Bonnet.