Cats and Dogs Springtime Wall Hanging

My youngest daughter likes to have a quilted wall hanging in her family room and hinted broadly that she’d like one with some spring colors.  She didn’t have any other ideas and said something with her kids would be OK.  I’ve already made several hangings featuring her kids, so I thought this time it would be nice to feature the pets she has owned since she was married.  I scanned the pictures and then printed them on June Tailor Sew-In Colorfast Fabric Sheets for Ink Jet Printers.

I added borders to the pictures to make 6 inch blocks.

The alternate blocks were simple Diamond in a Square to showcase some beautiful 5 inch florals I had along with some pale green gingham.

For the backing, I used some pink fabric that had been a dress for her daughter a few years ago.  The quilting is simple straight line and stitch-in-the-ditch.  I also made a sleeve (the drapery hooks were used just to take pictures).   The wall hanging measures 30×30 inches.  The label includes pictures of the animals.

The beagle Bailey in the center was her first dog who passed away a few years ago. The rest of the group is still running amuck in her house – the black dog Frank was adopted after he was found abandoned in the neighborhood; Jimmi the Blue Tick Coon Hound came from a local rescue (Recycled Doggies); the cats showed up at her front door on two successive Halloween nights – their names are appropriately Milky Way and Snickers.

My daughter likes having the rest of her “family” featured on a wall hanging.

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A 70s Turkey Mini-Quilt Table Topper

When I gave my youngest daughter a mini-quilt and rack for her anniversary in October, I knew I would be making some more mini-quilts for her.  I wanted to give her something with a Thanksgiving theme and remembered a pattern I had picked up in Ohio Amish country several years ago.  It’s a fused turkey design that I used to make a wall hanging.

Since my daughter is definitely a child of the 70s, I made up a mini-quilt for her with a very cool turkey, using all of the frantic 70s fabrics left over from other projects I’ve done for her.

I used wide black zigzag stitches to give it an even wilder and crazier 70s look.

Of course, she loved it and it’s in her family room along with a big stuffed orange and green owl and some other 70s stuff.

The pattern is by Becky and Me, #T-1044.  Address:  5811 Valley Ave. E, Fife WA 98424 – (253) 380-2284.

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1970s Memory Quilt

Last summer, my youngest daughter asked me to make a beach-themed wall hanging for her family room.  Now that summer is over, she thought she’d like to have a quilt representing her favorite era – the 1970s – with photos of her two kids in 70s-style clothes.  She chose the fabric and pictures, my oldest daughter worked with the pictures to make them suitable for printing on June Tailor Sew-In Colorfast Fabric sheets and I set to work to make the quilt.

The centerpiece is a photo she took of David Cassidy in concert – her favorite singer from the 1970s.  He’s surrounded by fun pictures of the kids ….

…and even one of their Build-A-Bear cheetah in 70s garb.

I used a block called “Sugarbowl” in the 4 corners …

…and otherwise used 6-½ inch blocks with sashing around the pictures.

I used up all of the fabric to make the backing and binding.

Quilting was very simple machine stitching.  It was a fun and easy project.

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Repurposing a Pillow into a Wall Hanging

This wall hanging began life as a pillow in 2007 when it won a blue ribbon at our county fair.  Then, it went into the cedar chest to be given as a gift to the proper person.  Each time, I hung onto it and gave something else from the chest and decided this year, I would like to have it made into a wall hanging that I could use more than I could a pillow.

It was pretty easy to disassemble the pillow, make the back into top and bottom borders, and add a backing.  I omitted binding and simply sewed the wall hanging and backing right sides together, then turned and top-stitched.   I used drapery hooks rather than adding a sleeve.

This pattern was adapted from a decorative painting design by my favorite artist, Helan Barrick.  I simplified it quite a bit to make it into a fused applique panel and added the pieced blocks in typical Amish colors.  The little quilt the girls are working on is also pieced.

I’m enjoying seeing this repurposed item in my kitchen after all these years.

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Beach and Surfing Wall Hanging

I had stitched up some curtain panels with a cute beach/surfing theme for my youngest daughter’s family room …

…and she thought it would be nice to use the scraps of fabric along with pictures of her kids on beach vacations to make a wall hanging.

I picked up a bunch of fat quarters with a tropical or beach theme and made up a 30×30 inch wall hanging for her.  My oldest daughter is expert at enhancing photos so I had some beautifully clear pictures printed on fabric to work with.  These are two of my favorites.

I fussy-cut the fabric to take advantage of the cute station wagon, surfboard, and ukulele designs and assembled everything with very simple sashing.

The piece without borders was just the right size for the space my daughter had reserved, so I just used a binding of 6 inch strips of all of the fat quarter fabrics which gave the piece a playful look.

The backing is made entirely of scraps.

The wall hanging is perfect in my daughter’s family room which includes some other cute  “beachy” decorations….

…plus an autographed program from a recent Cincinnati Beach Boys concert.

Click on photos to enlarge.

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Le Poulet Mini-Quilt Table Topper

Last week, I posted about chickens invading my June kitchen.

http://lillianscupboard.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/the-chickens-have-come-to-my-june-kitchen-2/

Actually, they spilled over into my living room when I made this mini-quilt for my table topper rack.  I had a very small remnant of this fabric called Le Poulet by Windham and fussy-cut all of the elements of the quilt.

As of this writing, this fabric is available on eBay.

I just added some chicken-wire fabric for the background and polka-dot for the binding from my stash.

The backing was made from scraps ….

….and I finished it off with some simple machine quilting

There was one fussy-cut of a hen which I didn’t want to lose in a drawer full of scraps, so I added strips to make it into a block right away.  This can be used to construct a tote or gift bag, a potholder or maybe a pocket on an apron.  It’s ready to go.

I also found this great vintage thermometer to add to my chicken-coop kitchen.

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The Chickens Have Come to my June Kitchen

I had a post in 2008 that told how these two pieces came about:

http://lillianscupboard.wordpress.com/2008/07/08/hens-and-roosters/

A redwork potholder comes in handy.

My favorite set of dishes is Bob Timberlake’s Ella’s Rooster

I thought it only appropriate that I should display my 1945 edition of The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald.  

The book is so much better than the 1947 movie with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray.  I have all of Betty MacDonald’s books – they are hilarious and great reading.

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Modern Sunbonnet Wall Hanging

For my birthday in 2009, my oldest daughter made up a bunch of hand embroidered redwork pieces featuring sunbonnet ladies doing various phases of quilting.  She got her patterns from Quilting Bee Designs.  I made up the first wall hanging using some of the panels in 2010:

Sunbonnet Quilters

Busy Quilt Room

Airing the Quilts

I was down to my last seven panels and used six of them to make a final wall hanging.  I like these blocks which have old-fashioned sunbonnet ladies working with all of the modern conveniences – designing on the computer, unloading fabric from the trunk of a car, washing in a modern washing machine, using the latest rotary cutters and sewing machine.  I used an alternate block called Road to Oklahoma from my Electric Quilt 6 software.

After I had assembled the top, my daughter took it back to hand quilt.  Her work is so beautiful.

I finished the quilt off with label, sleeve and binding.  For the label, I printed a recent picture of my daughter and me along with the description on fabric.

It makes a beautiful wall hanging and a fitting finale to working with some wonderful redwork embroidery.

I made up the 7th block as a mini-quilt for my tabletop rack and did some very simple machine quilting.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

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An Early Mother’s Day Surprise

I came out to breakfast this morning to find this wonderful hanging my oldest daughter had made.  She lives with me and likes to surprise me with advance gifts on holidays.

She scanned a picture and then colorized it and appliqued it onto a vintage standcover.  She did all of the embroidery, hand quilting, crocheting and embellishing – she even made a hanger for the piece.

I remember the day the picture was taken very well.  It was in the summer of 1949 at the house in the country where my grandmother and aunt lived.  I would be beginning my senior year in high school in the fall and my sister (the blonde) would be in her freshman year.  My mother (center) made our dresses which were of very light voile.  We were wearing the latest fashion in shoes that summer – flat black ballet slippers and carrying matching purses.  We dressed alike very often since it was more economical and efficient for my mother to make two dresses in the same style of the same fabric.

Mother passed away in 1991 and my sister, in 2010.

I love this Mother’s Day memento.

Click on pictures for close-up views.

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Fading Charms Quilt

Deanna at Wedding Dress Blue posts wonderful tutorials and her latest is a charm quilt that uses 846 charms (by Deanna’s count – I took her word for it).  The pattern is written for 2-½, 2, and 1-½ inch charms.  Click on the link below to see the tutorial.

http://weddingdressblue.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/tutorial-fading-charms-quilt/

I decided to make the quilt of  1-½ inch charms to use the scraps from 10 years of sewing and quilting, stored rather haphazardly in 6 large dresser drawers.  I spent a lot of time cutting the squares and then enlisted the help of my granddaughter to sort them according to color and to count them.  She spent several Sunday afternoons helping me out.

It was nostalgic for me to cut the squares and then sew them one by one into the quilt, remembering the projects and where/when I bought the fabric.  In most cases, I remembered each square very clearly.  There was fabric from the quilt that started my quilting – a baby quilt for my helper granddaughter….

….pieces from my husband’s flannel shirts that he could no longer wear but wanted made into a quilt the year before he passed away; material used in full-sized quilts for my daughters and grandchildren and in baby quilts for my two great-grandchildren; fabric from a 25th anniversary wall hanging for my youngest son and his wife; lots of squares from the countless charity quilts I made for the Linus Project for hospitalized children.  There were pieces from queen-size quilts (two of which won ribbons at the county fair), and quilted jackets (one of them a 2nd prize winner at the Ohio State Fair).

There were squares from potholders, placemats, wall hangings, tablecloths, curtains, clothing for the family, costumes for the grandchildren, holiday and birthday projects,

I also used scraps to piece the backing and for the binding.  The only fabric I bought was for the background.  My label is in the form of a pocket so I can print out this post and keep it with the quilt to describe how special it is.

So many hours of sometimes pleasant and sometimes frustrating sewing over the past 10 years!  Making this memory-filled quilt made me realize I’d like to do something like this every January, using a piece from each project of the preceding year.  It may be a small project like a table runner or pillow cover, depending on how many items I made in a year, but it will be a nice reminder.

My Fading Charms Quilt measures 36×36 inches and there are a few repeats of charms because I wanted to use only fabric that had been in a previous project.  It is a nice size as a topper for my loveseat in a bedroom.  The scrappy quilt goes well with the red walls and lodge theme.

The quilt is also a perfect size for hanging over the loveseat.

This is a good quilt to make whether you’re rummaging through drawers of old scraps or cutting nice, fresh fabric.  I like it very much.

The granddaughter and quilt that started it all

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