TGIFF: Another Minky Baby Quilt Done!

What a joy it is to give the gift of a quilt! Even if it is 6 months late and to a little one who doesn’t quite understand that he’s getting a gift made with love and sweat and tears. Even with all of that, it’s still a wonderful moment to gift to someone a quilt you’ve made with them in mind.

I was blessed with two nephews in one year. They are two months apart and both are the sweetest things. I adore them both and enjoy being their Aunty Keki.

For their first birthdays I decided to make them a minky quilt each. For Logan, I made a grey and neutral colored quilt with zoo animals and it matched his crib and decor perfectly. After working with minky on that quilt, I grew more confident and knew that I could make Watson one, too!

And I got lucky! I found this great off-the-bolt fabric in colors that matches Watson’s nursery with nautical animals. He’s all about that narwhal.

With minky and fabric in hand, I put together this little baby quilt but ran into some technical problems. My machine was struggling with the minky this time around, something it didn’t do with the first minky quilt. I ended up taking it in to be services and that slightly solved the problems.

In the end, I got through it with a simple wavy line quilting pattern and I ended with some hand binding. I do like to attach the minky binding to the back and hand stitch to the front because it gives it a nice, cozy edge to the whole thing. And for a little guy I wants as much cozy as possible!

Well, it finally happened (6 months late…) The quilt is finished and Watson now has his own Aunty Keki quilt of his own.

Even though quilting on minky is kind of a pain in the tush, it looks great and just blends in nicely. And I love that minky binding. It may seem crazy to bind in such a thick fabric but it looks great when finished.

And the little man loved it too!

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TGIFF: My Circa Quilt

This past week and I was able to sit down and wrap up another quilt! My Circa quilt was started in May of 2015. I used a Missouri Star Quilt Co. tutorial on their YouTube channel called the Double Sliced Layer Cake. It was a really simple pattern and made for a really dynamic top.

The Circa layer cake has a really vintage feel to it with the muted colors and the pops of red. So I chose to frame this top with off-white and black to give it a clean finish.

I’m super excited about this quilt because it’s MINE! The first one I’ve made just for me. It’s what I would look like if I was a quilt!

I used an Aurifil red thread* to quilt the top in a geometric pattern of boxes. It’s a very tightly quilted top so when washed, it scrunches up really nicely.

I matched the red in the quilt with a red backing framed again by black. Right before I started binding, I did run a quick black straight stitch throughout the border to tack it down.

Now it’s been washed and dried and has the cozy, cuddly look. I still have some threads to bury (as is evidence in the above photo). This quilting pattern took A LOT of thread so there was a lot of stopping and starting. I need to get out my Sench needles to finish up that last step for this beauty.

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TGIFF: The Marvel Quilt

It’s official, my friends. Jake’s Marvel quilt is done! I had been working on this project for 3 years and my son had lately been asking kindly when it would be finished. He wanted a quilt he could use while he could still fit under it.

I’ve been about 85% of the way done for a few weeks with only the last bits of quilting to be done. I started the quilting a little off centered (totally meant to do that….) and I did a simple straight line in a the shape of a square to quilt it down. I used my walking foot and just kept it simple. Due to the off-centering of my square (that I MEANT to do….), I had to improvise as I came around to that last bit of quilting.

But I ran into a few problems that I just couldn’t see my way through.

Then my friend came over for a quilting date and she really helped me solve the issues I was having with the project. She helped me find solutions that got me out of the corner I had backed myself into. I helped me get excited as the light at the end of the tunnel suddenly became brighter.

So I used the motivation from my friend’s visit to get the work done. I squared it up, trimmed the excess, and proceeded to make the binding from the left over backing fabric. I figured this WOW, POW, WOOZE fabric would tie it all together nicely.

I made MORE than enough binding, just in case….

Click here to visit Amazon* for your own Mary Ellen’s Best Press.

Then I sat down and attached it. All the quilting was done in red thread so I continued to use it on the binding. I figured if I messed up anything, it wouldn’t stand out so much when the thread is all the same color.

Normally I hand bind but it’s been hellishly hot and having that much fabric draped over me was uncomfortable enough so I decided to bind with my machine instead. It worked out fine and got the job done fast.

As quickly as the dream had come to me for this block, suddenly I was done! I don’t know what was holding me back for so long because once I got it in me to finish, it just rolled around and was done!

So the problem I had was with the backing. My solid blue fabric was was just NOT big enough and after many trips to the store to buy more fabric and MORE FABRIC every time I ran out of something, I did not want to go back! So using what I had, I made panels on the sides to frame the blue backing. But that made the backing too BIG! It was a battle I was losing.

The decision then was to trim it down to a single panel on one side and leave it. But as I started to quilt, I realized a bottom square was starting to unravel. I couldn’t leave it and quilting it wouldn’t be enough to hold it together so I decided to take it out and replace it with another block that was holding together much better. But that decision made a mess of the bottom row and caused it to shift. Now my backing wasn’t lining up and trimming it would mean losing some of the borders…..GAH!!!!

It was my friend’s eye that helped me. She suggested I just take that same “word” fabric (WOW,  POW, WOOZE) and add a strip to the bottom at the back so that it lined up. And it worked perfectly!

What can I say! My son loves his quilt! He’s already slept with it a few nights and he’s excited for it to soften up with use.

And I can proudly say that I officially made him a quilt long before he out grew it! YAY!!

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TGIFF: Noodle’s Baby Quilt!

Not too long ago I finished a small baby quilt for my nephew, Noodle. No, he’s not actually named Noodle but that’s pretty much what I call him 100% of the time! It was a cute little nickname that stuck and now he is forever my Noodle!

He turned 1 in February and I had a baby quilt already started that I thought would be perfect for him. It’s original owner had already outgrown this fabric and when Noodle came around in 2017 I knew it would be perfect for him. Not only is is small enough for him to carry with him but it matches his nursery room color scheme and it’s made of soft minky that he can snuggle with.

It was pretty much done when I decided to gift it to him. All I had to do was quilt it down and bind it. I made the choice to use minky as my backing fabric even though I had never worked with it. I had heard so much about minky being a difficult fabric to work with that I was a bit gun shy so it sat in a corner for quite some time. Then I received Noodle’s birthday invitation and that meant I needed to get over my fears and concerns and just finish it!

So I chose a simple wavy line/meander for the quilting. I did one set in a light grey and then went back over it with a darker grey. The quilting kind of reminds me of flames with the way the tips of the quilting came to a stopping point before I turned it back around to quilt to the other side.

Because I quilted with the minky against the machine, it sailed smoothly under my free motion foot and I found it super easy to just go. It does make quite the mess but in the end, the outcome was worth all the fuzz I endured! I also made it my goal to stop as little as I could manage so that I had less stitches to bury.

Ignoring the laundry I so badly needed to finish (real life photo right there), I decided to hand bind the quilt with more minky. Boy was it bulky! But the overall look was worth every curse word uttered while binding it.

And here it is! The comfy, cozy, fuzzy baby quilt for my little Noodle!

It’s not perfect but I wasn’t aiming for perfect. I just wanted something adorable and cozy for him to drag along behind him through his baby years.

The quilting is simple yet really attractive against the different patterns in the fabric. The polka dotted squares blend well with the bumps in the minky.

It’s warm and soft, perfect for a little guy who likes to explore and touch things, curious about how things feel.

I made 9 patch blocks and then cut into them and matched them up before putting them back together. I actually posed a question to other quilters about what I should do for the borders. It was overwhelmingly expressed that I could leave it just as it is, all unsymmetrical. It wasn’t easy; I may not be a pattern follower but I love a good symmetry to my quilts. In the end, the suggestions were heard and I left it as it was, all unbalanced.

And even though it was a pain to bind with minky due to the extra bulky and the slip, I think that the binding really ties it together and makes this already comfy quilt even more inviting to cuddle with!

Happy Birthday my little Noodle!

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TGIFF: The Beatles Quilt

Each time I’ve completed a quilt, I go through a myriad of feelings.  Joy, excitement, sadness and accomplishment.  All this and soooo much more filled my heart when I put the last stitch in the binding of The Beatles Quilt, a.k.a. “Blackbird”.

It’s taken two years to complete, and it’s been worth every single second!  I wrote about it’s progress in WIP Wednesday: The “Revolution” Beatles Quilt, and Katie and I talked about it on our podcast called Blackbird Quilt Episode #81.   As you might have guessed, this quilt has gone through a few name changes, and though he has settled on “Blackbird”, I’m not writing that title in cement lol!

Though Reg had wanted to hand quilt this piece on his own, he decided to turn it over to the very creative and capable hands of our longarmer, Karen Kimmel of Long Beach, CA. She did an amazing job, and worked hard to translate Reg’s vision into reality. To say she succeeded in spades, is an understatement!  (The video below is Reg’s reaction after getting his quilt back from Karen!)

It still boggles my mind to think that my hubby started with his coveted White Album inspired guitar strap, and ended up with an original, one-of-a-kind quilt!

He started with these images…

…and ended up with THIS!

I’m looking forward to partnering with my husband again on yet another musically inspired quilt. Maybe the Foo Fighters? Jimi Hendricks? How about The Who?!? These and so many more names have been discussed in the past couple of months as “Blackbird” was getting closer to being finished.

I can’t wait!

Hugs,

Dori

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Blackbird Quilt Episode #81

Welcome back to Hobbies Up To Here!!
In this episode we sit down and share the life and process of The Beatles quilt! It’s gone by many names (all Beatles titles) and it’s currently being called The Blackbird Quilt. No matter how it has been known, it’s now got a reputation that precedes it. And rightfully so! The quilt is a project thought up by my dad and with the help of my mom and many other friends, has been brought to life!

For more pictures and details on the Blackbird Quilt, make sure to head over to our Instagram page where all of our pictures in progress have been posted!

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TGIFF: The Friendship Quilt

Guess what got finished this summer??? If you said “Katie, did you finally finish that Friendship Quilt for your husband??” you’d be absolutely right!

As promised to myself and my husband, I finished his damn quilt before the end of summer 2017 (which was only 2 years after I began it)!!

Ok, ok, it took me forever but it’s done, and it’s been used heavily since it’s completion.

This project was a success and a defeat all rolled into one. My original quilting wasn’t working so I ripped it out and started over.

While I’m happier with the end result, I still could have done a better job. I didn’t quilt much in the borders so it’s a bit looser than I’d like. I think my issue was that I was DONE with this quilt and didn’t want to do more. I just wanted it finished.

Either way, it’s done! And the husband loves it.

And so do I!

And it looks great on our bed.

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Frankie Baby!

To say that my husband is proud of his very first fully completed quilting project is an understatement!  From start to finish, he did everything…choosing the pattern, the fabrics, the hand embroidery, the appliqué process, the quilting, the binding and sewing on the buttons.  ALL OF IT!  And I’m sure you’ll agree it’s not only adorable but it’s also fabulously executed!

This is the pattern that Reg chose.  Isn’t that button pack cute!?

Using the light box he made for me, Reg traced all the appliqué shapes carefully on Wonder-Under, which I had on hand.  There were soooo many pieces lol!  Then he fused the pieces to well chosen fabrics that he felt Frank would be stylin’ in.

Choosing a light green fabric for Frank’s skin tone, was a no-brainer.  Reg insisted Frank’s pallor was important!

Here’s where Reg’s vision really came into play.  He wasn’t satisfied with the pattern’s suggestion for a background.  So, while on the So. Cal. Quilters Run, we kept a look out for some sort of Halloween fabric that would suffice.  We found a beautiful panel that made all the difference, and helped Frank to look like he was almost three dimensional.

Though Reg has needlepoint experience, he’d never done embroidery before.  He chose to do a simple backstitch with black embroidery thread.  He even learned how to bury threads between the layers!

Reg has always been a bit wary of my sewing machine.  But, determined to do this all on his own, he allowed me to teach him how to use a buttonhole stitch to anchor the raw edged appliqué pieces.  He first tweaked the stitch a bit to his liking, then setting the speed to low, patiently stitched every curve and difficult point.  Then he switched gears and quilted around the tree branches and the haunted house.

He’s definitely a “go big or go home” kinda guy.  When stitching the handle on Frank’s treat bag, he chose this bright silk ribbon.  Now…have you noticed something different about this and the last photo?  The fussy cut spider treat bag is different, yes?  Welllll….that’s because Reg wasn’t happy with the first go at Frank.  So he made a completely NEW one!  There were a couple of things that he did differently, but he’s much happier with how the second wallhanging came out.

Ta Da!  And here he is, all ready to go trick-or-treating!

That FACE!!!

The bag is perfect!

I’m not a natural teacher.  Trying to translate skills that I’ve practiced for more than forty-five years was daunting for me.  I take them for granted, and with Reg being a complete beginner, I needed to remember to include the absolute basics.  He patiently listened and learned quickly.  At times, he even questioned my methods! Being quite open minded and the type who thinks outside the box, he often implemented his own ideas on how he wanted to proceed.  Trust me, I had to let go of my pride and ego to allow him to experiment and do his own thing!

Are you gearing up for the Halloween season?  How so?  Do you create and add to your collection every year?

We’d love to hear!

Dori

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Gettin’ It Done All By Himself (almost)!

A few years ago, my son asked if I could teach him to sew and piece a block. Oh he was a cute little thing then and really took to piecing the bright colors from a simple fabric kit I had bought.

Then a long lapse in time away from the craft room happened and about two years ago we got back to piecing his block and completing it.

He was pretty happy with his block but it didn’t keep his attention long enough to come back to it and do any more or anything else to that one block. What can I say,  Pokemon and soccer occupies the majority of his attention!

After along time collecting dust in the closet, he finally asked again to pull out that block and make something of it. He really wanted to quilt it himself especially after having watched a long arm machine run in a shop we had visited. Watching the beast of a machine smoothly lay down stitches in a beautiful swirling pattern was enough to inspire him.

So I sandwiched his block with some random fabric from my stash and some scrap of batting left over from a bigger project. He’s really into purple these days so finding a swatch of purple and black fabric was just what he wanted.

His quilting was simple. Using a walking foot, he echoed the colorful swatches in his block. I guided him here and there but for the most part he did the work all himself. He kept his speed low and simply walked along to quilt his block together.

He helped me trim his block but using the rotary blade has always been tough for him. I’m making a note to myself that he needs a blade that works for both right and left handed people.

I really wanted him to help with every part of the process so he pressed and arranged his binding strips after I sewed them together.

It took a bit of team work but he pinned the binding down and got himself all set up to sew it to his block.

That walking foot sure came in handy. Every time he sat at the machine, it was the only foot he used. I figured with all the fabric and the larger base on the foot to line up against the edge, it would all make it easier for him to get done what he needed.

At this point he informed me he wanted to hand stitch the binding. I was pretty impressed. That’s a big task to undertake! But I happily set him up and gave him some pointers until…

UH OH!

My poor kiddo. When will I ever learn that he’s a lefty!!! I mean I’ve only been his mom for 11 years!! I started him off in the direction a right handed person would sew but once I handed it to him, he realized that wasn’t going to work for him.

He gave it a good try but it just wasn’t turned right and he was more frustrated than anything. Trying to sew the binding upside down just wasn’t going to work. I apologized and promised I would get it right next time and decided to just have him finish it off on the machine.

And here is his very first finished block! Now he did help to make his Darth Vader quilt but I did the quilting and binding. This time, he did most of it himself with only some help from me.

He’s pretty stinking proud of his mish-mash block with flowers on the back and stripes on the front. It took him some time to finally feel the need to do something with it but in the end, he’s happy and I’m so proud.

Guilded Episode #68

It’s official, Dori has joined a guild!
In this episode we update you on our health, our finished projects, and our time at the Orange County Quilters Guild quilt show!

Dori recent gave a beauty a hack a try. After watching this video, she attempted an “eye lift” technique that ended up best saved for the pros.

And it turns out that my chicken tender Pinterest recipe was a pass except that I accidentally used pancake mix instead of flour to dredge the chicken in before coating. HAHAHA! Only I would make a goof like that!

We both had some very big finishes this week!

Dori finished my sister Jennifer’s quilt, the curved log cabin quilt!

I finished my splendid sampler table topper!

I did my binding using this video from Youtube. It’s a great demonstration of how to bind using your backing fabric.

We got to go to the Orange County Quilters Guild annual quilt show.
We saw fabulous quilts and met with wonderful vendors like:

• Stitchin’ By The River
• Michelle’s Aprons & Creations
• Private Source Quilting
• Generations Textiles
• Rusty Crow
• The Quilt Cupboard

There was a lot to see and do, so definitely check out our Instagram page (link below) to see some of the quilts and goodies from the show!

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