Zoo Party Done!

The final stitches were completed in the wee hours last night—just in time for the baby shower today!


I'm thrilled with how it came together! And it looks just like the EQ design I did. I'll admit, as I was cutting out all of the fabric, I was kicking myself because all of those center diamonds were on the bias. And I had all those half-square triangles on the bias too. Eeep. Fortunately, I tried to be extra careful in handling them, and everything went together without a hitch.


I did free-motion quilting in each of the diamonds and through all of the sashing. I'm pleased with the result. But I realized on Saturday evening when I finally sat down to quilt that I didn't have enough thread to do everything as originally planned. I ended up using three different colors to make it work, and had to skip out on quilting the outside borders. Fortunately, they're pretty narrow (3.5" finished), so it should be fine.


I used a flannel back. It's the first time I've tried that on a quilt. I really like the result as it is very soft and snuggly, and shows off the quilting quite nicely. But I didn't account for the extra thickness when I sewed on the binding. It worked out, but it is stuffed tighter than I'd like. Now I know that in the future, I need to move my needle position over a little so that it will fold over easier.


The mama-to-be and her son are my zoo buddies, thus inspiring the quilt's name. We actually made a trip to the zoo yesterday and she mentioned that she has recently been fascinated by owls. Coincidentally, there is an owl motif in the fabric. So I went ahead and brought that into the label. Ah, serendipity!

And best of all, she loves the quilt! She actually had some tears in her eyes as she unfolded it and looked at it. I'm a very happy and proud quilter right now.

Dear Baby Jane: E-10

Another visit to the way-back machine for this block. This is one of the three I completed back in 2004. And, boy, you can sure tell by looking at it! It is tempting to re-do it (I mean, look at those melons!). But I'm going to keep it. It seems like a big part of creating a Dear Jane quilt is the journey. And it's kind of cool to see where I started and how I've grown since then. My quilting skills have come a long way! :)

This is my journal entry for this block from 2004:

Block number/name: E-10 "Five & Dime"

Date completed: October 25, 2004

Number of pieces: 6

Notes on block: Tonight I attended my first meeting of the Austin Area Quilt Guild Dear Jane Bee! I had been thinking about going since last November, and have just chickened-out every time. But this time when I got the email invitation, I said yes and offered to bring the chocolate treat (I made chocolate-marbled cheesecake squares from Cooking Light). It was at Andi's house. I'm so glad I went!!! All of the ladies (most of whose names I can't remember—ugh) were very friendly and welcoming. I (of course) didn't say much—but really enjoyed listening to what others had to say, and (every so often) I'd say something (but not too much). Man, I'm a chicken!—But I went! Baby steps! This block was pretty challenging for me because of the applique—I'm not too good at it. Far from perfect, but good enough that I want to keep it (has character). I figure by the end of this quilt, I'll be an applique expert.

I'm still struggling to figure out what I want to do color/design-wise. I'm just feeling more and more that I'm going to take Stacy's advice and just go for it—the random look. I'm not sure why this is bothering me so much (enough that I'm still thinking about this decision)—maybe I'm just too anal. So it's good for me, the randomness.

And after this block, I took a 4 year Dear Jane hiatus. Needless to say, I never managed to attend another meeting of the Dear Jane Bee.

Dear Baby Jane: A-3 & C-2

Block number/name: A-3 “Hunter’s Moon”

Date completed: July 18, 2008

Number of pieces: 9

Notes on block: Ah, appliqué. So soothing! Particularly after working on the piecing extravaganza that was A-1 and A-2. This block is very similar to B-7, “World Series.” In this case though, the background is pieced in four sections and there are no diamonds in the corners. I saw one in the flickr group that used two different fabrics. I love how doing that really differentiates the block from B-7, not to mention that the fabric she used really showcased the seams. After seeing that, I did look for a second fabric, but nothing really called out to me. So, one green it is. I’m definitely getting stronger at appliqué, and I’m very pleased with how the block turned out. I’m just not thrilled with its impact (or rather, lack thereof). I’m definitely going to need to start looking for more opportunities to utilize two fabrics—they can really give a block a whole new personality.

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Block number/name: C-2 “Streak of Lightning”

Date completed: July 19, 2008

Number of pieces: 15

Notes on block: I did a combination of piecing and appliqué here. The center diamond motif (with the 9 diamonds) is pieced. Following Anina's suggestion, the pieced background was reverse appliquéd onto the diamond (it seemed like less work than piecing across all those seams and I was in an appliqué kind of mood). Then the two outer diamonds were appliquéd using the freezer paper technique that Anina showed a few blocks back. Still not thrilled with my points there… one of them is awesome, but the other three are so-so. I need to investigate the glue basting method, see if that helps.

This green is from Lakehouse fabrics… such a pretty mossy color with nifty metallic green highlights. Kind of lightning-like, so I thought it fit the block nicely.

And now I’m caught up again! Huzzah! And I've got enough blocks to do a little 9-patch! Now what to do about that sashing...

Dear Baby Jane: A-1 & A-2

Block number/name: A-1 “Pinwheel Gone Awry”

Date completed: July 15, 2008

Number of pieces: 28

Notes on block: It took me two evenings to piece this one together… so many seams, and so many points to be concerned about! I think I did okay. The only part that is nagging at me is the center. When you look closely, it is just not very pretty. On the bright side, because of the high contrast between the green and white, it seems to look pretty good from a distance.

I almost wish I had taken the time to redraft this one. I really like the look of the original with the center pinwheel that kind of bows outward on the sides as opposed to being square. But I’m behind enough on my blocks without taking extra time to re-invent the wheel.

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Block number/name: A-2 “One-Two Buckle My Shoe”

Date completed: July 16, 2008

Number of pieces: 45

Notes on block: I’m really glad I took the time to piece the inner white rectangles (as was done in the original). The effect really is lovely. Like A-1, this one also took me two nights, though it actually felt as if it came together faster and better than that block even though it had a lot more pieces. Of course, fussy cutting all of the green triangles took a good amount of effort. But again, the result was worth it. I’m really happy with this one!

Even though I'm a little behind on my Dear Jane blocks, I've been making lots of progress on other projects. The top is complete for the baby quilt I started over the weekend and the batting is washed and ready so I can baste tonight. I also completed all the setting blocks for the Star Quilt Along and have cut all the sashing strips. Yay, progress! :)

Another baby quilt

My friend just learned that her family may be adopting a little baby girl who is due to be born any day now! This does not leave much opportunity for dilly-dallying about design and fabrics. Time for some decisive quilting action! (And another excuse for a girly quilt!)

Inspired by AJ and her beautiful designs, I whipped out my Electric Quilt program. Lacking any original thoughts of my own though, I adapted a design I found in the June 2008 issue of McCall's Quilting called "Summer Ice":


I had three fabrics in my stash that I knew I wanted to use, all from the Mackenzie collection by Anna Griffin. I really wanted to get a good idea of how they might look in the design, so I made my first attempts at importing fabrics into the program. It's not perfect, but you can definitely get a good feeling about the overall look of the quilt. But I still need to come up with a name for it. On the other hand, that is probably the least of my worries at this point.

Yesterday I went fabric shopping and picked up the other fabrics needed (the pink, green, and blue) and then did my pre-washing. Now I'm ready to cut!

Happy pads

I'm a cloth-diapering mama. I diligently swathe my boy in his hemp prefolds and Thirsties diaper covers at every changing, use cloth wipes, and launder it all myself. Yay for the savings over disposable! Yay for not contributing to landfills!

Since I've been doing that I've had this nagging guilt following me though— I don't use cloth pads myself. I have been a faithful user of disposables my entire adult life. When I think about it, I realize it's for the same reasons that people don't want to use cloth diapers: convenience and less mess. I started thinking, "If it's good enough for my boy (and it's working well), it should be good enough for me too, right?"

I started by looking around online to see what was available. I saw some great looking pads, but the cost just seemed prohibitive—particularly when investing in something that I wasn't even so sure about. So a few weeks ago, I attempted to make my own pads. They turned out not-so-hot, and only moderately functional (it didn't occur to me that if I quilted through the waterproof barrier that it would no longer be waterproof... oops!). It's taken me a few weeks (admittedly, I've not been thinking too hard about this... only once a month or so...) to come up with a better plan, but finally, I think I have.

The result:


Not only do I think they are going to be functional, but they turned out much prettier than the first attempts. And they are all stash! The flannel (left over from a quilt project), scraps of batting, snaps, and even the waterproof layer (some of that rubberized flannel stuff bought long ago for a bib pattern I never got around to making) were all sitting about just waiting to be used. For the pattern, I just traced around my favorite brand of disposable pad and then adjusted the shape to be a little more sew-friendly.

Of course, now the real test is how they perform. I'll find out soon enough. If they work out well, I may try and post a tutorial.

Star Quilt Along, Weeks 10 & 11

I actually finished this one last week, but am only now getting to posting it. Week 10 block:


It came together very easily and I like how it turned out.

Week 11 block:


I really love the final result, but it was a pain! I was having all sorts of problems with my seams and points, and was tearing out stitches right and left. Ugh. I think one of my main issues though was pressing.

Sometimes, pressing is really intuitive for me. But other times I seriously struggle. It's like chess. In chess, you're supposed to always be analyzing the board, making moves in your head many turns before you actually make them. My brain just fails miserably at this. I can't focus so specifically that far ahead and retain what it is I'm supposed to be doing now. Frankly, I am just not a good chess player. And that is how I feel when pressing blocks like these—I'm just not a good presser. Which way should I press this one, knowing that it's going to connect to this and that and then eventually that??? Fortunately, the block looks good—but I know that if I had pressed certain things differently, it would look even better. I really should sit down and make a gameplan, but for a single block in a fun quilt, it just seems like too much.