Quilty Things

A small retrospective of quilty things I've made over the last few years. Been meaning to gather them all on their own page for a time... Finally got around to doing it. I had fun going back into the archives and finding each one. Hunting through old posts. Searching for buried treasure. I found stuff my tiny brain had pretty much purged. This is the beauty of blogs, isn't it?

Did you notice all the different backgrounds? I never realized it before, but I guess I don't like to repeat myself. Nope, I surely don't like to repeat myself. I am a fan of variety. Variety rocks my socks.

Hey... Can you spot any quilty trends?

Here are the various links if you're curious to know more about any of these projects:

1) Lo's Quilt 2) So Early In The Morning 3) Kept in Stitches Kaleidoscope 4) City Streets  5) Raspberry Rows 6) Sand and Beach Balls 7) Baby Shoo-Fly 8) Dresden Placemats 9) Hexistential

♥M

Quilty Gift Finish: Baby Shoo-Fly

The other day, a bloggy friend left a comment expressing her surprise at the number of quilts I had on the go. I, in turn, was surprised by her surprise, assuring her that two quilts didn't seem like an outlandish number to me... But she assured me back that the number of quilts I was working on was, in fact, three. And she was right. It was. IN fact. THREE. Namely, the baby shoo-fly, the hexie and the Craftsy BOM.

How utterly embarrassing. I mean I totally totally totally forgot about that Craftsy one. Suddenly, there I was with three quilts on the go, and I didn't even KNOW it. Not to mention the fact that I was clearly denying a perfectly real quilt's existence all over cyberspace. Like, really. How does this happen?

I suspect I may be losing it.

Anyway... so the embarrassment motivated me to get on top of this baby shoo-fly project lickety-split and get those quilty numbers down man! I don't like having a ton of unfinished projects. Oh don't get me wrong, I HAVE unfinished projects. I just don't LIKE having them.

Happily, today I can report that I have one less unfinished project. Yip yip!

Okay so. What can I tell you about this quilt?... Um, this baby shoo-fly is a gift for my shiny new little niece. It is machine-pieced and hand-quilted by me in what I'm going to call a bull's eye pattern. See on the back there?... The hand-quilting gives it a very crinkly texture which I kinda love. It has a cozy and warm polka-dot flannel back ideal for our teeth-chattering Canadian winters, and an orange polka-dot binding.

I'm checking this one off the list right now... Celebratioooon! Two remaining quilts to complete, and then my quilting horizons are wide open. Like, wide open.

♥M

No Rush.

Sometimes it's nice to set the speedometer to slow...

and enjoy the easy pace of a little hand-quilting...

♥M

Previous posts about this quilt: HERE

A Collaborative Quilt

I had the pleasure of sharing the making of this vibrant quilt with my youngest sister Ariane. It's gotta be one of my all-time favourite projects. While visiting my parents this past weekend I re-discovered it and just had to share it with you. Every time I encounter it, I love it more.

The unnamed queen-size quilt was made a few years ago as a gift for my parents' wedding anniversary. It lives in our beautiful childhood home (in my old bedroom in fact) where my parents reside to this day. It was created after a pattern by Lynn Roddy Brown in her book Simple Strategies for Scrap Quilts. In fact, our inspiration quilt is right there on the cover.

I remember Ariane and I getting together to make our version of the nine-patch, the discussions over colour, the pooling of resources, the shopping trips, the strip-cutting, the chain-piecing. I also remember my sister lugging her old reliable sewing machine to and from my house. I remember us sitting there at my dining room table each at our old machines, chatting and sewing, sewing and chatting. We machine-pieced the quilt but when it came to quilting, we decided to hand-quilt it. We quilted it on our laps, echoing the simple piecing.

Working on this quilt with my sister is a memory I will always cherish. One I hope to repeat again. And possibly again after that. Maybe one day Ariane?

♥M

HERE is Ariane's post about this quilt from back in 2009.

Eleventy-One Days of Hexagons

Okay, I admit it.  ↑  is not as exciting as it once was. I've been working on  ↑  everyday for 111 days now and I tell you. Sometimes I just want to throw  ↑  in the river. If only I had a river.

Then again, whether I want to work on  ↑  or not doesn't really come into play anymore. I do  ↑  anyway because  ↑  has become something of a habit. Every morning I devote some time to  ↑  and I will continue to do so until  ↑  is done. Like  ↑  or not.

The thing is, I would never be where I am if I hadn't put myself on this strict do-it-or-else regimen. As a consequence, I am seeing the progress. I am witnessing the fruit of my work. And when I get to the end, will it all have been worth my effort?

Hex, yeah.

♥M

Previous posts about this hexagon quilt:  here and here and here and here

Other hexagon projects: here.

A Little House Quilt

This colourful little quilt was made several years ago now. Back in ancient times. Pre-blog. I re-discovered it the other day whilst attempting to clean my basement work room. It was under a mountain of junk on my work table and when I glimpsed its dark borders I thought, hmm, I've never shared that little guy... Is now the time?... Yes, I told myself, now IS the time.

As you can plainly see, it's a scrappy little thing. I can spy some of my boys' old cotton shirts in there and fabric from other projects too. I love that about scrappy quilts...

I made several simple pieced house designs and repeated them a few times each throughout the quilt using different scraps. The sky area around each house is quite tightly hand-quilted. Originally, I had every intention of adding embroidery details here and there but ran out of steam before getting around to it. Come to think of it, that may account for why I haven't shared it until now. It was never really finished in my mind... But I think this is the way it's going to stay.

Sometimes you just have to let things go. You know?

♥M

Lost: A Cautionary Tale

My tale begins one sunny summer afternoon about 6 months ago, roughly 3 months into the creation of this blog. I had just completed a post. I don't recall which one exactly, but it may well have been a Feast post because that series was in full swing at the time. I was sitting at my dining room table. I had just pressed the "Publish" button. Now I don't know about you, but I always get butterflies just before I press that button. I don't know why. You'd think that after 9 months of blogging the mixed feeling of nausea, nerves and utter excitement, that "high" that occurs at publication time, would have waned a little. But it hasn't. It's still there, strong as ever. And it was there that day too.

And as always, the first thing I do once I've published, is to check that everything is good with the post. It never is. There is always some glaring error to be found when I do my check after publication. Always always.

So on that day, 6 months ago, when I went to check my post, I was a little irked when up popped a message from Blogger that said something like: "You have incorrectly entered the blog url. That blog does not exist."

Funny, I thought to myself, I didn't even "enter" my blog url, I just pressed the link that Blogger provides on the "Your-post-has-published-successfully" page. What's going on?

So I tried entering my blog url. Same message.

What followed is something that I do not wish on my worst blogging enemy. It went something like this.

1. An attempt to remain calm.
2. A stoic search for Michele Made Me in every possible way my non-technical brain knows how to search the web.
3. The realization that I had never backed up my blog.
4. A groundswell of tears.
5. A desperate search for others on the web who'd undergone this same thing. This was horrifying, as it is - from what I learned that day - relatively common for blogs to disappear into the ether never to be seen again.
6. An unstoppable flow of tears.
7. The realization that ALL that work was gone.
8. Inconsolable sobbing on the kitchen floor.
9. Desperate emails to Blogger Help to see if they could do ANYTHING followed by zero helpful replies.
10. A growing hillock of soggy tissues on the kitchen floor.
11. The realization that the universe was trying to tell me that blogging was NOT to be.
12. The realization that I wasn't good enough or smart enough to be a blogger.
13. The realization that I didn't DESERVE the happiness that blogging was bringing me.

(#11-13 are bollocks by the way. But I was in full-on self-pity mode at the time, and that is what arose in my crazed head. I was subsequently given a stern talking-to by Lo to NEVER think these things about myself. EVER! He's my man.)

And then Lo came home. I hadn't told him. He took one look at me, and instantly asked in his quiet and concerned way: "What's wrong Mich?"And I couldn't reply... I was beside myself. I just collapsed in his arms and eventually whispered: "I lost my blog".

Followed by a flood of tears. Again.

And then Lo put on his all-business technical hat and started playing around on the computer. He sat there working for quite some time. He found all the same stuff I'd found. The Blogger Help forums with stories of lost blogs. "This blog does not exist". No Michele Made Me. Nothing. I was defeated.

And then about 6 hours after it disappeared... It came back... Just like that... As if by magic... No explanations. No reasons. But there it was.

That was 6 months ago. But it is a moment that is etched in my brain forever, and leads to this little tidbit of advice from me to you:

BACKUP YOUR BLOG.

The alternative is pure, unadulterated blogger hell. And my blog was only lost for 6 hours. Imagine losing EVERYTHING FOREVER? Well... That ain't happening! I've learned my lesson. I back it up regularly.

Just google "How to back up your blog" and you're sure to find the right information for your blog!

Edited to Add:

Read the comments. You will find one by Rebecca, a blogger who recently lost her blog. And then take a few minutes to backup your blog, please.

Now go have yourself a great day!

[Featuring Scott, my In-Laws' dependable concrete pooch, and "Kept in Stitches", the scrappy kaleidoscope quilt I made 2 yrs ago for my In-Laws' 40th Wedding anniversary, machine-pieced and hand-quilted by me.]

The Versatile and Vervy Half-Moon Quilted Scarf

This isn't just a scarf.

Oh it's a scarf, that's true.

But it is also a fabric-batting-binding-yarny-utterly-stash-busted-scrappy scarf. It is a free-motion-machine-slash-hand-quilted-hand-appliquéed-and-couched scarf.

This scarf is a soft and sweet lovey. Roll it up, it's a cozy muff for your cold cold hands. Could it be a wall-hanging, you ask? Very astute of you, I reply.

In a pinch, it's a stream-lined yoga mat. Or a multi-mug mug rug. Tie it around your head and your husband's gypsy fantasies come true.

Don't have a wrist cuff? Oh yes you do.

This scarf is a table runner. Wear it out dancing 'cause it's a sash baby! With this scarf, you're Queen Nefertiti for a day.

This isn't just a scarf.

Or is it?

Click here for the printable pattern and directions, and make one for YOU!

Now go have yourself and great day, will you?

P.S. A reminder... The Great Tissue Box Challenge is on until November 24th, check it out HERE!!!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry: So Early in the Morning

Once again, it's time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side! It's my second time joining in all the quilting loveliness and this time my entry of choice is the first quilt I completed as a full-fledged blogger. Yippee!

I call it "So Early in the Morning". Thusly named because for a while I was suffering from insomnia and found that the hand-quilting was a quiet yet comforting thing to replace sleep so early in the morning. BTW, I'm cured and sleep has returned!

Recommendation: If you want to hand-quilt a whole quilt in a short period of time, don't sleep, and it will get done lickety-split.

Completed at the beginning of May 2010, it is (obviously) a very simple quilt. Modern in a way but old-fashioned too, I think. Four-patches on point as you can see. Hand-quilted along the diagonal of each little square. The design was inspired by this Kaffe Fassett quilt, though I didn't quite follow his pattern leaving the design more to happenstance than his, and refraining also from adding a border. The backing is flannel which gives the quilt a lovely weight and warmth.

Probably my favourite aspect of the quilt other than the hand-quilting (which isn't fully apparent in these photos, goshdarnit) is the binding. I love it! It's soooooo PINK! And, as it turns out, I like pink. I never knew...

Originally meant to cover mine and Lo's bed, it now resides on the bed in the spare bedroom. Unfortunately, it was too small for ours, sigh. But it looks fantastic against the bright orangey-red walls in that room and there, by gum, is where it's staying. (Don't ask about the wall colour. That's a whole nother story.)

So there you have it: the simple yet pretty "So Early in the Morning" quilt!

Now you go have yourself a fantastic evening, and Happy Halloween!

A Quilty Finish: Raspberry Rows

Yay! I'm done! I have been labouring on this quilt which I call: Rapspberry Rows. It was originally intended as a table quilt but guess what? It wasn't meant to be. It's more of a picnic quilt. It belongs outside, out in nature, on a rock or in a meadow. That's where it will be happiest, I think. It is machine-pieced and freehand-quilted (that's my new technical term for just giving 'er, improv-style with a needle and thread!)

If you look closely, you will notice that my triangle tops don't quite line-up. That was actually done intentionally but it didn't quite work out exactly as I planned. Boo. However, I just went with it because, well, I'm lazy. Point blank. And didn't feel like undoing all the work I had done. Live. Learn. Isn't that what it's about? Next time I will plan better. I will BE better.

Here's my binding before it was sewn on. I actually made WAY too much binding! I always make WAY too much binding. So now I have a binding stash. Which is a good thing! It will come in handy, just you wait.

The quilt on the couch with Fido.

Binding and freehand-quilting detail. I love the binding. It's by far, by very far, my favourite part of this quilt. I had the brilliant idea to throw some pieces of yellow fabric (YELLOW!) in it. And for some reason, it looks glorious. When it comes to colour, breaking the rules always pays off, I think.

The quilt in its natural habitat.

You have yourself a great day now!

Quilted Tea Towel Table Topper

I found these cheap tea towels the other day. They were your most plain, most basic, most run of the mill tea towels, but I bought 4 of them because I thought, ya know, I could probably make something with them. I mean, it’s possible, right? I’ve been known to make stuff… At first I thought I’d make some placemats... And then I thought an apron might be cool... Some curtains maybe… Or maybe some napkins… Suffices to say that I had a lot of ideas about what to make with these here tea towels. Decisions, decisions. Eventually I settled on this: a quilted tea towel table topper.

Here’s what I did. I started by cutting the edges off every towel. I found it hard at first to cut into these brand new towels but I (obviously) got over it...

I cut the towels into variously-sized rectangles and squares using the pattern on each towel to guide me. Then I sewed the rectangles together in rows.

I came up with two different row designs which I alternated to give me my final basket weave pattern.

I pinned the rows together…

And sewed ‘em up!

I made some binding. The binding fabric is in my stash and I will NEVER use it all up because I still have like, 3 YARDS of it, and I’ve used it in countless projects, and it’s always there, and it never gets used up… It’s like a relative that comes to visit and then never leaves.

So, once I had the top together, I made a quilt sandwich (yum, my favourite) and basted it together with safety pins no less. Never done that before. And then I decided to MACHINE-quilt it together! What? NO!... YES! You heard me! MACHINE-quilting! It happened here folks! At my house! With ye old Betty the ancient one! I know, I am a little over-excited! But see here! I’ve had Betty for 25 years and I have never machine-quilted with her, she doesn’t have a walking foot and the only “feature” she possesses is the zigzag. The ZIGZAG!!! So. You can understand my astonishment when, after playing with Betty’s two buttons and bravely sliding in the sandwich, she just started quilting! All on her own! Okay, I helped a little. But she did it. Now, obviously, she is not practiced. I dare say the quilting… well… sucks the big one. But I don’t care! She quilted. My Betty quilted by gum! And that’s all that matters.

Here. Here it is... Betty’s first quilt, the tea towel table topper! (snif snif)

I'm joining a few link parties today: Make It Yours Day at My Backyard Eden, Hoo's Got Talent at Night Owl Crafting, and Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts!