Be Like Mike

 Dear Readers,

One of Celeste's dear friends is having a baby boy.  Celeste called me and wanted me to make a quilt with an LSU theme as the parents to be are both big LSU fans.  I am a big MSU and Ole Miss fan, so it is hard to make an LSU quilt, but the mom to be is such a sweet lady, that I did it.  I decided with would be happy to make her a quilt.  So I found a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman called Antonia Tiger.  Celeste and I decided to make it in LSU colors.  

I had enough purple and gold fabrics from the stash but found the purplish grey for the background and purchased it.  I also bought small cuts of any SEC school that I did not have in my collection and LSU fabric for the back and for a pillow slip.  I usually give my quilts with a pillow slip to store the quilt in and to be used with the quilt.  I also remembered from when Celeste and Jill lived together that Celeste said Jill liked to watch all the SEC football games.  So I put a panel in the back with a patch for all the SEC schools that will be current next year.  I did that because the grad school that Celeste and Jill attended was University of Texas and they will be in the SEC next year, so if I was including that I needed to include the other new schools.  

I did something new with the label.  Celeste had the idea that the girls that she and Jill were friends with would each make a label to go on the back to I sent them each a couple of white squares and a fabric marker, but the postal system only got one of them to me on time, so I put a bunch of blank blocks on the back and will give Jill a marker to have them write their messages to the child or parents on the back.  

Baby shower is tomorrow so I might add photos before I post this.  I did not take any pictures of her getting the quilt, but I sure enjoyed her reaction.  

Sew on,

Terry

The Guardian (updated!)

Dear Readers,

I just finished a quilt that I named "The Guardians" as a baby quilt for my nephew's soon to be born baby girl.  I made it using the pattern Lloyd and Lola by Elizabeth Hartman.  You can click here to check out that or other patterns by Elizabeth Hartman.  

My nephew and his wife hiked Machu Picchu a couple of years ago, so when I saw the pattern, I thought this would be perfect for their little one.  I sent a picture of the pattern to my daughter and she thought they would like it too.  

The pattern had rather daunting cutting chart so I spent a Saturday cutting out the pieces for the llama and the background.  I had already cut the pom poms and the small squares used to snowball the corners of those pom poms.   

First I made the pom pom rows, and the blankets.

then I made the llama bodies, being careful to do the mirror images right...I was saving the faces for last as 
there were lots of little pieces and I wanted to do it in a morning time when I was fresh.

Finally I made the faces!!  They came out good, just had one part that had to spend time with Jack the Ripper.  So I had a flimsy.  

I put it on the long arm and quilted all but the white areas and the eyes and the blankets.  I wanted to make the background look like a mountain range and the brown parts look like fur.  I always like a pattern that is organic in nature.  

The white thread kept breaking so I put it on my sit down machine and did the blankets and the white areas.  

Sew on and if I don't get on again before Christmas...Merry Christmas.

Terry

The mother to be with the quilt - 

Clever Companions

Dear Readers,

My niece had a baby in July.  So I found out her theme was woodland animals.  So, since I loved the fox designed by Elizabeth Harman, I decided to use that.  I had bought her pattern Fancy Forest about a year before.  If you need her book/pattern you might want to check out her page here.

I decided to do it in soft clear colors with a grunge for the background.  I mostly used my scrappy stash for this.  I did buy the grunge for the background.   I found a cute print for the backing that had forest friends on it.  I also made a pillow slip and a crib sheet to send to her too.

I was telling one of my friends, Theresa Pino (an award winning quilter) about the quilt and she suggested I quilt it with a wood grain look...it would give the animals some feel of fur and variety in texture.  I decided to do that!  I quilted this on the sit down quilter.

Here are some close ups of the quilting and the back.

Called this one "Clever Companions".  Enjoy James Dwight S.


Sew long,

Terry