For Charlie

My friend Tish is about to have her second baby - like next Monday I believe. His name is Charlie and I'm sure he is going to be just the cutest, sweetest little thing in the world (taking after his sister Sofia, of course.) Anyway, Tish lives in San Diego and she is decorating Chrlie's room in retro cowboy style. I, of course, wanted to contribute to the decor, so she sent me some fabric and I whipped up a couple of things for him. They are in the mail and hopefully will arrive before Charlie does.

I made a "bunting." So I had no idea that is what these pennant banner things were called. But after much perusing of the world wide web, I found myself very well educated on the various types and construction methods of buntings. Who knew there were so many possibilities or that they were so popular these days? I had seen them in a few magazines and blogs, but it wasn't until my friend Shelley blogged about the one she made for her niece's wedding that I felt truly inspired. Then, my friend Lauren sent me a link for one she found and thought it was a project I might like to try. She was right! When I found out Tish was doing the cowboy theme, I thought this would be perfect. And now that I have a machine does does applique - bingo!

This was a super fun project to put together and I now have mounds of ideas floating in my head for more to do in the future. For this one I used red, denim and cow print for the background and yellow felt letters (which I printed from my computer and cut out and traced on the felt) which I appliqued with yellow thread and finished it with yellow double fold bias tape. I didn't use any interfacing or batting and they seemed to be heavy enough without it. There are definitley a few things I will do different the next time - like appliqueing the letters before sewing the front and backs of the trianlges together. Here are a couple of close-ups:

Since I had some leftover fabric I couldn't resist making one more thing. I asked Tish if she wanted a wall hanging or a decorative pillow. She chose a pillow, so I did this one with denim and red on the front and cow print on the back. It was supposed to be a bit larger, but I had a hard time with my measurements for some reason and kept screwing up until this was the size I was left with. Oh well, still cute. My favorite part is the sheriff's badge with "Deputy Charlie" on it

Now every baby needs a special sofite, right? Leif loved the ones I made for him when he was a baby, so I couldn't resist making one for Charlie. While not in his cowboy theme, I still had a bunch of this cute zoo animal fabric. I put buttery yellow satin on the back and loops of colorful ribbons around the perimeter for him to play with.

Leif's Silly Squares

"Silly Squares"
Size: 26" x 32"
Pattern: original design
Completed: Fall 2006
Made in: Hawaii
Given to: Leif Kalama

Machine pieced and quilted on a Pfaff Hobby 301

.

The story: After I finished Leif's larger baby quilt I had a bunch of scraps of the fabric leftover and decided he needed a small travel quilt as well. For each block, I paired two fabrics and stacked them and cut them and then sewed them up. It was super quick (I think I finished in a couple of days.) This is the quilt I would take with us when we went places and I wanted to lay him down. He never became very attached to it, but every now and again he asks to sleep with it.

.
These are close-ups of each of the nine blocks:

Here you can see the green polka dot border and wavey blue and green binding:

A Work In Progress

I am almost all caught up on blogging about all my past projects. I just have a few left (and two that I don't have pics of - hint, hint Maggie and Richelle). Once I am finished with the past projects the updates will be scarce, since it usually takes several months (or more) to finish a project. So I will blog about the progress of current projects.

Here is what I am working on right now. It is a lap size quilt that we will be hanging on the wall in our living room (to add some color to the room since we can't paint and just have white walls.) The fabric was a Christmas gift from my in-laws and I LOVE it. It was a Moda Jelly Roll and the pattern is Strip Off by G.E. Designs. I also got a Layer Cake (9" squares) of the same line of fabric and will be making a coordinating throw for the couch and with the scraps I am going to recover our couch throw pillows. I think it will look pretty good when it's all put together. In the meantime, here is a peek at the project.

The Golden Rectangle

Please bear with me through this little lesson in mathematics. It is quilt-related, I promise.

.

From Wikipedia: "A golden rectangle is a rectangle whose side lengths are in the golden ratio, 1-to-phi, that is, or approximately 1:1.618. A distinctive feature of this shape is that when a square section is removed, the remainder is another golden rectangle; that is, with the same proportions as the first. Square removal can be repeated infinitely, in which case corresponding corners of the squares form an infinite sequence of points on the golden spiral, the unique logarithmic spiral with this property."

It can be seen in nature: The Nautilus Shell

In art: The Mona Lisa

In ancient architecture: The Parthenon

The Golden Spiral and Golden Rectangle are also found in galaxies, sunflowers, pineapples and in the human body. Pretty amazing.

And now it is found in our computer/sewing room:

"Cory's Golden Rectangle"

Size: 36" x 24"

Pattern: The Golden Rectangle

Completed: October 2008

Made in: Hawaii
Given to: Cory Bennett

Machine pieced and quilted on a Pfaff Hobby 301

.

The story: Cory is a mathematics teacher and loves math (he reads books about math for fun.)Back before I even finished my first quilt he told me he would like a golden rectangle quilt. I never forgot that and this past October I finally got around to making one for him. I used batkis - his favorite type of fabric - and did a very tight quilting in each square. Then I quilted the golden spiral (which I had to have him chalk out for me) in a gold thread. It doesn't show up quite as much as I wanted and due to the tight quilting the quilt doesn't hang very flat, but he loves it and I enjoyed doing something very different.

Here you can see the individual squares, the quilting, and a bit of the Golden Spiral.

Here you can see how the two smaller squares paired with the larger square make a Golden Rectangle.

A close-up of the quilting in the largest square.

Bits of Blue and Green

"Leif’s Quilt"
Size: 42" x 50"
Pattern: Flea Market Fancy by Denyse Schmidt
Completed: Fall 2006
Made in: Hawaii
Given to: Leif Kalama

Machine pieced and quilted on a Pfaff Hobby 301

.

The story: This is the quilt I made for Leif while I was pregnant. I saw a picture of a beautiful quilt by Denyse Schmidt in an ad in one of my quilting mags and knew that was what I wanted to make for the baby. Cory and I chose the fabrics together at Kaimuki Dry Goods in town. It was somewhat difficult because we had to pick a ton a fabric. But it was fun, too. We ended up with a bunch of mostly blues and greens and threw in a duckie and frog and cars with surfboards. There is definitely an island feel to some the fabrics which goes perfectly in his room. I modified the pattern slightly and cut all the pieces straight instead of not straight as indicated in the pattern. It definitely doesn't look as well organized or cohesive as the original in the picture, but we love it. And Leif knows I made it for him and that's the most important thing. I backed it with a light green on green polka dot flannel and bound it with the blue and green wavey fabric. The only problem? Leif hates blankets and has refused to sleep with it. Hence, why it is hanging on the wall. Oh well!

A Koi Little Bag

This is a Monk's Bag I finished last night as a sample for the next mommies sewing project at the end of May. I have posted before about these "classes." They are free and at my house - which gives me an excuse to mop the entire house once a month! It's just a few (6-8) of my mommy friends from Honolulu Mommies who want to learn to sew. We pick a simple project and spend about 4 hours working on it. This will be the most ambitious project our group has tackled and may take two gatherings to complete.
I found this project at The Purl Bee. They have a great tutorial and it was pretty simple to put together. The fabric came from my stash - the Koi is leftover from a table runner I made a few years ago and the blue is leftover from Leif's baby quilt. I did make the straps a bit narrower than the pattern indicated to accomodate my smaller size and used just two fabrics instead of three. I am very pleased with how it turned out and have already started a second one.


A close-up of the blue Koi.

Here you can see the inside lining of the handles.

Here is the interior pocket.

Butterfly Bliss

"Butterfly Bliss"
Size: 37" x 37"

Pattern: original design using 9" Snowball Blocks

Completed: April 2009

Made in: Hawaii
Machine pieced and quilted on a Janome 6600

Given to: Mary Hirose for baby Jacquelyn

.

The story: I just finished this baby quilt for my friend Mary - well for her baby Jacquelyn, who will be arriving in a few short weeks. Mary's husband Keaka does not like pink, so I chose to use purple for the sashing and binding. The blocks are 9" Snowballs with triangles of bright flowers in the corners. I used a pink and purple tulip fabric for the backing. This was a fun quilt to make and I think she really liked it. The best part was the binding, which went on like a dream once I figured out I had to adjust my needle position when using my 1/4" Accufeed foot. Oh the joy of learning a new machine!

The butterfly block. The other blocks were just a mottled print of the same colors, but no butterflies.

A close-up of the quilting and the corner triangle.

A close-up of the butterfly cornerstone. I had to fussy-cut to get 4 good butterflies.