Dressing Up a Three Year Old

Not quilting, but taking up my time for a very important birthday were a set of dress-up clothes in some of the silky, sparkly fabrics I have collected. Dresses, tutus, tunics, long flowing scarves that can be wrapped also as sarongs, and even a boa from my quirky favorite local fabric store, A & E.

My stitching group helped me find tiaras and crowns, and I supplemented with “gold” jewelry collected from Al Rawnak, in Doha, bangles and headpieces, even “gold” jewelry for hands and fingers. Happy happy birthday, little Naomi!

Using Up Old Cuts

“Ah!” my husband sighs as he comes into the quilting lounge, “Back to your favorite colors!”

Am I so predictable? No! But I have had these hundreds of half square triangles for about seven years now and it’s time to get them together and get them out. I will admit I love working with the sea colors, greens through blues to purple, and I loved working on these two quilts, one of which will be a charity quilt and one I will just hang on to because often the right person just comes along.

Using Up Pink Scraps

Don’t you usually have some sort of default for cutting up scraps of leftover fabric? I gravitate towards 2 1/2 inch strips and 2 1/2 inch squares, just because they are so useful, and because when I am using graph paper to plot out what I am going to need, I often use 1 square = 2 inches, so having squares and strips that size just tends to work for me.

And then again, sometimes I have too many squares or strips. I am finding ways to use them up, but sometimes I get bored, or just want to try some other way of doing things.

With grandparenting, I seem to have a lot less time for quilting, but as our group still has requirements for give-away quilts, I spent some time trying to find a way to use the scraps in pleasant quilts.

Pink really is not my favorite color.

Jonathan’s Star

 

My first quilt for 2016; I’ve been working on it sporadically since October. With my husband retired and after-school care for our grandson, I just don’t have the uninterrupted time to focus that I used to have 🙂  I’m not complaining, and at the same time, it is very satisfying to be able to complete a quilt from time to time.

I am using up a bunch of half square triangles that I cut and sewed to make friendship quilts. I’ve had them ummm. . . maybe seven years now, and it’s time to use things up or pass them along. I got bored with the friendship stars and did one of the eight sided stars in the center, just for fun and to practice the principles of medallion quilts, i.e. that borders must relate to the center.