Covering Cindy: Day 2

I added the second green to 12 of the squares today. The last 6 require another fabric which I have to cut and do, and little miss cranky sleep-be-damned Katie squashed any hopes of getting it done during my quilting time. I let myself work on quilting during her first nap of the day, since it's a highly variable nap and is usually too short to be worth working on schoolwork. And I need a break after 4 hours at school followed by an hour of Katie. It's my little oasis of quiet and creativity in an otherwise stressed out, studious or Katie-chasing day.

The greens are coming together nicely and I think the colors will really flow. I'm debating on a few layouts and will have to make a decision before I add the third (final) round of colors. I also have to look for more of each fabric to do the borders or the borders will end up looking pretty unplanned. Nothing like an unplanned mismatched border to ruin an otherwise cool quilt. Take my word for it.

The quilting today was more stressful than fun, which irritates me. Katie refused to fall asleep and I was frustrated so I let her work it out herself, meaning I let her yell at me from her room on the "other side of the house" which sounds impressive but is actually about 30 feet away. I finally gave up on her nap and put her in a sling but then she was wiggly and kept grabbing at no-nos, like the hot iron, rotary cutter, scissors, etc. I set her on the floor and offered her a basket of scrap fabrics to unpack, but she insisted on pulling out all my patterns and shredding a few covers instead. Stressful. And messy. I finally just dropped her back in her crib with a handful of toys before I snapped at her and now she's peacefully playing, but I'm still ticked off.

So this is all I got done today. I hope to finish the rest of the greens tomorrow and plan the final layout so I can start adding the last round of pinks. So far I really like the diagonals of greens and purples/pinks grouped like this, but I may opt for a zig-zag design. Both patterns will be much more distinct with the third round of color added.

Covering Cindy: Day 1

Cindy, my sweet baby sister, will be graduating high school a year from now. It's bittersweet for me, as I started my undergraduate studies the same day she started Kindergarten. Now she's graduating high school just as I will, hopefully, be finishing my PhD. We've both come a long way, Cinders.

So in honor of our transformations, I will be transforming this pile of pinks, purples, greens, and one really awesome black cherry print into an extra-long twin-size quilt.

I'm going to do another log-cabin square design. It involves adding layers of two shades, which I've complicated by using multiple prints of each shade. Here is what I have so far. The cherry print is the center square, since she loves cherries and I couldn't think of a better way to personalize it for her than to showcase some Bing cherries. I've pieced two of the three layers of pinks/purples/reds onto one side and have started the three layers of greens on the other. When I'm done there will be 18 squares with 3 layers of pink and 3 layers of green each to make a 3x6 design for the quilt. And with any luck it'll look cool.

Quilts thus far

I made this quilt with the help of my mommy group. A dear friend was moving away so all the babies had their handprints added to squares and their names embroidered underneath. The squares were pieced together with fun bright prints to liven it up. It was a total surprise to the departing friend and I know she gets a lot of use out of it with her son and enjoys knowing her friends miss her as much as she misses us.

This is a hodgepodge collection of tshirts from Rob's and my college and highschool days. It's still just in a pieced top form, I have to sandwich it and quilt it. It's fun to look back on all of the trips, concerts, games, and plays we were involved in. Rob and I were so different in high school I don't know if we would have ever spoken if we'd known each other then. The classic sports vs. music divide. We were both geeks above all else, though, so I'm sure we would have known each other, but I probably would have dismissed him as a sports geek and he would have written me off as a music-geek hippy chick. Thankfully college opened our minds a little before we found each other.
I made this baby quilt for my sister-in-law when she was expecting her daughter. It has pinwheels in the corners and chicken-scratch lace embroidery work of two pigs, two chickens, and two cows. Blocks around the quilt contain the alphabet, the family name, and the word "BABY". It was such a labor of love to piece the squares, knowing they were going to be a family heirloom someday. I pieced the quilt and finished some of the embroidery, but the majority of the embroidery, the marking, and much of the quilting was done by my awesome cousin Michele and my extended family.




My first real pieced quilt. It's a log-cabin style throw. Rob helped me piece it one cold winter day in 2000. He ironed the pieces and kept me company while I sewed the strips on my ancient White sewing machine. He agreed to help me iron "just for a few minutes" and ended up doing almost every seam, God bless him. Ah, to be newlyweds again and be willing to put up with each other's annoying hobbies.

It's not actually finished here, the edging is raw and the quilting isn't done. It did finally get finished in 2001 and is probably the most used blanket in the house. Rob curls up under it every morning while he dozes during the morning nap shift, and it's frequently spread out for a picnic or playtime in the yard or just to soften the floor where Katie is playing.