White squares baby quilt, fabrics, and a bee

(I admit, I'm not good with quilt names.)

I had some kind of image in my head of white strips with bits of bright color in between. I started sewing strips and squares of color. It didn't quite turn out like I had planned, but I still like it.
Of course, I liked it even more after quilting and washing it. I also like that I didn't have to buy any new fabric for this quilt, except backing. All of the squares and the white were already in my stash. I had enough fabrics for the backing, too, but I wanted a solid backing for this quilt with all of the smaller pieces on the front. Scrappy binding, though.
The finished quilt is about 45 x 55.

The quilt is now for sale in my etsy shop.

I'm going a very different direction with my next quilt (another baby size.) Just the fabrics together for now.

I've been reading what others have been doing in their virtual quilting bees. I liked the idea, but never knew when any of them were getting started. I managed to sign up for one this time. I'm a bit nervous about making quilting blocks for other quilters, but pretty excited, too. You can check it out over here. These are the fabrics I have to make a block for Meagan.

Bundles Still Going

Just wanted to remind everyone about Iraqi Bundles of Love. I'm getting my package together right now. You have until September 7 to get those into the mail.

Quilt Museum

On Friday, I took the kids to the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. It's a pretty small museum, but they had two main exhibits. One exhibit were molas, which are pretty amazing, and I'd never seen so many in person. The other exhibit were quilts, very traditional, from about the 1850s to 1940s, I believe. Most, if not all of them were hand quilted. They were really phenomenal. They could either be inspiring or something that makes you put away your sewing for good. I have no desire to do hand quilting, but the detail was incredible. Even though these were obviously intended to be used on a bed, it was nice to see them hanging.

While the museum was rather small, I will definitely be returning again when their next exhibit opens.

I did it!

I've been thinking about opening an Etsy shop for about a year now. Now, I finally did it!

I have two ready made items in the shop, as well as an option for a custom made quilt. For now, I just have baby quilts, but we'll see later. Check it out, pass on the information if you know anyone looking for a quilt.

One of my quilts for sale is the butterfly quilt I posted earlier. I decided the white background was part of what was bothering me, so I used a light purple batik and a full piece rather than strips. Then, I used the butterfly batik around the outside. Much better. I still used some of the bright pink for the back, along with a strip of purple and more of the butterfly batik. I like a pieced back!
After finishing the butterfly, I wanted to do something completely different. I decided polka dots were in order. I wanted to make a pretty funky quilt. I started with wonky log cabins of a couple of different sizes. I had a great time figuring out how to fit all of them together. I added strips in between blocks to make things fit together. The back is just orange with white polka dots. The binding is all scraps from the front. I am really happy with how it turned out, its so bright and sunny.

Iraqi Bundles of Love

I just wanted to pass on this information if anyone would like to donate to this cause. I'm just cutting and pasting from Kristin's site.

My very own Tech Support & World’s Greatest Husband, AKA, Mr. Incredible, has just launched a short-duration project to “surge” fabric and sewing materials into the area around which he’s posted in Iraq. It is timed to coincide with both Ramadan, and the departure of his units from Iraq.

The project started, as many do, out of a confluence of inspiration and circumstances. It may have started with reading 3 Cups of Tea, an inspirational story not only of one man’s impact, but of his conviction that terrorism can only be fought effectively with education and opportunity, not by force. Follow that with the understanding that when a US military unit leaves an area, although they take with them everything on their master list of what they brought, truth is they leave a whole lot behind as well — bed sheets, small refrigerators, DVDs, old clothes, unused building materials, etc. As one man’s trash is another’s treasure, the idea to donate re-usable materials to local groups emerged. Then came the idea to supplement those resources with more — tailor made for individuals and sewing co-ops trying to make a living in the community.

The basic premise is to make a bundle of fabric and sewing supplies from your own stash, mail it to my hubby’s APO (American) address, and he will facilitate the distribution of the bundles. By bundling teh goodies, it saves time on his end as he won’t have to redistribute the supplies or use excess packaging for them, and it makes it far simpler for his local counterparts to distribute them to those in need.

The project is called Iraqi Bundles of Love, here’s a link to his FAQ page, and we’ve got until September 7, 2009 to bust our stashes and send what we probably won’t get around to using to my man, who will get it to those who will use it right away.