Zig Alley, the Man's Quilt

My nephew asked if I would make him a quilt when he graduates from high school.
"Sure," I said, "What do you like?" I asked.
"One just like this, it's a mans quilt!" He said as he wrapped my Zig Ally Quilt around his shoulders.

I'd never thought it as "Mans Quilt" But I can tell you that is is a favorite of the engineers. I know I had fun designing and making the kit, this was one of my first kits. I had my friend Alice, who is an incredibly good quilter piece it and another friend, Diane did the long arm work on it.

If you would like this quilt for the man, or anyone else,  in your life I sell the kit which includes the tool to make a perfect square triangle, fabric for the top and binding and complete instructions on my website for $65.

Sister Chicks Quilt Kits

When the Tough Get Cancer the Tough Quilt!

I sat in the parking lot stunned. Really? I kept saying "really" over and over thinking what I heard wasn't really what I'd heard. But it was so, I had a large tumor in my breast and the doctor said it had to come out within a month.

I called the engineer he immediately started coming up with solutions while I hadn't even thought of the problems that he was coming up with solutions for! I know that's what engineers do best so I let him call the kids while I drove home in silence.

A few days later, I was still saying "really" and still didn't want to talk about it. I needed a distraction so I did what any quilter would do, QUILT! I turned off my cell phone, turned up my music and I put together two quilts in two days! 

This is a picture of Robert Kaufman's Best Dressed, Sweet Pea which I used for the main block of the quilt. I chose this print for my niece Becky who loves to design and draw dresses. 

  

                                  

I used a kaleidoscope ruler to cut the eight pieces of the main block and added the pink corners to end up with a square block.

 It was early evening, I was on a roll and wasn't thinking about the cancer news, I couldn't stop sewing and decided to finish this top before I went to bed. You can see I did, about 11:30 pm I dropped exhausted into bed with a great feeling of accomplishment. Here's the top on the guest bed.

A corner close up of the pink and black fabric that blended so well with Dress Up. 

I wasn't planning on quilting the next day, however I woke up feeling so invigorated and the sewing room was calling me. I started a quilt back in March and put it away when I didn't have the patience to square up the 9 patches. Do you ever get stuck on a step then end up shelving the project for a while?  I pulled out the pieces thinking it would take all day to square them up and within an hour I was adding the black and pink borders. Time was flying! Off to the guest bed for the layout which bent my mind a bit, its so easy to make a mistake. I recommend a layout wall or bed, if you don't have those available a big floor is the next best thing.

In this picture you can see the nine squares with the black and pink borders, they make up the center of the quilt.

The original directions didn't include the black border but the engineer suggested it and I'm glad he did, I think it enhances the orange and outside border.

On a side note when I finished this quilt the engineer said in his most polite tone.
"Will you feel bad if I don't snuggle under this quilt with you?"
"What? You don't like this quilt?? I asked.
"I like your work but I have a problem with pink and orange together." He said.
"I just don't think pink and orange go together."
Our nieces came by and I'd been worrying that I made a quilt for one and not the other so I asked Hannah what her favorite colors were,
She replied, "red, orange, pink, black and gold."
The engineer and I gave each other knowing smiles, we knew where this quilt was going. It was bittersweet gift as this fabric made me sing. I makes Hannah sing too.


Here it is quilted, finished and washed.

May The Force Be With You When You Quilt

Boy 1, who is my oldest son, was 7 months in the belly we went to see Star Wars. There wasn't anything like it and the sound was so loud. He was active and kicking the entire movie. The Engineer and I became instant Star Wars fans. It was natural evolution that our children all became fans and still are to this day. 
I bought  this Star Wars panel 10 years ago and had good intentions of putting it in a quilt for Boy 1. When Boy 2's wife said she would like to put it together I sent her the panel along with the Yoda & Darth panels (not pictured) on the back so she could select the rest of the fabric. Well, she got busy - three kids will do that to a person. She got as far as purchasing the rest of the fabric for the quilt and I then told her I could find the time to put it together. Back it came in the mail and below you will see the results of shopping and shipping. Boy 1 loved his quilt and sent me these pictures of it. 

I quilted the borders in what I call circuit board. I practiced drawing this first on paper. It's just like stippling where you don't want to work yourself into a corner. Then in the panel flames seemed appropriate  I used King Tut variegated thread in  red, yellow and green. I wasn't very excited about this project until I quilted it and then it came alive. 
Although these photos do it little justice, any Rebel on Hoth would have rather wrapped up in this quilt than a gutted Wampa. May the force be with all your quilting adventures. 

Quilting addict, I am. 

No Waste Windmill

The first time I looked through a book of quilt patterns, I fell in love with "No Waste Windmill." Quilters might think I used the 'Twister Tool' to make this quilt, but instead I used the pattern from "Rotary Cutting Revolution." I love batik fabric and quickly started collecting batik pre-cuts when I caught the quilting bug. I had a Bali Cracker (10” squares), called Pomegranate.  The pattern called for 8 inch squares so I figured that using 10 inch squares would increase my quilt size, pretty good figuring . 

Hoffman Bali Cracker, Pomegranate

Like my first quilt, I wasn't sure I understood the instructions but was anxious to get going, so after reading them several times I began cutting. When I had everything cut I laid the cut blocks out in a windmill pattern putting darks next to lights. And wow! I loved it! It was the perfect size for my guest bed. But the joke was on me as I would later find out just how much a quilt can shrink when you have a ¼” seam on the side of each piece.

Since I don't have a layout wall I use the "Layout Guest Bed!"

  It ended up being perfect size for the back of our couch and The Engineer loves using it when he's up late reading.

A note about the 1" wide binding: I needed a border and fell in love with the pink & green I've used as binding but there wasn't enough so I bought my #2 pick for the green border. I wanted to show the pink & green off so I added the extra thick binding. 

No, you're not seeing double! The quilt below, ended up being shipped off to my ailing step mother, once an avid quilter herself, who says she loves having something beautiful on her bed. The Engineer was not about to part with his when I suggested sending her ours his, so my option was to make a look alike. I chose like fabrics instead of using the Pomegranate collection.

The long arm quilting is much cooler on the "look alike" quilt. I designed and made a pantograph with tropical leaves and Hibiscus flowers. 

Everyone Starts Somewhere...

When I saw "French Braid Quilts," by Jane H Miller & Arlene Netten, I was instantly hooked. I decided a while earlier that I was going to make a quilt for my Mom since she had never received a quilt but had them made for each of her grandchildren. I took the book to the fabric store and started picking out batiks. It took me several trips to different stores to find all the batik fabrics that would blend to make the braids.

Some of the 14 braid fabrics, before cutting.

Love the end one, it looks like clouds.

What was the most difficult part? First, selecting the fabrics. Then re-reading and understanding the instructions; this was my first quilt! Cutting took me several evenings as I laid out my piles for each braid in order. Then I started piecing my first braid, instant addiction! As the braid grew The Engineer liked it more and more, encouraging me in my new found hobby. I couldn't put it down, 2 hours later I finished the first braid.

Wow! I surprised myself.

I painstakingly planned this quilt with 5 braids instead of four and added two strips to each braid so the quilt would be long enough to have a nice hang on my Mom’s bed.

 Two Chicks, two Ladders and a cold windy day. 

Thanks Heather & Brianna for braving the ladders & wind to hold up a quilt.
The patchwork back, glad I over bought fabric this time. 

But that's not the whole story. The quilt has never made it to her bed, rather it 's on the back of her couch so she can show it off to all of her visitors. If I'd known she wasn't going to put it on  her bed I would have made a smaller quilt and and changed the colors to match her living room!