Quilt for Valentin

QUILT FOR VALENTIN

I hadn't found a pattern or fabric that was very inspiring for a quilt for Valentin. Then at Ben Franklin one day, among their fabulous assortment of sale fabrics, I found the sweet fox fabric in white with a soft blue. Further exploration of the sale fabric revealed the blue dot and the darker blue tree fabrics. Add to that, the (regular price) yellow for the "steps", and I felt I was in business. I had seen some quilt books featuring quilts made from 1 yard of 3 different fabrics, and knew I could make one of those quilts. However, I had picked out 4 fabrics. I decided to go ahead and get 1 yard of each and figure out the rest later. When I got home and did a Google search for the pattern books, I found the site, all right, and the pattern I liked the best was offered for free. It's the "Stepping Up Quilt" from fabriccafe.com. I'm not sure it will always be offered free, as when I downloaded it, there is a price of $5.99 shown on the pattern.

In any event, I ended up dividing one of the blocks into two pieces in order to use the additional fabric I had purchased. I then had enough fabric to use for a narrow flange border, and enough of another fabric for the binding. I used a Minky fabric in blue for the backing, and Warm and Plush batting. The quilting was done on my Pfaff QE 4.2, using a decorative stitch on the yellow, and a random zig-zag on the other blocks (inspired by the book WALK: Master Machine Quilting with your Walking Foot by Jacquie Gering).

Embroidery machine label

Here's Valentin on his quilt with the knit blanket I made him in his little hands. He seemed to like the soft squishiness of the knit blanket.

Mother's Day cards

Mother's Day cards …

Left to right:

  Pink flower and bud free chart from Zweigart (for Leslie)

  Butterfly Floral Coaster Insert free chart from janlynn.com (for Shirley)

  Orange flower free chart from Zweigart (for Emelie)

Special Day plate

Last summer (2018) our niece hosted a ceramic painting party for her nieces (including Iris). Merwin (not one of the nieces, 😀) painted this Special Day Plate (at my request). We gave it to Leslie for her April birthday. She can use it for the dinner plate for anyone having a special day. I've heard that some people like to keep a record of when it was used and the special occasion.

Harry Potter robe, scarf, and wand

Iris is a huge Harry Potter fan and was fortunate enough to be able to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando last March. While there, of course, in the gift shop, she coveted a Wizard Robe that was priced at over $100. That was a bit much, so I was recruited to make one for her. It was nearly perfect timing, since I had no real idea what to make her for her birthday. She and I went to Joanns and found the black fabric for the robe. She didn’t want an exact copy, since she wanted hers to be more individual. She doesn’t want to copy one of the other characters but be a new character herself. With that in mind, she picked a blender yellow fabric rather than plain yellow/gold for the hood lining and facings. We had picked out yellow and black yarn for her to knit herself a Hufflepuff scarf, but I feared it would take her forever to actually knit it. She’s only just learned to knit and doesn’t get much chance at home to practice. Then she found some flannel fabric with her choice of Hufflepuff theme printed on it. I suggested that, unless she really wanted the striped scarf, the flannel could be made into a scarf and not be as warm if she wanted to wear it in warmer weather. So that’s what we decided on. We ordered the Hufflepuff emblem online. Iris did most of the sewing on the scarf. So cute, and a little different than the “traditional”. That’s my creative granddaughter! She was involved in every step of making the robe but didn't do any of the actual sewing. In addition, she and Papa designed and crafted a wand for her. This was such a fun project for all of us.