Dad's Star Trek Quilt-Boldly going where I haven't gone before.

I have decided to make my Dad a Star Trek Quilt.  He is so into it and he is always asking me what I brought him.  Imagine the day he asks me and I pull this baby out.  I am pretty jazzed about this.  Hope I dont end up feeling like I did about the Tardis!  Anyway.  Grabbed the handy dandy graph paper.  I bought a pattern called "Sidelights" which is my inspiration for this however I am not so great at seeing beyond the ugly fabric or following a pattern that great.  I have already begun to gather the fabric for this quilt.  Utilizing Spoonflower again (gosh I love that site) I have started to pick the fabric and put them together.  Taking a page out of my friend Nancy's book, I laid it out in Word on a graph and cut and pasted pics of the fabric I have already purchased.  Not sure if the final will look like this but being the visual person that I am it gives one the idea of where I am headed.......                                                                                                           

Fat Quarter Schematics of a Star Class ship

Fat Quarter of Lt. Data's Posatonic upload.  Kinda neat. 

So I began by creating the grid using a table in Word.  Copied and pasted and maneuvered the pictures so I can start to see what the final product MIGHT look like.  Still have a long way to go, but its a start.  Cannot wait till the fabric shows up.  Ordered the two fat quarters below from Spoonflower.  I also have three fabrics coming from Ebay.  I will have to be careful putting them all together.  Cant wait.  More later.......


Well ran I into a few issues and has to change up the design. Misplaced the fat quarter of Data's brain and then the starship fabric was very washed out looking and not good quality at all so scratch that.  Used some other bright Star Trek fabric I found. 

Chose the bright space fabric for the back. I am so attracted to bright colors. Using all this black has really been hard. 

Got the pieces down to my quilting friends in Florida and with a lot if pushing and encouragement from my friends I got the thing finished. 

On the long arm!  

Chose a grid pattern for the all over quilting. Really added to the overall look of the quilt. Love it!

Finished!  Bordered in space stars. 

Dad and his new quilt!

37 Yr Old Cross stitch blocks become quilts.

A neighbor of mine brought over some cross stitch blocks her mother had done when expecting her.  She kept them all these years in the hopes one day she would get around to completing them into a blanket.  She asked if I could do something with them.  

At first I was a little hesitant. The cotton fabric was old a frail.  She assured me that whatever I did would be better than them sitting in the bag in the closet. 

There were kittens, puppies and circus animals as well as her name.  Decided to split the animals and do one with the puppies and kittens and one with the circus animals. I really wanted to retain the charm of the era they were created in. First things first. Had to stabilize the integrity of the fabric. The cotton had discolored and had a few spots. Decided on the size I wanted to work with and  began there!

Decided on the pinwheel design. That was popular back then. Found a floral fabric with x stitched that complemented the cross stitch. Loving the concept. Now the name!

Coming together. 

One done!  Now the next.  My neighbor really seemed to be all about the idea of lots of color. For this one I decided to make it super colorful. 

This is more to my liking. These are my go to happy colors.  But something was missing. Decided to use rainbow verigated thread to do the quilting. 

Much better!  

And we are done!  She was super excited. Not sure why I didn't think to take pics when she picked them up.  I am so thrilled she allowed me to be parthttp://shelleyvance.blogspot.com/?m=1 of that. 

Minnie Mouse Quilt

Just ran across the most amazing quilt idea. I am a member of a Facebook site called The Main Street Mouse.  It's all Disney addicts discussing all things Disney.  Someone posted a quilt they received as a gift and I fell in love!

So we begin the planning process...

I searched the Internet and found the shapes I wanted.  Copied to MSWord and re sized.  Not terribably technical but it worked for me. 

Love this bow however can I get it to look right?

Used 10.5 inch blocks

Had to put stabilizer behind the white squares. Didn't want anything to show through the thin white fabric. But how cute is the white on white dots?

 

Used red to make the bow puckers. Probably should have used a slight different shade for more emphasis. 

The sashing is 2.5 inch 

Coming together!!!!!

Decisions. What to border with?  No loving solid black.   DOTS!!!

My first attempt at mitered corners!  Who hoo it was not hard at all. I love YouTube videos!

Border is 5.5 inches. 

Well it's done!  Turned out super cute. Quilted the edges on an angle every inch or so and outlined the middle of the boxes with Rays.  

Love it. Time to pack and send to its new 

owner!  A friends granddaughter. 

 

I think she loved it too!

2013 Christmas Table Runner

Back in Florida!  My friend, Maureen, came up with a easy project for Nancy and I to learn paper piecing. The idea came from a quilt but we decided to make table runners for the holidays. I have to say. I am ALL about this. I am so bad at cutting and lining up corners. This is the perfect thing for me. 

     The colors I decided in were bright Christmas colors.  I like the cartoon whimsy type of fabrics. 

Such a fun pattern and easy!  Loved the final piece!

Tuyler's turtle pillow

My niece is into turtles. Wanted to make her something she would like. Came across the Mola Turtle and loved the bright colors. Hoping to put it on a sweatshirt.

Grapes and wine table topper

Twist to the round table topper. Cut the corners off. Binding was a little tough to turn the corners. Used the glue technique, which worked out really well. Guess practice makes perfect. Have another in like this in the works. Will see.