I tend to think of quilts as my big “background project”.  Smaller projects jump in, like gifts for Mother’s Day and birthdays, and once they’re done I go back to my quilt in progress.  But baby quilts, much like babies, have a timing all their own.  My current quilting project is on hold again, this time so I can work on a little quilt I’m calling Ansley’s Diamonds.

I’m using hour glass blocks set together so they’ll form diamond shapes.  The added bit of interest with this quilt is the fabric which has a nice ombre gradation to it.  I’m using just one yard of green and one yard of pink, but because of the shifting coloration there are lovely variations in value.  The blocks pictured here combine the darkest green with the lightest pink, but they’ll shift across the quilt to reverse to a paler green and deeper pink.  Hopefully that will create a feeling of movement, something that will draw the eye back and forth over the pattern.

This one is maybe a bit different for another reason — I really don’t know the recipients all that well.  I met Lucy at the gym and she’s just so sweet, and her husband Chad is, too.  They’re young and kind, having their second child but still just starting out, really.  (At least it feels that way to someone who’s been married 22 years!)  Anyway, I’m a believer in positive reinforcement, so for their kindness alone baby Ansley gets a quilt.  And if I’ve done my math right, her big sister will get a little doll quilt from the leftover squares.  Otherwise I suppose I’ll be making a scrappy doll quilt!

Useful just around the house, but just think of how much easier it will be to handle all those power cords during travel!

It really doesn’t take much more than that, a couple of rectangular scraps of fabric and velcro.  Mickey makes organization more fun.

And like any other useful, quick craft, once you start you’ll quickly have a stack to share!

And apparently, everyone wants these!  These would be great to make in bulk when you have some free time, ready to wrap up when you need a quick gift.  (I’m thinking they’d make nice teacher gifts, helpful for summer travel over break!)

Our tiny little quilt guild (Lisa, Mary and me) met and connected our contributions to the “To Boston with Love” exhibit that will be displayed at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.  This project was sparked by the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild and has spread to include quilters from all around the world.  Small kindnesses matter, especially when can we add them all together.  I can’t wait to see photos of the flags on display!

And then we celebrated Mother’s Day!  My Mom and Mother in law each got a set of personalized organizer travel bags.  My Mom will be taking a big trip this summer and I’m hoping her bags will get a lot of use.

I’m getting a little carried away making a set for my best friend now, with some paper piecing, inset zipper pocket and cute quotes.  Then maybe there will be a set for me.  (And then it will really, really be time to get back to quilting.)

My own Mother’s Day gift was a gorgeous locket, and we took new photos to go inside. I can’t even tell you how crazy I am about these people.  I am well and truly blessed!

I’m getting ready for Mother’s Day and I don’t think my Mother in Law reads my blog, so I feel somewhat safe posting here.  (And if you see these before you get them Linda, Surprise!)  My Mom is getting the same thing, but we discussed sizes and so on to best suit her needs.

This set of scrappy travel organizer bags clips/unclips to a ring so you take only the ones you need with you. I made them in graduated sizes, color coded, with mesh “windows” so you can see the contents without having to dig through them all to find something, and I threw in lots of extra little sewing details to make them stronger and a little nicer looking. I even sewed in little travel related quote tags inside the bags as a special little surprise. This is one project I’m definitely going to make for myself, too!  My best friend has been wanting something that will help her store all of her many gadget cords when she travels for work, and I think this would do the trick nicely.

Just in case you sew and want to whip up some of your own, I got the little clips from Natalie and Stacey’s Etsy shop, the mesh is from Fabric.com and the zippers are from the fabulous Zipit Etsy shop.

I thought some quotes might be a nice addition to a work in progress.  I cut a piece of freezer paper to regular printer paper size, 8 1/2″ x 11″, then ironed the waxed side to a piece of canvas and trimmed the canvas to be exactly the size of the paper.  The freezer paper makes it sturdy enough to feed through the printer, I just have to pay attention and make sure I face the paper side up.  My printer curls the sheets through so that fabric needs to face downward in order to get the ink.  Once it’s through the printer, the paper can be peeled right off — ta-da!

Hopefully you’ll see these soon in an upcoming project!

Watching the news coverage of the bombings at the Boston Marathon left me feeling helpless, angry and sick.  But then the world responded with support, kindness and love.  THIS is the real lesson, the part that I hope we’ll keep with us.

The Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild has created a project that lets crafty minded people join together to send another message of support to the people of Boston.  “To Boston with Love” is a collaborative effort by quilters to create a display swags of happy, colorful banners in a public exhibit in Boston.  If you’d like to join in, be quick!  They need the flags by May 21, 2013 for the planned exhibit in June.  Click the button below for more details, including links to paper piecing patterns like the ones I used above and where to mail your finished flags.

Much thanks to Lisa of In the Boon Docks for motivating our tiny (but growing) group in the West Virginia Modern Quilters Guild to contribute to this project!  You rock, Lisa!  

It was very easy to install,  not expensive (about $17 with Amazon Prime) and I discovered that quilt binding clips can double as wonderful little clothespins.

It works!

This quilt is for my in-laws.  When I first started thinking of a quilt for them, the colors red and gray stuck in my mind because they used these colors in some recent updates and redecorating in their home.  I don’t think there’s any real need for a quilt to match anything else in the house, but knowing that they like those colors gave me a starting point.  I tried to think of what else was important to them, and the first thoughts that came to mind were their grandkids and their love of being outdoors.   Although our daughters are older (20 and 15), most of their eight grandchildren are still small enough to crawl into their laps to hear a story.  That’s a special time that doesn’t last nearly long enough.  I’m hoping this quilt will help commemorate those special times spent with all their grandchildren and their own kids when they were little.

When I saw two Aneela Hoey fabric lines, A Walk in the Woods and Little Apples, I knew I’d found what I was after.  The colors were perfect, and they combined an outdoorsy feel with wonderful “magical childhood” images.  The two lines worked perfectly together.

The quilt design is Small Plates from Elizabeth Hartman‘s excellent book The Practical Guide to Patchwork.  The simple design frames fussy cuts and the overall layout has a nice sense of motion.  The back is a vintage sheet bought still “new in packaging”.  I love that it’s vintage AND new all at once.  (And while this was hanging outside, a honey bee investigated the flowers!)

It’s a twin size quilt, so they can use it in the spare room when grandchildren sleep over, but I think I’d be using it for some serious couch napping if it were mine.  I hope they’ll enjoy it!

Tracing from corner to corner will give you lines to follow for perfect quarter inch seams.  There’s a little line etched into the template to help you match the corners.  Here’s a close up so you can see it better.

I bought mine from Donellefritz on Etsy.

This quilt will be for my best friend who is engaged, and I’m hoping it will make her think of the blending of two hearts, two families and two lives.  I think she’ll understand.

My current quilt project reached a stopping point while I waited for some fabric to be shipped, so I got a jump start on the next quilt.  It’ll be mostly Honey Honey fabrics with some scrappy favorites thrown in.  So far — LOVE!