penny patch 2.0 - school pennies, a finish

if you think the photo quality on this blog has plummeted, i would agree with you! each of the last few times i've needed to take photos of a quilt finish, i have been rushed, the lighting has been impossible, and my camera has malfunctioned. one of the reasons i blog is because i do enjoy quality photos of my quilting life and the items i make. this is such a disappointment to me, but it is what it is, as my husband would say.

the day i put the final stitches into penny patch 2.0 was a broiling hot september afternoon, somewhere in the 110+F region. the sun was merciless and the only acceptable place to photograph anything was a few meager feet of shade on the backside of my sister's house, where my mom was staying. marmee had just jumped out of the shower, so i didn't give her much notice, either. she was only in town briefly, and it had to be done. seize the moment and the less-than-stellar photos while you can, right?

this particular quilt was originally started for myself in late 2014. i came up with the color scheme while working on my first penny patch. it was an unusual palette pick for me - no red but rather magenta, which has long not been my color preference. however, i was in love with the joel dewberry floral i used as the focal fabric and backing pick. so, magenta, teals, turquoise, chartreuse, pink, and a healthy dose of white it was.

the fabrics were a collection of pretty florals, ditsy geometrics, and text prints that all reminded me of back-to-school times. my mother always sewed our dresses when i was a child, and the first day of school outfit was a big deal. the florals reminded me of picking out those dresses. all the alphabets were another nod to school, especially the cursive on school paper print. the pattern name, penny patch, with it's small change, made me think of the quarter mom would give me for milk money so i could get a carton of fresh milk with my home-packed lunch. thus, the name evolved to be "school pennies."

i had a few bumps in the road of constructing this quilt - some literal, like when my kids knocked the design wall over with a kicked soccer ball, and some figurative, like when i sewed all the directional prints the wrong way and had to make the quilt larger to reorient it rather than unpick and resew everything. that drug the construction out pretty long. then the biggest bump of all - my husband fell off a wall. while he survived, my quilting life did not. everything was put away for months and months.

holding it sideways because it's so tall and we're so short

 during that time, my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. she had always wanted one of my quilts, and i did have fabrics long put away for just that, but it didn't feel like there was enough time to start something new. the colors and fabrics were all perfect for my mom, something i hadn't considered before, but immediately recognized. i thought the quickest thing to do was quilt penny patch 2.0 and give it to her. well, i hadn't accurately considered how long a 72" x 84" quilt would take to quilt in 3" citrus peel blossoms. basically, forever.

in the end, it got done after about a year on and off the machine. then the binding gave me a bit of trouble when i was a yard short and had to hunt down more of the out-of-print fabric. honestly, in some ways you could say this quilt was payback for every silly, mean, or nasty thing i did as a child that my mother had to deal with.

marmee does have her quilt and well in time for another winter, when it will keep her cozy. i know she's going to enjoy contemplating and perusing all the fabric picks and combinations, as i do. this quilt is chock full of beautiful fabrics.

the even better news is marmee's cancer journey has gone much better than expected. we're approaching two years since the diagnosis and she's doing very well.

she tells me all the time how much she's enjoying the quilt.
honestly, i was quite attached to this one and choosing to give it to my mom was a painful choice.
of course, i'm glad i did.
it was really meant for her all along, i just didn't know it.

auntie charming

so i made a quilt for my husband's aunt. in two weeks! like my 16 year old said, "that's the fastest you've ever made one, mom!" i made it so fast i didn't really get pictures of it. there were a few peeks of it on instagram last week, but that's it. 

another part of the reason i didn't photograph it much is that i'm personally not in love with the fabrics. i'm not even sure how they ended up in my stash. i think it was a case of an on-line clearance sale, fabrics that looked different than when they arrived, or i don't even know what. that was four years ago. i am not and have never, ever been a purple person so a fat quarter bundle that was half purples boggles my mind. what was i thinking? surely not that some day down the road these would be the perfect fabrics for aunt sue. but that's what i ended up with.

the sunday after valentine's, aunt sue was in town to visit with her mother, my husband's grandmother. we had them both over for dinner. aunt sue says, "so i hear you quilt. may i see some of your quilts?" i brought out a few to show. and then each child subjected her to their own personal quilts and any others i hadn't shown yet. aunt sue was so sweet, looking at and admiring each and every one of them. it was probably a good 30 minute quilt show.

after she left, i saw the purple and pink fat quarter set sitting on my sewing table. it had come out of hiding because it was packaged with another bundle i was using, and i hadn't returned it to stash oblivion yet. well, aunt sue has always been a lavender/pastel/floral sort of lady, and she liked my quilts so much, that i decided on the spot to make one for her. it seemed the ideal use of those fabrics.

she was only visiting for two weeks, so i wanted to make something as quick as possible. i'd just seen fat quarter shop's new "layers of charm" pattern. even though the pattern was made for a layer cake and charm pack, i decided i could quickly cut the pieces from the fat quarters. i did have to size it down a little to 9" and 4.5" squares, but it totally worked.

i altered the pattern (there's a big surprise!) just a little more by using different charms in each corner rather than one universal color. i took the five lightest fabrics from the collection, three polka dots and two swirly prints, and cut my charms from those. it seemed a bit small, even for a throw, after i'd reduced the block size a little, so i added a border. i got yardage of some coordinating pink polka dot fabric from "whitewashed cottage" by 3 sisters for moda to make a border and backing. i had the top pieced and sandwich basted by saturday.

then i outline quilted all the seams on each side and did a dogwood blossom in each hourglass block formed by the charms. i bound it up with all the leftover pieces from the blocks. i was literally finishing it off at the last minute because we were going over to see aunt sue and grandma for dinner the night before she left. it had been rainy all day and i was in such a hurry i didn't bring my big flash, so i couldn't get any decent pictures of the quilt. we squished into grandma's kitchen to take a photo of it together.

i have to admit that i have struggled to claim this quilt because it is so not me. it's not my style or colors. but once i saw how much aunt sue appreciated it, i felt a lot better about being affiliated with it. i made a quilt that made her very, very happy and that is what counts in the end. not how stylish it looked, how pintrest-worthy it turned out, how many likes it might garner from the blogland quilting community i usually run with. i made a quilt someone will cherish. that was the whole point, not how many comments it's going to get me. aunt sue is happy and i'm happy, too.

the next morning i happened to be across town, close to grandma's house again, so i ran in and asked if i could get a better photo of the quilt. aunt sue was happy to oblige. i got three separate big hugs from her the night before during the course of the evening and now i got more. when she pulled it out, she started talking about how pretty it was again. "oh, there's my lavender! and all those pretty flowers. i still just can't believe you made this for me. no one has made me a quilt since my wedding." she really does seem to like it. for real.

 yesterday there was no lighting and today there was too much. we had to scrunch in on the side yard in the shade to get a photo. grandma decided she should be in it, too. sure, why not?! i only wish my 14 year old son had left that ladder out of the photo.

 here's the back, pieced a bit with some of the last fat quarter and the polka dot fabric. i do rather like the back.

 it has a nice grid pattern and those boxed dogwood blossoms, which all show up really well (in real life) on the soft rosie polka dot fabric.

 aunt sue was so excited about the quilt i had to warn her a bit. i'm no expert and there was plenty wrong with this lady. for instance, in the square above i totally forgot to line the inside of the square. i did all of the quilting on this quilt with my fmq foot, even the straight lines. in fact, it was mostly straight lines. there was plenty of wobble going on everywhere. i'm hoping the wash will help hide that.

well, there you have it. my husband's unique and talented aunt with her "layers of charm" quilt. put the two together and you get "auntie charming," the fastest quilt i ever made and a lesson in being happy when you make someone else happy.

now i need to take all those leftover hsts and bits to make a quilt for grandma, who wanted to know, "how does sue rank?!"

i guess if you flatter me enough and i have appropriate fabrics, you get a quilt.

sweet stuff

 as the month of love draws to a close, i'm sharing a few sweet things that happened around here. first, someone left me a little love where they knew i was bound to see it. haha! if you want mom's attention, go to the sewing machine.

 on valentine's day, i saw this sweet and simple pinwheel quilt on instagram, posted by @riseandshinequilts. i thought it would be a perfect valentine's project (for use next year, obviously) for some sticky-sweet lecien "sugar flower" fat quarters i purchased about 4 years ago. i do like her fabrics a lot better than mine, but it feels good to get some stash sewn. thank goodness for those moda bella solids charm squares! this is project #3 i'm using them in right now. if only they'd take my idea about preprinting a diagonal line on them for fast and easy hst making, i'd be set!

this last bit of overt sweetness just gives me a sugar rush headache every time i look at it. this is another #sewyourstash2015 project that popped up. i'll explain more when i finish it, but i'll say now that it's for my husband's aunt, who will love these fabrics way more than i ever could. i can't wait to get it finished and out of my sight! i'm using a fat quarter set to make fat quarter shop's new "layers of charm" pattern. even though i'm cutting rather than using precuts, it's gone super fast; faster than anything i've ever done. hallelujah!

that's it for the sweetness report.
i think i need to go check my blood sugar levels!

linking up with lee's wip wednesday at freshly pieced.

little pennies

 this weekend i completed the binding on three quilts, starting with this little lady here. this is the baby quilt i made for my newest niece out of the leftovers from my penny patch 2.0 quilt. (although now that i need to increase the size of the penny patch 2.0 to correct my orientation mistake, these weren't really leftovers. whatever.) i sort of didn't want to post photos of this quilt since it's stealing the thunder on my full-size penny patch, but i also couldn't resist sharing a finish.

 i went to the store to get a backing for this quilt and settled on the teal october afternoon for riley blake print pictured, but i totally forgot to get a binding while i was there! i didn't have a perfect binding on hand at home but i did have this cotton + steele basic print, which in the end works out nicely.

i quilted with a large dogwood blossom, except for one penny patch where i made it the size of the smallest squares as a subtle accent feature. i chose to go larger because it would be faster. and it was. however, it was harder to get into the groove of the shape when making it that large. also, i like the look of it done smaller on my original penny patch. but this way it keeps the quilt softer for the baby and allowed me to finish it in less than half the time.

 i had good luck with the binding at first. i only cut 4 strips and it was just long enough by about an inch! i've never cut it that close before. so glad i tried attaching it first rather than cutting that extra strip just to be on the safe side because that would have been a big waste.

 that little bit on the right is what was left once i trimmed the ends to connect them. i just squeaked by, didn't i?

and then when i attached the ends, it worked perfectly the very first try! i love when i get those fiddly ends together and then it just snaps perfectly into place. it makes me feel like such a big girl to get it right the first time! for my first several quilts, attaching the binding ends was a real trial. but now i can do it with ease, without even looking at a book or tutorial to help me. the process has become second nature. i've finally wrapped my head around how it works together, which helps me remember how to do it. very satisfying as an old dog to learn a new trick after enough practice.

attaching the binding down by machine is not second nature yet. i made a complete mess out of this binding when getting it sewn to the other side. i tried out my clover clips, which were great for holding it in place, but they didn't improve my accuracy because, unlike pins, you can't get the clips up very close to the needle. unfortunately, this little lady was the learning curve for the new process i used. by the time i was on the third binding of the weekend, i had it down pretty well.

that's a wrap on this little one. my niece was born on friday, i had this finished on saturday, washed and delivered it on sunday. that's pretty good timing for me.

i'll be posting the other finishes soon, once they have been photographed.

linking up with crazy mom quilts

plan c

 penny patch 2.0 is well underway. in fact, it's all on the board (and floor) awaiting piecing now. last week after i got the initial fabrics cut and started placing them up, i found myself feeling like there was something lacking. the colors just weren't balancing out the way i wanted. on examining rachel's original penny patch, one of the things i noticed about it that i like was the large amount of low-volume and white space in it with punches and sprinklings of her colors. even fabrics she was calling her "color" fabrics were mostly white with touches of the colors. this gave the quilt an overall light, airy feeling and helped the colors shine out.

my first penny patch quilt turned out with a much more earthy, autumnal feel than i was originally going for because many of my fabrics were color saturated and/or on a cream background. so this time i intentionally went for as much white in my fabrics as i could get. but once on the board, i found myself craving a little more variety in prints and even more white space. so i went shopping, of course! i went to my local store for the first time in 6 months (more on that later) and got some additional fabrics to round out penny patch 2.0. not all are on a white base, but it added what i wanted.

 and a little of what i didn't want. that very light blue scrolly print front-and-center in this photo was too baby blue for me. so out it came. some of the new fabrics actually never made it in at all because i found i didn't need as many as i got. in fact, when all was said and done, i had a nice little pile of leftover squares.

now while all this was going on, i was also supposed to be making a baby quilt for my sister-in-law's shower. i'd already been through plan A, but couldn't find the fabrics i'd pulled, and moved on to plan B. however, i was second guessing that plan B and wavering toward replacing the fabrics for plan A. then i got the best idea yet - plan C:

i simply used all the leftover squares from penny patch 2.0 and made a mini penny patch baby quilt. voila! it's a bit less white than my big penny patch will be because i left out the white eyelets in the smaller sizes since this is for a baby. now i just need to quilt and bind this little gal in the next two months before her owner arrives.

and get my own penny patch 2.0 pieced for myself.

linking up with lee's wip wednesday at freshly pieced

big baby

 my sister-in-law's baby shower snuck up on me. its this weekend and i didn't even have a plan for the quilt. when i thought about it, i decided to make the mod colored chevron baby quilt i nixed for a friend in the spring, but i couldn't find the pull for that quilt anywhere at all. how a pile of fabric gets lost around here is beyond me. maybe it's the gazillion other little piles everywhere?

so after about 30 minutes of fruitless searching, i came across the above birdy print and decided to use that as an inspiration piece and backing. the other fabrics unceremoniously thrown on the sewing room floor are my other choices to go with it.

 i didn't stop to do any math, just figured i should make large chevrons so as to get done more quickly. i simply went off the largest square cut i could get out of my quarter yard of the first fabric i chose to cut, which was 9". well, i should have done a little math because this first block turned out so big i can only fit about 6 of them in a baby-sized quilt. it's a behemoth 16+ inches. bigger has not turned out to be faster or better at all.

for a little perspective, here it is on the design wall next to my penny patch 2.0. now i'm in a design pickle and i just need it done for saturday.

also, i noticed once again how short my extensive stash is on low-volume blender pieces. i did try to find some more at the store last week, but my local store doesn't cater to them any more than my stash does. i think it's time to search on-line. anyone have a great source shop for low-volume pieces?

easter deliveries

 mid-week last week we made a trip to mesa for the world's largest outdoor easter pageant. it's free with open seating, so getting there hours in advance is a must. i was the official seat holder. my quilts and i, that is. while everyone else wandered around the beautiful grounds or went to the visitor's center, i sat with my quilts spread out along the chairs and worked on basting "twirly." i've got more than 1/3 of her done now.

 last year, i was able to complete "out on a limb" during this seat holding time and got to photograph it completed in the gardens of the temple. no such luck this time. but that's okay. i was not the only one using quilts to hold seats. if you look past me, the grandmother down the row from me had several folded quilts she'd brought along, too. it's a good choice because it usually gets chilly once the sun drops. this year, however, with easter being so late, it didn't get cold at all. but quilts also make good seat cushions to compensate for those hard metal folding chairs. so no loss there, either.

 on easter sunday, after wonderfully inspiring services at church, i ran my friend venessa's church auction replacement/commissioned baby quilt over to her and the new little darling that had arrived on wednesday. just like the quilt d2 made for the auction, this one was a simple 4sq quilt composed of 4 fat quarters of "nicey jane" prints from heather bailey.

 there were two small changes to this edition of the auction quilt: i used green polka dot flannel as the backing and the "slim dandy" stripe for binding. i love, love, love this stripe as a binding! that little pop of red gives it some nice sophistication.

 i still have plenty of each of these prints so i'm going to have to whip up something for myself out of them soon. well, after the dozen other things i've got going of course.

later in the afternoon, thanks to family get-togethers, i was able to deliver not one but two other baby quilts that have been needing to get to their new owners. i dropped off "rain or shine" at my aunt lynn's house for her grandbaby elizabeth (no photos) and i handed over "way out weston" to the newest carpenter family cousin.

 at nearly two months old, little weston is pretty strong for his age. it took him a moment, but he got his head right up for some shots on his new blankie. just look at him:

i think all those bright colors and busy patterns are going to keep him plenty interested! wow, that feels great to get those done and delivered. now on to the 43 other projects i have going. (maybe it's just around two dozen now, but who's counting?)