1st Sampler - In Honor of GG

Today would have been my GG's 97th birthday.  In honor of that, I thought I would post about the quilt I made her over 10 years ago.

 GG's Chicken Quilt

This quilt was a blast to put together. It was my first attempt at a WHOLE quilt, and I made it as part of a course. I knew I wanted to make a quilt for my Great-Grandma, since she is the one who introduced me to quilting. And when I found these fabrics I couldn't pass it up! My Great-Grandma (GG) has collected chicken things as long as I can remember. Chicken paintings, trinkets, knick-knacks, salt & pepper shakers, magnets, etc. So the chicken fabric practically jumped off the shelf at me.



GREAT chicken fabric!!

I think the fabric line (set) was called the Tuscan collection.


This is called a Sampler Quilt, lap size (almost as big as a twin blanket). It's a 'sample' of different types of blocks and each one is different. Every block has a name. Each finished block is a 12-inch square. I'll highlight each block.

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Purple Pizzaz

A few summers ago I made a quilt for my sister.  Actually, the project began nearly 2 BEFORE that, and a good friend of mine helped.

We were taking a quilting class together, just for fun.  It was a once a month class and every month we learned a new technique and pieced 1 block.  The fabric and the patterns were provided for us (i.e., we didn't get to pick our own fabric).  I got the set called "Coral" and hers was "Purple".  My friend didn't like her fabric option at all, the longer she worked with it, and she was just going to give the blocks to the local quilter's group.  I asked her if I could have them (she only had 10 of the 12 blocks as she hadn't finished the last 2), and she said I could!  I was so excited because I knew just who I was going to give it to.  My sister LOVES purple!  So I had to finish the squares and complete the quilt top with the sashing, then sandwich and quilt the whole thing.

The Completed Quilt - "Purple Pizzaz"

This is a sampler quilt, which means that each square is different. 

Top row: Stripped Pinwheels, Folded Flowers, Paper Pieced Flowers

2nd row:  Flower Basket, Dove in the Middle, Celtic Square

3rd row:  Mock Trapunto, Stack-n-Whack, 2" Square Watercolor

Bottom row:  Mock Chenille, Log Cabin, Applique Flowers

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Holiday Gift Guide - Presented by It's OK to be WEIRD!

Come visit It's OK to be WEIRD! 

and explore the growing Holiday Gift Guide - 

great gift ideas of all sorts!

Grade 2 Baby Quilt

My youngest son started his school year off with 2 teachers.  His afternoon teacher was having a baby, and meant to work until May before having her baby hopefully late in May.  She ended up having to leave work early for bed rest and had her baby a bit early.  The children in class love this teacher and have missed her VERY much.  Having done a similar project with a grade 1 class a few years ago, I offered to help the class make a quilt as a gift for the teacher and her new daughter.

The children each colored their own block with fabric markers and then I put it all together!

TADA!  The finished product!  A VERY girly, very bright baby quilt! (names smudged for posting the pics here - not just messy coloring!)

A bit of a close up of the quilt

The children are in French Immersion so many of the greetings are in French, which is fun!

The back of the quilt - a nice polka-dotted fabric with a marbled binding.  You can see a bit of the machine quilting here as well - just stitch in the ditch along the blocks and sashes.

I can't wait to give it to the teacher.  She is going to be so surprised... she has no idea we're doing this! :)  I think she'll be pleased!  (If I remember correctly, the last teacher cried when she got her quilt like this!)

side note:  (the first paragraphs in the post are coming out with smaller print and I can't quite figure out why.  It shows FINE in the html of the post editor here in blogger and when I try to change it, it doesn't change anything.  I apologize for the small print.)

Teacher Quilt Gift

At the end of every school year it takes some real creativity to show your children's teachers how much you appreciate them... again. Most of them probably have a cupboard full of "Best Teacher" mugs. And how many apples can a teacher stand? Paperweight for their desk? Some little 'teacher' knick-knack?

I wanted to put my "creative" skills to work at the end of the last school year to give our teachers something nice but that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg. My mom-in-law introduced me to a super cute reversible quilted table runner. "Ta-Da!" There was the idea, now I just had to put it to work.

Teachers - we usually think of school stuff when we think of teachers (LOL!).

So, find some cool school fabric. Check!

OH - but we often think of teachers and apples, too. So, find some apple fabric. Check!

Now we're in business!!

Reversible Quilted Table Runner

Teacher's End of Year "Thank You" Gift

~ apple side ~








~ apple side detail (a bit blurry...) ~








~ apple side center panel detail ~








~ apple side with flip to school side ~








Reversible Quilted Table Runner

Teacher's End of Year "Thank You" Gift

~ school side ~








~ school side center panel detail ~








~ school side detail ~








~ school side end detail ~







~ school side with flip to apple side ~



Once again, this is a 'quilt-as-you-go' reversible quilt, quilted with variegated thread. And this kind of quilt can be done with any themes. This theme seemed to work well for teachers!