Finishes!

Despite the weirdness, I have been getting quite a bit done around here.

I guess I've gotten used to it :)

The latest completions are a couple of quilts I made for my niece and nephew all the way in Virginia.

(ps: I really miss Virginia.)

For some reason, I always take a lot of pictures of the process of making quilts...

I'm not sure why.

Maybe in the back of my head I want to make a tutorial one day.

Who knows.

But when it comes to finally writing a post about the quilt I finally finished, I never use the process pics.

For all you know, I could be buying quilts elsewhere and saying they're mine!

I assure you, that's not the case.

I have the pics to prove it and from now on I think I will be showing more of them.

Here's some chain-piecing taking place:

(check out my new cutting mat!! I finally got a good one!)

And here are some rows all finished and waiting to be pressed:

Apparently, I skipped quite a few pics between the last one and the next one,

the completely finished quilt.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is probably why I haven't ever written a tutorial to date.

I forget what I'm doing and just sew.

Triston's finished quilt:

I did some straight line quilting on the diagonal to show off the triangles a bit.

1/4" from either side of each seam.

And I extended the quilt with a wide border on 2 sides of the quilt and added a little interest with some "rebel" triangles.

While making the quilt I labeled those 2 pieces my "little rebels", and it stuck.

I think the asymmetry gives the quilt a more modern look.

And it shakes things up a bit.

Which I totally dig.

And, of course, a little hand-stitched label so Triston knows how much I love him :)

It's a nice baby-size quilt at 34x45", machine quilted and machine-stitched binding.

And here's Gabi's quilt:

I started this quilt quite a long time ago, but never got around to finishing it.

Gabi loves everything pink, so when my sister said she needed another quilt, I thought this one would be perfect.

And to make it even more Gabi-ish, I bound it with some pink zebra print fabric.

For the quilting, I used orange and pink thread and went 1/4" away around the outside edges of the squares, twice.

That sounds confusing. I don't know how else to word it.

I doubt you're really that interested anyway, so I'm going to leave it and move on.

Gabi gets a label, of course.

Have to keep it fair.

This quilt is about 51x51", machine quilted and machine-stitched binding.

I've also made some headway on Willow's Dresden Plate quilt top...

but more on that later because I just realized the water has been running in my bathroom for much longer than it takes to wash little hands,

which never ever means anything good.

Happy Weekend!

I'm Starting To Think It Might Be Weird Here.

Willow has been measuring time in poultry. Yup, you read that right.

For example:

"Yeah, I'll be there in 2 chicken nuggets."

or

"Okay, sounds good, I'll call you in chicken minutes."

She does all of this while having surprisingly real-sounding and hilarious conversations, including fake laughter, lots of "yup, mhmm, ok, I got it"s, and "call me back"s with random people on her 'cell phone':

What can I say? We're hi-tech.

***

Then there's the whole silverware thing.

It's a daily occurrence around here.

She takes whatever utensils are in the drawer and lines them up.

On the floor.

Sometimes they're in an arc, sometimes rows, but always arranged by type.

Apparently, she doesn't approve of the commingling of silverware.

***

Oh, and lately, Dora has really been pissing me off.

And I know that's not normal.

Sometimes I just want to flick her oversized, football-shaped head right off her shoulders...

It's a problem. I'm aware.

***

No matter what time of day it is, no matter what Willow is wearing at the moment, if she spots her red "sleddin' pants", she's naked in .02 seconds and sliding into those snow pants like she's in a life or death mission delivering medicine and supplies in the Iditarod.

No joke.

There was a pair of pink rain boots that used to be in constant accompaniment with the red "sleddin' pants", formerly known as the "suit pants", but they no longer seem to be part of the ensemble.

Darn.

***

Come bath time, there is always the discovery of marker on her body.

Always.

Where she gets them, I do not know. I thought I confiscated all the drawing tools after the

"Floor Mural Debacle of 2011"

...also known as the last time I took a shower while she was awake.

***

I'm sure you've seen these around somewhere, haven't you?

If you haven't, you've been living under a rock, because they are everywhere.

Just sayin'.

Well, it's a good reminder, and I'm sure it makes sense for 98% of the people out there...

but not us.

Nope.

No, this is how we roll:

More fitting.

Like I said, it's weird here...

Pink and Shades of Grey

Here's the latest nursery set!

This one was pretty fun to make... the colors weren't my usual palette, and I hardly ever use black, but I think it turned out really pretty :)

The customer really wanted a pink and grey fabric, but for some reason that color combo is hard to come by in the same print.

No worries, however, I solved the problem by dyeing some Dandelion in Stone pink!

It took a lot of trial runs, but I think it turned out just the perfect shade.

You can't really tell in the above picture, but the reversible bumper is the dyed pink/grey Dandelion fabric and some light pink Minky fabric with black bumper ties.

And for the quilt I used a bunch of different light pink and grey fabrics to get a really nice patchwork going.

I even dyed some of the baby pink Damask fabric (can't remember the designer...) different shades of grey.

And then I bound the whole quilt in black. I believe the new momma said it was like, "mascara on eyelashes", which I thought was very fitting :)

The back is pieced with some of the fabrics used throughout the set, and then I stitched on an embroidered label in the bottom corner.

I did my usual 1/4" quilting on either side of the seams... I think it's my favorite for patchwork quilts.

Even though the label itself is embroidered, I hand-stitched it on with some light pink floss to add a special little handmade touch...

Gotta love special touches :)

Oh, and to finish it all off, the crib skirt was a extra-full (read: extra girly) and pieced with Primrose in pink and Dandelion in stone with a thick black border on the bottom edge.

Originally, the black wasn't part of the nursery set at all, but when I started to put everything together as discussed, the set really looked like it was missing something.

When the mom-to-be told me the nursery furniture was black, I knew we had to make a little switcheroo and throw in the black accents.

Thankfully, even though final decisions had been made, she was willing to trust my suggestions and I think it really made a huge difference in the overall look of the set:

sweet but contemporary and very custom :)

Here's to Mommy Abby and Baby Ryann (who I think is due any day now!), I hope you love your nursery bedding.

"From small beginnings come great things..."

If anyone is interested in ordering their own custom nursery set, please email me at

willowbeanmama@gmail.com

and we'll get to work making your dream bedding!

A Very Special Baby Quilt and Belated Happy Valentine's Day.

I have finished my little girl's baby quilt.

And I am IN LOVE with it.

IN.

LOVE.

It's tied for my favorite with this quilt...the very first quilt I ever made for Willow.

This pretty little number is a string quilt using all the scraps I used to make the Dresden Plates for Willow's new quilt.

I used the paper-piecing method, and there's a pretty good tutorial here.

I modified mine a bit, but who doesn't?

There were 24 string blocks (7" unfinished) and then I used some stashed fabric to make borders around the outside.

(Anna Maria Horner Garden Party, Valori Wells, and some more Anna Maria Horner)

And, as per usual over here lately, I only used scraps and stash fabrics.

I used the same fabric (Ta Dot in Sea) for the center strip in each string block that I am going to use as the background for Willow's twin-size Dresden Plate quilt, so that there will be some similarity between the two quilts since they'll be sharing a room.

And because there's SO many different kinds of fabrics in each one...

I LOVE IT!

And for the back I just used some stashed Anna Maria Horner Garden Party, some Heather Bailey Tiled Primrose from the Pop Garden/Bijoux collection, which I also used for the binding, and some Amy Butler Sandlewood from her Love collection.

As for the quilting, I really wanted to highlight the 'squares' or 'diamonds' that the string blocks made once all put together... I really didn't want to chop them up in any way with quilting lines.

So, I decided to quilt 1/4" on the inside of the center strips that made up each square.

And then the same 1/4" inside for the triangles on the sides and corners.

There ended up being no intersecting quilting lines, which is exactly what I wanted.

I tried to show you what I'm talking about... if you even really care, that is.

I ALMOST FORGOT...

Yesterday was Valentine's Day!

My hubby and I don't really do anything for Valentine's Day.

I know it sounds weird, but I like it like that.

Ok, it's not like we do nothing.

I always make him his mom's recipe no-bake cookies and a super-cheesy, way over the top valentine.

I think he secretly loves them. I really do.

He stares at them for a really long time with silly grin on his face... and that's how I know :)

I decided to put them all in a scrapbook this year so they don't get lost...

I mean, we're talking like 7 years worth of some serious Valentines.

I think they're worth saving... now I just have to find that 'spot' where I put them so that they could be found again.

So far I have found the one from 2009.

That's it.

The search is on.

I liked making Drew's Valentine even more this year because Willow wanted to make one too:

...and it is AWESOME.

I love that she loves to do "projits" with me.

It's like the best thing ever.

And she thinks she's the bomb when I let her use her own glue stick and her own scissors.

All she wanted to do yesterday was make Daddy's "Balentine", ride her bike to the movie store to pick out "Pickle Me" (aka 'Despicable Me'), and then wait for Daddy to get home from work so we could watch the movie in our jammies, with popcorn and macaroni and cheese.

So, that's exactly what we did!

Stranded. Help.

For what seems like the 3rd week in a row I am stranded.

Without a car.

Without nice weather.

Too much snow to do anything at all.

Too cold (I weather.commed it- windchill of 12 below... no thanks) to play outside.

Cooped up in this house like an invalid hermit.

I have things to do that aren't getting done... like everything.

I have places to go that aren't getting gotten to... like anywhere.

I am losing it.

I am also waiting.

Waiting isn't very fun at all when you are stuck in one place.

Nope. No fun at all.

My car and cold weather apparently don't get along.

Personally, I think they should just suck up their differences and deal with it like the rest of us.

Or just let me know they aren't going to cooperate before I completely scrape the snow off the car, strap in the car seat, shovel the driveway so I can even get out, bundle up the little one, and plan out all the errands that I'm about to run.

You know, just out of kindness.

Or sympathy.

I don't care.

On the bright side, I'm getting pretty fast at hand-stitching.

I'm calling it practice for the girls' quilts I'm going to attempt to fully hand-stitch.

We'll see how it goes, but, so far I'm not sick of it.

I guess that's a good thing.

However I am sick of being stuck in my house.

Which is definitely not a good thing.

At. All.

Will somebody just please drive over to my house and jump my stupid car? Please?

I had to do something with the couple dozen Dresden Plates I had laying (lying?) around ready and waiting for fabric to arrive for the quilt top.

They're just too fun not to do stuff with.

I want to make a million and stick them all over my walls.

But, since that's not the best idea ever, I decided to grab one up and make a pillow.

Because pillows make me happy.

I wish they could un-strand me. But, hey.

(If you have a Dresden Plate project you'd like to share, go share here. I'd love to see it!)

I've also decided that I like to bind my pillows like I do my quilts.

Consider that a side-note.

Willow decided that the above pillow is hers.

As she does with every pillow I make.

I guess pillows make her happy, too.

And here's a little sneak peek of a pillow for a very special little someone who will be arriving in June.

Haha.

Teaser.

I just reread my post. I'm all. over. the. place.

Sorry.

Consider it a side-effect of 'Stranded Syndrome', which is exactly what I have.

Tomfoolery...

I would like to preface this post by saying a few things.

At this very moment there is an orange in my fireplace, what seems to be a drill bit of some sort in my toilet, and 3 sleeping baby dolls in my dishwasher.

Complete with pillows and blankets.

I was informed this morning not to wake them, so I didn't.

Also, my child is only speaking with a Spanish-sounding accent today.

Just think "mamacita"s and "penguino"s and you've got it about right...

Yup.

I've been chugging along on my Dresden Plates.

I think I have 13 big ones and still only 5 smaller ones.

I did end up cutting into my stash a bit... the scraps just weren't gonna do it all.

But just a teeny bit. Like 10 blades or so. Still, not bad.

And I went through an entire can of spray starch. Ha!

I'm thinking of doing something like this for Willow's quilt (twin: 66"x88"):

I was going to put the 21" plates on 22" squares (which makes for a perfectly-sized twin quilt!)

But I'm still not 100% sure. I want to make sure it's not too traditional.

Since the Plates are kinda traditional themselves... I don't know!

I even threw in a smaller plate in the lower right corner to see if I liked that.

And I might.

I'm not sure.

I know I want the background fabric to be a teal solid or polka dot... I had Ta Dot in Sea in mind. And then I thought I could throw in some squares of Ta Dot in Fuchsia and Teal to mix it up a bit, too.

But I didn't want to take away from the Plates either. I do love them so.

Anybody have any ideas? Comments? Suggestions on what to do for this quilt?

I'd love to hear what you have to say :)

I want to get moving on this thing and get it sandwiched so I can start the stitching. I'm planning on hand-stitching the whole thing with lots of bright colors.

I can't wait!!!

And then I have to move on to the baby's quilt of course, which I still don't have a solid plan for either.

I know there will be more Dresden Plates, hence the shoebox full of blades:

If anybody has started working on a Dresden Plate quilt/project or has even just finished some plates or blades or whatever since the New Year, I'd love to see and/or hear about them...

-SO-

I created a little flickr group for everyone to do just that!!

Just go here and share whatever stage of the Dresden Plate making process you'd like!

It doesn't matter if you just picked out your fabrics or if you're already finished with a Dresden Plate project... feel free to share and if you have any questions, just post those too.

I did!

I can't wait to see what you guys have been working on!

Have fun!