Dr. Suess panel OBW baby quilts

I bought a Dr. Suess book panel probably five or six years ago in a clearance bin and wondered if that would work for a One Block Wonder.  Wow, did it ever!  Just pure fun to work on this one.  I got so many hexies out of the panel that I could make three baby quilts.  They've been sitting in a drawer for awhile waiting for the right baby to come along to gift them to.  The first one is finished and going to baby Nora.  

I thought I would end up discarding some of the hexagons as I figured they would not be very interesting, but amazingly even the ones with the white from the edges worked out very well!  I used every hexie.  I separated them into three piles by colour.  This one used the blue and yellow ones.  The second one is set with green and the third one will be orange/red.  I will post those when they are finished.

I had the yellow and blue top together and was adding the solid yellow sashings and borders and the quilt was hanging on my design wall. I happened to be sitting in a chair on the opposite side of the room and contemplating why I put the hexies in that particular order and wondering what ever I was thinking when I designed it!  Just before I sewed the panels onto the main quilt, I realized that I had turned it upside down!  No wonder it looked so out of balance...all the dark colours were on the top and the light on the bottom.  Fortunately I was able to turn it around yet, but the panels ended up on the other side.  Pictures of the two versions below 😀.

The original panel (I had purchased 7 so I could use the original in the quilts somewhere).

 Here are some of the fun blocks that were produced from this panel:

This is the layout I was contemplating from across the room!  It just felt really unbalanced.

I didn't have enough yellow solid left to cut more sashings so the panels ended up on the right side of the quilt.  The baby won't care or even notice 😉

The finished quilt.

I had this piece of Dr. Suess fabric in my stash which was perfect for the backing.

I'm linking up to Julie's blog, The Crafty Quilter with my second finish for the month of January!

Ready for Valentine's Day - a UFO finish

Valentine's Day is not too far off and while quilting up a baby quilt, I noticed this heart block which has been sitting in my 'to quilt' basket for a couple of years!  Crazy....how long did that actually take to finish it?  So happy to have it hanging on my little stand before February!  Most of the fabric is Kaffe Fasset scraps except for the background.  

Finished pixelated heart.

My Maplea doll is all ready for Valentine's Day

My Maplea doll and her friend Kit, the American cousin :-)

 I'm linking up with Julie's blog, The Crafty Quilter, with my first finish for January.

Siblings Christmas

My sister from BC came to visit for a family wedding in November and we decided to get the house decorated for Christmas early and have a siblings Christmas on December 9th.  I have never had my Christmas tree up this early ever!  We have not celebrated Christmas together for many years, so this was the perfect opportunity.  

The day before the party, we picked up three of my granddaughters from school and they helped us decorate the tree and put up our village and playmobil Christmas sets. (Click on the photos to enlarge for better view.) 

Three granddaughters, Lauren, Leah and Kara, decorating with Aunt Thea

We enjoyed supper together and played a game and brought them home again.

On the morning of the day, my sister and I got the turkey dinner all prepped and wrapped up lots of gifts to place under the tree and set the table with our late Mom's china dishes.  We also had lots of candles and pretty Christmas napkins.

The china that my Mom and Dad received as an engagement gift in 1954 is still being used.  Here is my sister, Thea, getting the table all nicely set.

The Christmas village

My Mom embroidered this table cloth for me for Christmas probably 40 years ago.  The log cabin table topper was one of the first things I made when I started quilting in 1989. 

The stockings were hung to be filled later for the grandkids

Gifts arranged under the tree

Even the weather was picture perfect with a pretty layer of snow!

Last year I got together with a couple of quilt friends and we exchanged 2 1/2" strips to make a Christmas jelly roll race quilt.  You can read about that here.  When we decided to have Christmas together with my siblings, I started to think about a gift for them and the thought of a quilt crossed my brain!  A couple more friends wanted to make jelly roll races this year and I again joined in thinking I could make one as a gift for someone.  When we finished cutting strips, there were enough to make two quilts.  But, I needed three!  I remembered the top from last year which had not been quilted yet and ran over to my neighbour across the street, Chris Bogart to see if she could quilt three quilts in the next week!  She is a long arm quilter.   Yes, she was game and told me to bring the first one over.  She quilted all three of them in short order and I sat down to hand stitch binding in between all the other busyness of Christmas.  It was so much fun surprising them with their very own quilt this year!! 

This is the quilt for my brother Bas.  I chose the darker strips for his quilt.

This is the backing for my brother's quilt.  It was quilted with a beautiful snowflake pantograph

Close up of a few strips

This quilt was for my sister, Thea.  I added bright lime green squares between each square when sewing them together.

Close up of the strips

It was quilted with an awesome mittens and skates pantograph

The quilt for my sister Eva

Close up of the strips

This one was quilted with a holly design as she is an avid gardener.

All in all, it was a very memorable and relaxed Christmas.  I now need to make another Christmas jelly roll race for myself and maybe one for my other brother who also lives a long ways away and could not be with us.

Jolly Little Christmas Quilt along finished

In January of 2017, Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts hosted the "Have a Jolly little Christmas" quilt along and I made lots of blocks and completed a lot of projects last Christmas as documented in this blog post.  My own lap quilt top was finished last Christmas, but I didn't get to quilting it.  I decided to send it out for quilting in November to my neighbour across the street, Chris Bogart.  Time to get it done.  She did a fabulous job on it with a snowflake pattern in a light green thread.  I got the binding done before December and enjoyed it on my couch during the Christmas season together with the matching pillows I made last year.  I will leave it on the couch til the end of January to enjoy it a little longer. (Click on the photos to enlarge for a better view.)

Finished quilt

Lorna provided a "Sinterklaas" option for those of us with Dutch heritage.

Chris Bogart quilted it for me on her longarm machine with a snowflake pattern.