Prairie Children and Their Quilts

 I found this blog post in my drafts yet waiting for my sister to receive her little quilt in the mail!  And promptly forgot to write it up!!  I'm woefully behind on blogging.  

I started these two little quilts from a book Prairie Children and Their Quilts, many years ago and finally got them finished earlier this year.  I made two at a time and sent one little quilt off to my sister in BC and kept one here.  They are the perfect size for the American/Maplelea 18" dolls.

My sister's quilt

I used this vintage print for the back of both of the little quilts.

I kept this quilt.  Nice to get another UFO completed!

 

DOLL Quilts

 Two of my granddaughters have American Girl and Maplea dolls and Charity's Dad made her a bunkbed for her two dolls for Christmas.  So, of course she needed quilts for the bed!  Her nickname is Cherry so I found some fabric with cherries and matched up the colours somewhat to the quilt I made for her own bed which you can see here.   I had used a jelly roll for her bed quilt so didn't have any scraps at all.  I made a strip quilt with cherry borders and a bargello with borders around it to make it big enough.

Of course Kara's trundle bed that her Dad made for her awhile ago needed quilts too ☺.  I happened to find some of the leftover fabrics for the quilt I made for her bed which you can see here.  I also did a bargello for Kara's dolls as well as a strip quilt.

 

 It was fun to do a few doll quilts in between.  They are quick and easy and give instant satisfaction ☺. 

UFO report!

OK, it's finally time to report on my UFO list.  A UFO is an "unfinished object" in the quilting world.  There are many other acronyms such as PIG "Projects in grocery bag" and PNYS "projects not yet started".  When my sister was visiting from BC in January two and a half years ago, she came along with me to a trunk show that I had to do locally.  She was a great help in setting up and packing up. 

When we came home, we unpacked everything and she asked a lot of questions about what I was going to do with these quilts and tops.  I was turning 60 that year and that was kind of a 'year of reckoning' and I was getting to the point where my UFO's were starting to bother me LOL.  So, she grabbed a piece of paper and pencil and started a list....  We had a great time rooting through all my drawers and bringing everything into the light of day and recording it on a list.  I entered everything into a spreadsheet, and organized my drawers by number so that I could also record that and find a project quickly.  Now when I need a baby quilt, I just sort my spreadsheet by "baby quilts" and see what I have on the go.  Works slick.  

I worked really hard over the spring and summer and tackled a few projects....I am happy to report that I have 25 of them finished and could check them off!  I finally dared to actually total up the list and look at the final number!  There were 118 projects on the list and with the 25 done, I have 85 left!  So, I will persevere over the fall and winter and work away on these til they are down to a manageable number.  I'm not one to work on one project at a time...I need variety so will allow myself to work on multiple projects.  I am also sending off some tops to a long arm quilter to help in the process. 

So, I found this post in my draft box from 2016!!  Yikes.  Meanwhile, I found quite a few more projects that I had in nooks and crannies and also started a number of new projects (but finished most of them :-).  I have to sort my table runners on my list of 85 yet as I have finished a bunch of those and hope to blog them soon and remove them from the list as well.   So progress is being made!  

Here are two projects that I've had unfinished for a loooong time.

This was a small quilt that I had started for my youngest son after I made him a quilt for his bed.  It was supposed to be a cushion for his chair?  Or a little quilt for his teddy??  I finally finished it and gave it to his children (!) to play with.  The quilt is still being used so the kids were excited to have a matching quilt :-).

This was a sample for a Simple Splendid Stars Workshop I took in September of 1992 taught by Kay Phillips.  The fabrics are cheap and batting is polyester.  I hand quilted it many years ago and it just got uglier and uglier LOL.  I finally put the binding on and it's in the playroom to be used as a doll quilt.

The history was documented on the label :-).

 

Doll bed and quilt

The elementary school where my grandkids go, has a fundraising auction each year.  Quite a few of the girls have American Girl dolls.  My two oldest granddaughters both have a doll and my son, Tim made beds for each of the girls for Christmas.  He decided to make one for the auction as well.  My daughter in law, Jannyne, made the sheets and pillows and asked me to make a little quilt for it.  What fun!

The sheets and little pillowcase :-)

The little pinwheels are made from the cut-off triangles from my Bonnie Hunter Easy Street Mystery Quilt.

Jannyne made some cute throw pillows for the bed as well

My AG doll, Kit is trying the bed out and she says it's very comfortable :-)

I am making a matching girl's pillow case yet. I will add photos when it is done. 

Doll quilts

Two of my granddaughters received a doll bed last year for Christmas.  I ran out of time to make the little quilts for the beds so this year I made up for that and they both got a quilt for their baby dolls.  Here is the doll bed and diaper bag made last year for Charity:

Here is the quilt I made this year to match the doll bed.  I can't seem to find a picture of the completed quilt!  It's hard to see from the photo, but a friend made Glenda Spencer's mystery quilt last year and she was going to throw all the triangle cut offs away from her snowball blocks. I sewed them together as leader/enders (Bonnie Hunter style) and had almost enough for 9 little star blocks. I just had to add four corners to one block. Great for a doll quilt :-).

 This is Katie's doll bed and diaper bag made last year

 

 I had ordered Jacquie Gering's Book on Modern Quilts and this idea was in there for quilting...worked perfectly for this little quilt :-)

 Again, no photo of the finished quilt but this is the fabric I used for the binding:

Another granddaughter, Leah got an American Girl doll for her birthday in May and her Dad made her a bed for Christmas.  I was asked to contribute the quilt for the bed.  Of course!  Every AG doll needs her own quilt eh?  I did a mini hexagon quilt and quilted it with organic quilting inspired also by Jacquie Gering.

 The backing fabric was purchased by my daughter in law, who made the sheets and pillows for the bed.

For now, all the granddaughters' dolls have quilts :-).  Grandma can take a wee break.

Doll clothes for Kara, Lauren and Leah

This year it was Kara's turn to get a doll bed, quilt and diaper bag from Grandma. She turned 3 in October and I gave her the doll last year. I was running out of time (I got finished at 1:30 Christmas Eve and the party was starting at 3:00 :-). I dug through my drawer of 2" strips and chose pinks and greens and yellows and sewed them to the batting and backing "quilt as you go" style. Pink binding around the quilt and it's finished!

This is the back of the quilt:

A sleep sack for Kara's baby. Lauren and Leah got one of these 2 years ago, so now all their dollies are matching:


The doll bed and quilt:

Diaper bag with fitted cloth diapers, plastic toy lotions, powders, spoon, fork, etc.

The rest of the diaper bag goodies:

Granddaughter Lauren is 6 and got her baby three years ago already. But which Mommy doesn't like a new party dress for her baby eh? The fabric was leftover from my niece's bridesmaids' dresses:

Leah (4) got a dark green velvet dress for her baby:

Kit gets a chair

My American Girls Doll, Kit, received a new chair today, courtesy of a yard sale :-). We dropped in at a yard sale in our town shortly after 7:00 a.m. and there is the cutest small replica of a leather arm chair for $2.00. I couldn't resist that unique item and thought perhaps it would fit Kit. She looks like she's enjoying her chair a lot.

Sorry about the washed out photo...too much white in the background for the camera flash. But it gives you a good idea of the detail in this chair:

Someone suggested that it's too masculine of a chair, so maybe I'll have to look for a boy doll for it?

A Quilt for Kit!!

On Friday afternoon, I picked up Fons & Porter's new magazine, "Easy Quilts". I browsed through the contents page to see if there was anything interesting and spotted this photo:


The magazine just had to come home after that! The doll pictured is "Kit" from the American Girl Collection of historical dolls. I have had this doll for about 8 or 9 years and have never made her a quilt yet!! So, Friday night, I abandoned working dutifully on another UFO and decided to make this little quilt for my doll.
By 10:30, I put the last stitch into the binding, so it's not a UFO!! Doesn't she look happy with her new quilt?

I used fabrics from the "XOXO The Cat" by Wendy Slotboom for In The Beginning fabrics. I had a collection of FQ's from that line (the yellow is a 30's repro print). What fun to make a little quilt in one evening. I sewed the entire quilt on my trusty Singer 15-88 treadle. I'm sure Kit's Mom would have sewn on a treadle sewing machine back in 1934 :-).


I am working on my UFO's again :-).

Babies for Lauren and Leah

Found these really neat cloth body dolls at Walmart this year and bought 4 of them! I picked up two first; for my granddaughters Lauren and Leah who are 3 1/2 and 1 1/2. Meanwhile another granddaughter, Kara, was born, so I thought it would be cute for the girls to have the same doll in a few years. I picked up two more dolls so I'd have one at home to make clothes for future birthdays and Christmas. The dolls are about 18" long, but have very fat and pudgy bodies. So, I used doll clothes patterns for 20 - 22" dolls and adapted them a bit. Here is the doll:

I planned to make tights for the dolls, but the feet are shaped so it made it very challenging. Finally I figured leggings would be a good choice for these dolls!

She can sit up all by herself. Here is the dress for Lauren's doll. I have a stash of fabric that rivals a quilt shop and just couldn't resist this pretty brown and pink floral. A FQ made the dress :-).

A corduroy jumper for Leah's doll:

Great Grandma Janie (my Mom) knit little slippers for the dolls. She had a bit of a challenge fitting the slippers over those toes too.


All the clothes (including a receiving blanket professionally serged by my friend Joan) for Lauren's doll:

Clothes for Leah's doll:

Of course the babies needed their own quilt. Leah got a pink one and Lauren a green one.

Lauren's doll all dressed in her new outfit: