This summer, miraculously, I found time to create a couple of new quilts for friends. We knew one of the babies was going to be a boy and that his room would be a Harry Potter theme. I found some ideas on Pinterest and thought that I would try those. I had collected HP fabric for a while thinking that I would do one with lots of different fabrics but quickly realized I wanted to do something a little more challenging. These are what I turned out in a short amount of time.
The first one did not turn out as good as I was hoping but it turned out ok. It was a little buckled in places and not square. UGH!
The second one turned out awesome. It was a little easier than I thought it was going to be.
The third quilt I did was not originally intended for the family it was sent to this summer. I started for someone else and quickly realized they were not going to appreciate all of the work that went into this quilt. I was so happy that this one found a home and a home that it was greatly appreciated by the recipient. I can’t wait to see pictures of little Josh with this quilt.
This quilt was super challenging because of how I decided to put it together. I didn’t think it would take as much time as it did either. I will say I learned a lot from this quilt though and I am happy that I completed one that was so challenging to me.
So I did this project a while back and just have not posted the pictures. This blanket was for a girl at work that just had her baby. They did his room in Mickey, specifically Sorcerer Mickey. I wanted to come up with a cool way of making a blanket that I hadn’t see before and this is what I came up with and it worked.
She might have cried when I gave it to her. 
Next up is starting on a gift for Guyon for Christmas. This one is going to take some time so I better start on it now or it may not get finished. I can’t wait to see how this one turns out!
After finding out that JoAnn Fabric released a line of fabric for the Kentucky Derby, I ran to the store to scoop up some of it. The patterns were awesome and complimented each other so well. I knew that I wanted to try to make a simple quilt out of it but knew that I had one week before the big race. I also knew that naptime was going to have to become the time when I worked on it.
Lucky for me, my little man was super good last week and he allowed me to work and finish his quilt. I wanted something special for him to celebrate his first Derby. I have to say that it turned out super cute and it was a good thing because it was cool out that day and we needed the extra blanket.
Here is little man watching the race coverage on the first Saturday in May on the boat. We had a great time watching the race!
We were all excited to see Nyquist win the race and look forward to Black Eyed Susan Day and the Preakness. We just might have to pull the blanket out for that race as well and use it over the next couple of races!
Sewing through tears can be a difficult task. This project took me longer than what a normal project would take me but emotionally, I could only do a little at a time. I knew that I didn’t really have to get this done right away but I really wanted to get it done before Baby Caff gets here. I achieved that goal with the help of a Blizzard and an extra snow day.
Every time I would sit down to work on this project I was flooded with tears or memories, sometimes both. Back in December, I posted about losing both of my grandparents in a short period of time. That week we worked on cleaning out their apartment, right before Christmas. My job along with my cousin and her girls was to clean out their closet. As we were going through all of these clothes, we started talking about remembering them wearing certain shirts to certain places or things we did with them. All of a sudden, I decided that I would try to make a quilt remembering the two of them together in one place. I let everyone choose what they wanted, a wall hanging or a full size lap quilt. The final order was 5 wall hangings and 4 quilts. At 27 weeks pregnant, apparently I thought I could do anything.
Every single one of them turned out completely different. All I could think about was that each of us has different memories with Grandma and Grandpa and that it was completely appropriate for them to be different. I also tried to include shirts that were specific to that person or something that they shared with one of the two of them. There is one thing that was consistent on all of the quilts and that is each one has a shirt and tie of Grandpa’s on it. The tie is overlaid on the shirt like it would have been worn.
The wall hangings were the first part of this project and they turned out pretty much how I was thinking that they would come out. I wasn’t exactly sure how big they would be though and they didn’t really turn out to be a traditional size but I think they turned out to be just right.
First up is the one for my aunt. She was the oldest of the two girls and something that she shared with my grandparents was working at the Salvation Army. Ultimately, their involvement at the Salvation Army has now led to the whole family being involved, especially at Christmas. I found a t-shirt that belonged to one of them in a drawer and knew that it was to go on my aunt’s wall hanging.
My mom’s was up next. Her wall hanging ended up getting a couple of different pieces on it. She ended up with a New Albany Bulldog towel from a basketball game and one of grandpa’s Kiwanis shirts. I’m not sure why she got the Kiwanis shirt, it just worked out that way but the Bulldog was where she went to school and her love for basketball just like my grandparents.
My one and only cousin was the next one I worked on. I knew exactly what I was going to try for her. We found Grandpa’s IU hat that he wore all the time. Since my brothers and I all went to Purdue and she was the only one that shared their love of IU (besides my mom and aunt), it was only appropriate. Luckily I was able to get it cut off of the hat and it worked, even though I doubted my abilities.
My brothers are probably the two that are the closest when it comes to looks. The blocks are in all different order but the only difference is that the color of the Lackawanna shirts are different. I knew as soon as we found them that the boys were the ones to get these. The first one below has extra pieces of Grandpa’s shirts worked into the corners as well. One of the boys has already mentioned that he is going to try to put a couple of Grandma’s broaches in the corners that don’t have a shirt. I think it is going to look really nice if he decides to do that.
Next up were four regular sized quilts. At first, I thought I was going to be able to make the whole quilt out of blocks of their clothing. Then I started sewing all of the fabrics together and quickly realized that it was going to be super hard to make that happen. I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t going to make up the whole blanket but all of the different fabrics were making it very difficult to sew and quilting the small ones was hard enough. Instead I decided to make them the center piece of the blanket with a thick border. Since it wasn’t working out the way I decided to go ahead and make the back of the blanket more personalized with fabric that fit the kids’ personalities. I was also able to get fleece for the backs as well making them much warmer. The last one pictured is my quilt.
Mine has a jacket from Grandpa’s school and a t-shirt from Grandma’s days in the Administration building. I was the only one to follow in their footsteps into education so it was a neat to include those on mine.
Hopefully everyone likes them. I am glad to have them all wrapped up before Baby Caff gets here.
What was I up to over the week long break where I was pretty much snowed in? A little shopping for Baby Caff, trying to keep the house a little cleaned up from all of the dust, and TONS of sewing. Upon coming back from the holidays, I set a really, really ambitious goal for myself. 3 baby blankets for others that are having babies right around the same time, curtains for the baby’s room, and a project for the family that includes nine different finished pieces. I can honestly say that I have finished almost all but the family project and it is well on its way. Just
On to the quilts though. I can’t believe I actually finished five quilts over the last week. Granted two of the quilts were already put together but needed to have edges put on them but still they were finished this week. So here you go!
Here are the two that needed edges. The first is one for the boat that I worked on last summer and just slacked off when it came to finishing it. The second was one that I worked on last July at home in Indiana and was too lazy, again, to put the edges on it. This one will end up getting shipped to somebody, someday for their new bundle of joy.
After that it was on to the quilts that I was planning on making for others that are having their first little one. The first one is for a co-worker from the job that I left last June. Her and I had become really close and we would have had so much fun comparing bellies at work, had I still worked there. She is having a little girl and I LOVE how girly this blanket came out. I think that she is going to really like this a lot. 
The next one is for someone in Sean’s family who is due in May and they don’t know the sex of the baby. I fell in love with this one in general. It turned out even better than what I thought it was going to turn out and they got lucky. I had just enough material left to make them a couple of matching burp cloths to go with the quilt.
The last quilt is for a friend from college. I just found out that she is having a girl last weekend but knew that I only have a short period of time to get it finished before our little one gets here. I really hope she likes this one.
More to come on the curtains and the family project soon.
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