TWO QUILTS A-QUILTING

I'm making two Alphabet quilts for grandchildren for Christmas.  I spent a good amount of time with them this week and got them both to the point where I can do the quilting on them.  I'm using fabrics that I already had on hand.  You can read more about the Boy's quilt on my previous post.  I ended up having to purchase more fabric (which is against my rules), some for the back of the boy's (I didn't have any big enough pieces and didn't want to piece together a hodgepodge of so-so fabrics).  I also didn't have anything that would work for the girl's sashing, so ended up at West Seattle Fabrics where I found a light greenish/grey that turned out really nice (2 yards at $10.99/yd). [I'm only mentioning the prices for historical reasons]

Boys top 

Boy's back, I bought this fabric at Pacific Fabrics.  I found it on the flat fold table at the discounted price of $6.99/yd.  I bought it all, 2-5/8 yards and used almost all of it.  The rest is pieced from leftovers from the top.  It's a bit busy, but the colors match great!

Boy's label for the back

Pinning the Boy's quilt

Trimming off the excess batting after pinning.

 I have this great stack of "Art Nouveau" fabrics that I had hardly ever used.  I love these fabrics, I probably bought them around 2000,  and thought they would make a great little girl's quilt.  I ended up having to add the dark fabrics so the letters would pop. I think this one turned out great.  I hope she likes it as much as Darrell and I do.

Girl's top

Label for the back of Girl's quilt.

Pinning the Girl's quilt on the floor of my studio.

I had a 1/2 yard of fabric from the collection that I hadn't used on the top, but will work perfectly for the binding.  Here I'm cutting the continuous bias-binding.  See more about how I make binding at:
How to make Binding.

I quilted the sashing and around the edges, trimmed it, made the binding and got it ready to take with me and in my spare time I can work on hand-sewing down the binding to the back, the only part I do by hand.

FIRST ALPHABET QUILT

You can see from the title of this post that I'm planning more than one of these quilts.  Yep, I'm making at least two, one for a boy and one for a girl.  They will be Christmas presents.  So, don't tell.

This first one is made from a stack of fabrics I've had for years, waiting for that 'special' project.  I believe I bought the fabrics at Quilt Market long, long ago when I used to go to those things.  The fabrics used for the sashing and background have "Westfalenstoffe" on the selvedge.  There are also some very nice woven plaids, beautiful colors.  I bought them all at the same time, so I'm going to assume they are also Westfalenstoffe (and if I'm not mistaken, they were pretty pricey...but well worth it).  Added to this pile is a lime green batik (I love this fabric and had to add it, even though it's cold to the touch) and an odd little 'zoo' fabric from Rose & Hubble (one of my favorite lines).

I posted a teaser to my facebook page when I started cutting fabrics for the blocks.  It's so nice to have a studio where you don't have to worry about making a mess!

I started this quilt in Electric Quilt, I even scanned in the fabrics.  This is the first project I've used this new version for and I'm having fun.  This quilt is pretty simple and it will help me get used to using the features in the program. One of the nicest features for this project was the fabric calculator, which tells you how much of each fabric you will need.  Most of the fabrics in this collection were pretty small pieces.  I did have one yard cuts of the blue stripe and yellow stripe (which I used for sashing and background), but because of the calculator I had to revise how I used them, or I wouldn't have had enough.  (But, I must say, even with all the pre-planning in EQ until I was satisfied, I still ended up doing a few different fabric placements).

Here it is - I'm pretty happy with it!

I started thinking about making a back for it, when I came up with a great idea...how about the numbers on the back?  Back to EQ7 I go!

OUR TRIP TO PASADENA 2012

Southbound on I-5

Crossing from Washington into Oregon

Traffic jam - I finished my crossword.

Still in the traffic jam.

A flipped-over semi -truck and trailer.

Two hours to get past the accident, now the road is wide open.

Spent Wednesday night in Redding.

The shadow of our rental truck near Williams, CA.

On I-5 Southbound

Stopped just South of Sacramento at Cosumnes River Preserve

Saw lots of birds and ducks, including these Sandhill Cranes.

Another jam just before we get to Bakersfield where we spend Thursday night.

Getting coffee before we leave Bakersfield Friday morning.

Climbing the Grapevine

Grapevine

Heading into LA

Heading down from Grapevine

I love the freeways in LA

Great shot!

The Gamble House in Pasadena

We made it to Mecca

Friday morning, setting up the booth, Joe helps.

Terry finds a quilt shop!

New Moon Textiles in Pasadena

The view from our room, looking east over Pasadena

A sketch of Darrell in his booth.

Sunday morning outing for me.

The visitors center at Eaton Canyon

I met up with a Pasadena Audubon group.

We went birding.

We were guided around the park.

Saw lots and lots of birds.  I was amazed.

A wild olive tree.

The Penny Tree

People have been pounding coins into this tree for years.

Packing up after show Sunday Night.

Our flight out was cancelled Monday morning, but we were able to catch a slightly earlier flight.

In our rental car headed into San Francisco.

Our destination - the de Young Museum

Bad planning - the museum is closed on Mondays!

Lots to do in Golden Gate Park - we head into the Japanese Tea Garden.

Beautiful buildings.

Interesting trees.

Tea houses.

Lots of interesting trees.

and interesting structures.

Buddha

Very nicely maintained gardens.

The only structure in need of repair.

We really enjoyed walking around this park.

Darrell on the wooden Moon Bridge.

Spreckels Auditorium

I'm always amazed at the flowers still blooming.

We walked around Stow Lake Island...

And up to Strawberry Hill - that's the bridge off in the distance.

Downtown SF from Strawberry Hill

A mural in the Beach Chalet by Lucien Labaudt.

We had lunch at Noori, an Indian Restaurant in the Sunset District.

Went to this art supply store that Meg recommended.  Bought lots.

We did get some rain.

Driving through downtown.

Heading up the hill.

To Coit Tower.

Looking out to the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Coit Tower, we didn't have time to go up in it.

Headed back to airport, we got caught up in traffic jam.

The reason for the jam, a ball game.

At the airport, watching the Presidential Debates.

Our flight was delayed two hours but we made it onto an earlier flight.  It was crammed full!  But we were very happy to not be sitting at the SF airport until midnight.  Nice to be heading home.  Great holiday.