Buddy's 80th Birthday Quilt

My Father in law just turned 80, a few days before Christmas.  Back during the 12 Days of Christmas in July blog hop, I saw a handprint pillow, and got the idea to make a whole quilt, not a pillow.  Also, where she did machine applique, I chose to do hand applique instead.

I started by sending a letter, with a picture of Paige's handprint pillow (yes, I'd already asked Paige if I could use her idea), along with printer paper and self addressed, stamped envelopes, to return the handprint in. 

When all the handprints were returned, I then traced them onto non-fusible interfacing.  I stitched the interfacing to the fabric, and VERY CAREFULLY turned each finger/hand.  That was the hard part, since there are so many curves. 

finished handprint quilt

Here are each of the blocks.

oldest son

me, his wife

2nd son

2nd son's wife

Buddy's wife (my mother in law)

label block

my father in law's brother

brother's wife

oldest grandson

granddaughter

grandson

youngest granddaughter

wife of youngest grandson (Connor)

youngest grandson

oldest granddaughter

husband of Sarah

Everyone with a handprint on the quilt was at the 80th Birthday party.  What a great time, being able to get everyone together.  It's been years and years since we could do this.  I did get a picture of my father in law with the quilt, with his son's on either side of him.

John, Buddy, Kevin

Talk about a special time.  The first great-grandchild is due in February.  As a special present to Buddy, he was the first one to know the baby's name.  Buddy was presented with a snowman couple frame, with snowflakes around them.  Each snowman and snowflake were labeled with the names of the family members.  The center snowflake, between the snow couple, has the baby's name on it.  Gwendolyn Avery.

all the family's names

It has been suggested that I trace the baby's name, when she is born, and make a matching pillow.  We'll see.....

And of course, what wasn't hand stitched, was pieced on a hand crank sewing machine.  I had it professionally quilted.

1927 Singer 15 hand crank

Book Review

Thru Bethany House publishing, I received this book in exchange for a review of it. 

Death at Thorburn Hall, by Julianna Deering, is the latest book that I have received.  This is the 2nd book in this series that I have read.  Here is the link to the review of the earlier book.  This book is the 6th in the series. 




The main character is Drew Farthering.  Drew has a way of coming upon mysteries that need solving.  In this book, there are 3+ different mysteries that get solved, one way or another.  It is set in the British Isles, in the 1930's,  before WWII.  The book is full of twists and turns, and you don't know everything until the very end of the book.  I can't really tell you much more, without giving out spoilers.  I enjoyed this book, as I did the last one that I read in this series.  I want to read the future books in this series, so that I can see if one certain character that is introduced in this book, comes back. 

I enjoyed this book, and I hope that you do, too.

Peter Pan Baby Quilt

I finished the quilt tops (yes, two identical quilt tops).  Yipee! 

one of the quilt tops

see, there really are two quilt tops

I've been marathon sewing, trying to get these done, so that I can get them to the long arm quilter. 

I changed my mind on the backing fabric, so, I've already headed to my local quilt shop ( I love Sewing, Etc, in Yorkville, IL).  I'm pre-washing the backing fabric as I type this. 

I almost forgot to add the thimbles to this quilt.  Thimbles are 'kisses' in Peter Pan (if you don't remember, you'll just have to watch the movie again).  I didn't make the thimbles until Thursday, and finished appliqueing them on Friday morning.  I also finished the embroidery on the 2nd Peter Pan block on Friday. 

thimbles

I loved making the crocodile.  I got the pattern from Sew Fresh Quilts.  I used her method of making the flying geese, so, since I'd used a directional fabric for the crocodile's spikes, one crocodile had them going up/down, and the other crocodile has them going side to side.  That is the only difference between the quilts.

Crocodile Rock pattern from Sew Fresh Quilts

I fussy cut Tinkerbells, from some of my Tinkerbell stash (I had more Tinkerbell fabric than I thought I did, thank goodness).  Those Tinkerbell's are the cornerstones in the center of the quilt.

showing Tinkerbell cornerstones

more Tinkerbell cornerstones

Every stitch on this quilt, that isn't done by hand, has been stitched on a hand crank sewing machine.  I started the paper pieced blocks (Tiger Lily and Wendy) on 'Tinkerbell', my 1925 Singer 99 (3/4 size) hand crank, and finished the rest of the piecing on my 1927 Singer 15 hand crank.

stitching the last seams on 1937 Singer 15 hand crank

I've been so busy trying to finish these quilt tops, that I haven't had time to show any of the great quilting packages I've received the past few weeks. 


First, I won a lovely fabric postcard from Beth, at I Have a Notion.

post card from Beth

Then Jeanette, over at Inch Worm fabrics, sent me this great batik fabric bundle, from her giveaway.

batiks from Jeanette

Next, Tricia from Quilt With a View, told me that I'd won 2 of her Rose Card patterns.

from Tricia

Lastly, I received my exchange blocks from my latest Treadle On block exchange.  Here are my 4 different sets of blocks (sorry, my design board was full of Peter Pan blocks, so, I don't have a picture of them spread out).

4 sets of blocks

Here are the blocks that I made for this exchange.  They all have to be made on a treadle or a hand crank.  I used the hand crank shown above.  All blocks are 'signed' before mailing.  These are some of my 'extra' blocks. 

blocks I made for the Treadle On exchange

All in all, it's been pretty nice around here lately.  Of course, I haven't made my project for my quilt guild exchange (due Monday night).  I'd better get started on that one pretty quick.  I'm going to use my modern Janome for that project.  I think it is feeling a bit neglected lately. 

Peter Pan

Well, I finally finished the last paper pieced block late last night.  I still need to add some embroidery to it, but, that is the easy part.

I would have been done sooner, but, I made another stupid mistake.  This pattern is 'colored' on the back, and the designers background is a light green (mine is a white on white).  Instead of double checking each piece, before I added it, I just added green fabric to 3 places on one of the pieces of Peter Pan.  Oops!  If I'd been paying attention, and checking like I should have been doing, I would have noticed that those 3 pieces were supposed to be background pieces.  Seam ripper to the rescue. 

pattern

my mistakes, with dark green where the white was supposed to go

Here is the block, corrected.

correct Peter Pan block

both blocks (sorry for the bad color picture)

Peter just needs his nose embroidered on now.  This block was designed by Michelle Thompson, and can be found here.

The next part is the crocodile, that will be across the bottom of the quilt.  I found a great pattern at Sew Fresh Quilts to use, called Crocodile Rock, at her Etsy shop.  Lorna has some great patterns.  Here is a picture of the pattern that I'm going to use.  I'm only going to make one crocodile.

Crocodile Rock pattern

I'm headed off, as soon as this posts, to find some fabric for the crocodile. 

Here are some of the other fabrics that will probably show up in this quilt.

treasure map and nautical fabrics

Tinkerbell fabrics

I need to get this quilt top finished, so that the long arm quilter can do her part. 

Smee

Woohoo!  I'm on a roll!  I finished piecing both Smee blocks last night.

paper pieced Smee blocks

Smee is a free pattern on Fandom in Stitches.  As you can tell from the pattern picture, Smee needs some embroidery to finish him off. 

paper piece pattern

Also, since I'm using a white on white background, not the blue, like in the pattern picture, and Smee has white whiskers, I needed to add some embroidery to mark the different 'whites'.  I added some gray around his whiskers with embroidery.  I also added his mouth, nose and ear embroidery. 

one block finished

Here are the 2 blocks next to each other, one finished, one still needs the embroidery.

with and without embroidery

As this posts, I'm working on the 2nd block's embroidery, and should be done later today. 

There were 124 pieces of fabric in each Smee block.  Of course I pieced him on a hand crank sewing machine.

1927 Singer 15 hand crank

After the embroidery is done on the 2nd Smee, there is just one more block to finish, Peter Pan himself.  I just need to finish his eyes, then I can put him together. 

Katie Nana

Back in August, I asked some of the pattern designers on Fandom in Stitches, if they could make up some Peter Pan themed blocks, since I could only find 5 at that time (Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Smee, Tinkerbell and Tick Tock the Crocodile).  Only one girl in that group.  I asked for Wendy, Tiger Lily and Katie Nana, the dog. 

Kristi Lehane designed Katie Nana for me.  With 'life' happenings, Katie Nana has taken me longer to make than I had thought it would.  There are 205 pieces of fabric in each 10" block. 

I was going along pretty well when I discovered that the fabrics I'd chosen for Katie Nana's cap just weren't working out.  Not enough contrast.  I had to change from the pattern, where Kristi had used blue for the background, since I'd already picked a white on white for all the backgrounds on all of these blocks.  White cap next to a white background just wasn't going to work.  Instead, I'd picked 2 different grays for the cap (main part of cap, and the shadows of the cap).  Here are the pieces that I'd made, by the time I discovered that my gray's just were not working out.

finished and unfinished pieces

you can tell that there just isn't enough contrast with the grays

Back to the printer, to print out all those pieces again, and back to the fabric stash, to pick new fabrics for Katie Nana's cap.  It was hard to find something that would work with that white on white background.  Here is what I chose.

new cap colors

And here is the completed Katie Nana blocks.

Katie Nana, designed by Kristi Lehane

2 completed Katie Nana blocks

I started these blocks on Tinkerbell, my 1925 Singer 99 hand crank sewing machine, but, I finished these blocks on my 1927 Singer 15 hand crank sewing machine.  Nothing wrong with Tinkerbell, but, the Singer 15 is in the main place in my sewing room, and it was easier to just keep it there, than to keep moving machines.

1925 Singer 99 (3/4 size machine) hand crank, Tinkerbell

1927 Singer 15 hand crank

Hopefully I'll have the last 2 Peter Pan themed blocks finished by the end of this weekend.