A Memory Quilt for Kaye

My world was turned upside down in February when my eldest sister was diagnosed with a terminal illness. I was able to go visit her for a week, and nurse her after her surgery. Not knowing what else could be a comfort for Kaye, I prepared all the makings of a special quilt from my family, and took them with me. I was able to finish it while there and present it to her before I left.


Kaye deserves to have a prize-winning quilt because she is a prize-winning sister. I am no prize-winning quilt maker, so this will have to do. I hope it gives her the comfort she needs.


Each member of my family made a block that said something special about Aunt Kaye. I added a few blocks that highlighted some special events from her life. The red and blue blocks are horse print fabrics because she always enjoyed horses.


Here is the result.























The blocks with hand-written messages are done in crayon. By placing a sheet of sandpaper underneath the muslin, you can color and write whatever you like without the fabric wrinkling up. "Set" the color by placing a piece of brown paper sack on top of the design, and press with a hot iron for 10-15 seconds. It will never wash out now...any mother who has tried to remove color from laundered crayons left in a child's pocket knows what I mean!


The back is anti-pill fleece, just like I made here. This one is machine stippled, and I am happy with the way it worked out, despite a lot of thread breakages this time (I was using a machine I wasn't accustomed to).

My new favorite way to make a quilt!

I've wanted to try this for a long time and I finally took the plunge! I have successfully put fleece as the backing of a cotton quilt! Yes--it works!

I got this Star Wars panel at a garage sale a couple years ago, and it recently resurfaced from the inner-most chamber of my stash. It was calling to me to make a hurry-up blanket for my young Padawan son for his impending birthday.

Make sure your cottons are all prewashed and preshrunk. I added a colorful scrap border and a regular border. I continued the fire theme by freelancing some free-motion flames in the scrap border.

Using fleece on the back eliminates the need for batting, and it comes up to 60 inches wide, so I didn't even piece this back. Two yards of length was all I used. With a fleece back, you can get away with less quilting than with cottons too. I think the best results would be obtained with a high quality fleece. I used an anti-pill fleece.

I layed out the fleece without stretching it, and then layed out the top over it. I pin basted well, to reduce stretching that could occur during quilting. I think you could add a regular fabric binding, but for softness, I opted to do a fold-over binding. It worked really well.

I rotory cut the fleece edge 3/4 " larger than the quilt top. Fleece doesn't fray, so I think a straight edge would be fine, but I used the scolloped blade on my rotary cutter (it was a little challenging to use a wavy blade againt a straight ruler). Then, you just fold it over in place and sew it down. It would be essential to use a walking foot with fleece.

My fold-over binding corners are always less than stellar, but fleece is so forgiving, that you can easily push the corners into place. I sewed to within a couple of inches of the corner from both ways, snipped off the pointed corner, and then worked it into a suitable corner shape, and stitched it up. Easy!

i went scrappy. (and i'm happy).

Thanks for all of your advice.
In the end, I opted for FREE (and to stay in my pjs all day).
It feels good to know I finished the girls' beds without spending any money.
(Now I can spend money on the rest of the room.) :)

This is the end result.

My girls LOVE to show everyone the pillows that they designed.

I LOVE the sense of self confidence they get whenever they look at their bed.

I just made a basic Log Cabin. I cut all of my bright scraps/stash fabrics into 2.5 inch strips (or you could use a jelly roll). I started with a square 2.5 x 2.5 and added to it, sewing, cutting, ironing, sewing, cutting, ironing. I put a square of white as my last log cabin layer. I made 63 of these blocks and sewed them together in rows of 7 by 9. That's it.

Here's my tip. I didn't realize that you could sew a log cabin wrong. But you can. See my picture above. Be careful when you sew the 4th fabric on. It should be touching the 1st and 3rd fabrics, not the 1st and 2nd.

One thing I liked about this process was that I had a lot of 2.5 inch strips. I pieced them together for the binding. Overall it turned out to be a great way to use up fabric that I've had forever.

Twister Circle tutorial

Call me crazy, but I'm going to attempt to explain how to make the circles for the twister quilt.

1. Draw a 7" circle on cardstock (I used a kitchen bowl - use same bowl for final trim down)

2. Cut into fourths and make another template using one of the pieces and adding 1/4 inch to the straight edges and about 1/2 inch to the round edge

3. This is your template

4. I'm on a spending freeze, so I pulled these from my stash. Yellow is for the foundation piecing. Cut (96) from #3 template above. The white will be background pieces cut (24) 11 x 9.5. (original quilt was done with muslin for both the foundation piecing and block backgrounds)

5. I love using my scraps for this quilt, but am low on green and yellow so I'll have to dig into my stash for those.

6. I try to find pieces about 4" x 5" but since I'm using my stash, I also use skinnier pieces. You may need 3 fabrics for each quarter piece if you do this.

7. Place first piece right side up on foundation. Place second piece right side down and centered on foundation. Sew 1/4 seam on second piece.

8. Iron second piece over so entire foundation is covered.

9. This is what it looks like face up.

10. Trim to match foundation piece. (yes, there is a lot of waste this way, but I'm mostly using my scraps so I don't mind.)

11. Finished quarter piece.

12. Sew 2 quarters together to make 2 halves.

13. Sew 2 halves together. Use bowl to draw 7" circle

14. Trim to 7" circle

15. Center on background fabric and machine applique.

Here's another quilt that uses the same technique:

Close up of one block

spray basting... the stuff dreams are made of.

This stuff is great. It has changed my life.
When I first met my quilt sisters they were basting a quilt in the back bedroom. That night I woke up at 2am thinking that I had heard a spray bottle. I barely waited till a reasonable hour before calling Grey to ask her where all the PINS had gone. That was a birth of a new era in my life.

I have heard that not all sprays are created equal. We only use the PINK kind that you can buy at Hancock Fabrics.

I know it's scarey to try something new, so I'm showing you step by step just how easy and amazing this is. You'll LOVE IT!! I promise.

Step ONE: Take your batting outside and lightly spray one side. (It's best to have a friend hold the batting so you can spray... although all of us have had fun trying to spray by ourselves in the West Texas wind.) The girls tell me NEVER to spray inside because it will ruin your carpet.

Step TWO: Lay the batting on the floor (sticky side up). Lay the backing on top, centering it and pulling it taught as you lay it down. Rub all around to get out the wrinkles. If you see any big wrinkles, you can lift the fabric and place it again.

Step THREE: Take the batting (now with backing on it) back outside, and spray the other side.

Step FOUR: Lay the batting on the floor again (sticky side up). Take the front of your quilt and place it centered on the batting. I like to fold the quilt front in half so it is easier to get straight.

Step FIVE: Rub out any wrinkles.

TAH DAH!!

You're all ready to quilt by hand or machine.

oh. this is SO MUCH better than pinning.

love it.