Fox in a Box

Posted on May 15, 2015 by ArtistDoris

Trina and I designed this quilt in 2013, published the pattern, and it’s been a best seller! I’m sharing it here again as my entry in the Spring 2015 Bloggers Quilt Festival.

There is an applique and a non-applique version. I’m kind of partial to those cute little foxes on the applique version…

FIAB FullSHot Quilted2

Fox in a Box made with no applique:

Trina did a wonderful job on the quilting of this one, a combination of straight-line quilting, pebble quilting and shadow spirals…

In designing this pattern, we worked out two methods of making no-waste (or LOW-waste) flying geese; through trial and error, but the methods in the pattern work our lickety-split!

Our little fox friend peeking out from his Fox and Geese Block, isn’t he adorable?

And his little friend gazing up at him from another block:

FIAB Fox 1 Detail

The two quilts side-by-side on my (apparently not-so-straight) fence:

The pattern is available here.

Happy Quilting! …and do come visit again

Doris (& Trina)

A gem, revisited

Posted on May 12, 2015 by ArtistDoris

Remember this quilt?Well, it’s available as a Row House Creations pattern in the latest issue of Fons & Porter’s Scrap Quilts… (Summer 2015)There are some wonderful quilts in this issue, 13 projects total… including one by my friend and fellow DSMMQG member, Leila! Go grab your issue this week…

Happy Quilting,

Doris

What a Gem!

Posted on January 15, 2014 by ArtistDoris

On Christmas Eve, this little pumpkin turned a year old:

She’s our grandbaby, Gemma. I started a quilt for her a while ago (Hubby and I picked out most of the fabric together before she was born) but I always give myself until the first birthday to finish and gift a baby quilt. In Gemma’s case, I gifted the quilt to her on her 1st birthday.

I used the Gem Block, lavender prints with a scrappy yellow background:

I was trying to design applique into the front when I started this project, but I ended up adding an appliqued monogram to the flannel back instead:

The G was machine-appliqued on, prior to quilting:

The quilt measures 36″ x 45″, 18 (9″) Gem Blocks and 2 Accent Blocks. I used six different purples (lavenders) and 5 different yellows on the front, the back is a Moda flannel and the “G” monogram is a tone-on-tone Peter Rabbit print from my stash.

Here’s a shot of the little cutie pie modeling with her quilt (she’s wearing a hoodie with buttons all over it, for her Christmas visit to Grandpa & Grandma’s house!):

Happy Birthday, Gemma!

It’s late September and I really should be…

Posted on September 23, 2013 by ArtistDoris

Name that tune! (Sorry, for some reason I have all kinds of song lyrics going through my head this week) It all started with seeing an Earth, Wind & Fire feature on CBS Sunday Morning (my favorite show!) and seeing footage of this tune. Watching that video just totally cheered me up. Anyway, back on track:

September is National sewing Month (yep–has been since 1982!). A proclamation in 1982 from President Ronald Reagan declaring September as National Sewing Month read “In recognition of the importance of home sewing to our Nation.” Hooray for the home-sewist! In 1982, my Mom was raising five kids, her oldest was headed off to his first year of college that Autumn, the second was a Junior in high school, the middle (ME!) was an 8th grader, my little brother in 7th grade, and my baby sis was a 1st grader. My mom sewed ALL of my Dad’s shirts (button down with collar and set-in sleeves, thank you very much), many clothes for my brothers, and nearly all of my and my sister’s clothing, including our lovely box-pleated plaid school uniform skirts (ick). She also did in-home daycare. How she found time to sew, I have no idea. But, I know some of she did to save pennies. I’m not sure that one could sew clothing cheaper than buying it anymore, but in the 70s and 80s, she could. I really need to dig us some photos from my childhood to show you some of my mom’s mad sewing skills.

So, what have I been sewing this September? I’m working on a quilt for the grandbaby:

I have 18 blocks made (thanks to our MQG sew-in time this past Saturday!) but I’m torn on the layout. Updates to follow.

I’m working on some wonky log-cabins using hoarded Heather Ross, Amy Butler and Sandi Henderson prints (a gift for someone):

I have grand plans to do some garment sewing for myself (I have since January 2012, but not much is happening on that front). Maybe next month. sigh. You’ll notice these two are both sleeveless dresses, I could have them ready to wear by the time Summer comes around again…

Trina and I have been sewing blocks for the recent launch of our Building Foundations Sampler QAL, here are my blocks (Moda Bella white with all Kaffe Fassett prints):

Join us over on the Row House Creations blog, and follow along or join us and share your pics with us via the Facebook page or the Flickr group!

We’ve also been busy marketing our patterns to wholesale distributors. Last week we were picked up by United Notions/Moda and Quilt Craft Distributors (in Canada)! A major accomplishment for our business.

What have you been sewing lately?

Do you join in Quilt Alongs? Will you join in on our’s?

Little Monsters

Posted on April 24, 2012 by ArtistDoris

On Friday the 13th, my business partner and I co-hosted a baby shower for our friend Dawn. The theme was Little Monsters, based on this quilt, by Kellie at Don’t Look Now:
Dawn is decorating her son’s nursery with a quilt made from this pattern; and making window valances, a bed skirt and accessories to match.

We went all out with the theme, and we even made our first “diaper cake”… bought a pack of 36 newborn Pampers, rolled them, tied them with a small strip of fabric:Stood them on end, wrapped them tightly with a band of fabric around a plastic container (it definitely took FOUR hands to do this!), and made a second smaller layer atop the first:We bought the few “monster” themed baby items we could find, and decorated the cake with them:a bib, a monster onesie, a teething ring (I think it’s an octopus, but he looks kind of monster-like!), linky rings, and Cookie Monster and Murray Sesame Street plushies as cake toppers.

I found a “happy birthday” monster tablecloth that I cut the monsters out of, used Mod Podge to glue them to cardstock and added colored rings of paper around them to make them look like Kellie’s Little Monters. These served as table and wall decor, as well as decorated the food table. (I was glad I had the chance to recycle them for my nephew’s birthday party again the following weekend!)

My favorite decoration might have been the monster cupcakes I made and decorated the night before:I had a lot of fun creating all those different faces and looks!

Trina, my business partner, made this sweet banner that Dawn will hopefully be able to use in the nursery:
It’s appliqued, and uses some of the same fabrics in the quilt. It hung above the gift table, along with the baby’s Little Monster quilt:We had fun putting this together, and I think everyone had a good time at the party!

When you host parties, do you plan around a theme, food, decor and the works? Or do you just put out the food and drink and go with the flow?

Ides of March

Posted on March 14, 2012 by ArtistDoris

…is tomorrow, actually… (The word Ides comes from the Latin word “Idus” and means “half division”, used widely in the Roman calendar indicating the approximate day that was the middle of the month. The Ides of March was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held.) Mars is the god of war, fitting as I felt like I was fighting a battle with the change over of the blogs these past days–and have often felt “half-divided” tlately!!.

MY APOLOGIES TO LOADING YOUR READER WITH 400+ UNREAD OUT-OF-ORDER POSTS!

I have it straightened out now, but what a hassle.

So, let’s look at something cute, shall we?! A little minkee backed baby blanket I made for my niece…

Very simple quilting, a large grid to hold the layers together, and a sweet giraffe applique cut from a piece of red Katie Jump Rope fabric:

and binding is a pretty turquoise from the s’mores collection for Moda:

I don’t have a photo of her with it, but her she is, on the day she turned 7 months old:

That smile melts my heart! She’ll get a fancier quilt eventually, but probably a little bigger one that she can use on her big-girl bed when the time comes. For now, this giraffe blankie will provide her some cuddly goodness.

made by a brunnette

Tag Archives: baby quilt