Quilts From My Sewing Machine #6 Baby Chinese Coins

The "birth" (excuse the pun) of this quilt began as a leader/ender somewhere back in 2010 or 2011. My hubby’s father’s wife had given me a large amounts of fat quarters. Among them were these very brightly colored ones. I decided they would make wonderful stacked coins.

I cut each fat quarter into 5"x2.5" blocks. Then I sewed them together in strips. I put them away after this and planned to make them into charity quilts. When I decided to make them into a baby quilt for Sydney & Mike, I pulled them out and used them. There are still plenty left for more quilts.

TGS has a friend, Mike, that he's known for years while living in Maryland. He is a strong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and has never given up on TGS.
 

OSLW & TGS wedding, look to their right and the woman
with the purple sweater is Mommy-To-Be

Around the time that TGS & OSLW were getting ready to marry, Good Friend’s wife, Mommy-To-Be was in the last trimester of her pregnancy. She was so close to her due date it was questionable if she would make it to the wedding, which was in Leesburg, Virginia.
 
Good friend & Mommy-To-Be made it to the wedding. Good friend was TGS’s best man. They attended part of the reception and then headed home.
 
The very, very next day they had their baby. The timing was very close on that birth! (Of course, TGS was born after a 45 minute labor and I just barely made it inside the hospital. But that’s another story!)
 
I wanted to make a quilt for their baby. Mommy-To-Be is the Relief Society’s President (women’s organization) in her branch. She has been a devoted friend to OSLW. She has helped OSLW in her new membership in the Church. I decided that 
the Chinese coins would be a perfect, bright quilt.
 
I used some columns of the coins and still have enough for another larger quilt. I had some white minky that I thought would be perfect for the back. Even though quilters advise against it, I decided to machine quilt, rather than tie, the quilt. 

After reading dozens of Googled articles on quilting and sewing with minky, I nearly changed my mind. Have you ever read them? It goes sort of like this: “Beware! Good-Intentioned Quilter, do not go! Do not pass Go. Go directly to tying the quilt!” (spooky music in the background)

You know the saying, Fools rush in where angels dare to tread!

I decided to persevere and quilt. With tips from several (one or two, deeply-hidden articles), I quilted and… found it easy! Does that make me a fool? I think not!

I remembered that Noel Heart had a woobie that was a baby blanket with satin binding. She loved, loved, loved that binding. She would rub her fingers back and forth on the satin and suck her two fingers.
 
I decided I would put satin binding on the blanket. I'd only had one experience with putting on satin binding to revive a friends baby quilt. Let’s just say that it wasn't a good experience and leave it at that.
 
Back to Googling. Again, after reading enough articles, I put the binding on and it came out perfectly!
 
I sent it off to Good Friend and Mommy-To-Be after school started, even though I had it finished a couple of months before.
 
That brings up another story of the Post Office Curse of the Christensen's. And that is another story.


Baby's Chinese Coins stats:
Life Quilt #38
Started July 2012
Finished July 2012
Mailed: September 2012
Baby Quilt 36” x 36”
Pieced and Quilted by Terri

Pass The Peanuts, Please #2

Downtown Charlie Brown

In my hometown, Santa Rosa, there are many statues of the Peanuts characters. These are here, like I mentioned in my post last week, because Santa Rosa is the official hometown of Charles Schulz.

Charlie Brown was the first of the statues to be displayed in Santa Rosa. It was a event called, “It’s Your Hometown Charlie Brown.”

On the statue is a depiction of Downtown Santa Rosa. There are just generic names, but each one represents a real store there. For instance, in the front view, music is Stanroy's Music. In the back view, Deli is Max's Deli, which has been there for over 30 years.

If you look closely you'll see all the Peanuts characters lounging around the main street, both on front and back of Charlie.

The statue was in the center of Railroad Square, the first downtown of Santa Rosa. 

The little pink note held in Charlie Brown’s hand says, “Meet me downtown Charlie Brown. Signed, Little Red-Headed Girl”

I hope he found her.

Last week I asked my blog readers to tell me what they're favorite Peanuts character is. The overwhelming response was Snoopy!

Each character in the Peanuts comic strip has a defining characteristic. This week's poll is:
Name a character and its defining characteristic.

You might also enjoy:

In The Pink

Random Superheroes

Flamingos Winging Their Way to Their New Home

Ta-da! The charity quilt for Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo is on its way to find its new owner.

I am excited to donate this quilt and hope it will bring comfort to its owner.

I spent all of last week quilting and trying to quilt the quilt. I’ll admit it, right here and now, that I’m not the best quilter in the world, USA, California, Santa Rosa, ummmm, on my block. Let’s face it…I’m a lowly beginner.

I have three basic meanders: stars and loops, hearts and loops, and stars, hearts and loops! I decided that on this quilt, with so many choices, to do loops, hearts and stars. (Does it count as another type of meander if I list the items in a different order?) Hmmm…guess not, eh?

You might recall in the post where I unveiled the flamingos that I had a run-in with loops on the back of the quilt. I must admit that I behaved in an unseamly behavior as I handily dispensed with all the loops.

Fast forward to this past week…I had success in my meanders. Humbly I admit that some of the stars didn’t quite make all 5 points and some hearts looked deformed. I did the “Quilter’s Visual Test.” You know the one: if you can’t see any mistakes when riding by on a galloping horse…it’s good! Mine was good. And I didn’t even have to take off my glasses.

When it came time to do the borders, I looked for a good design. I consulted with my admired quilters: Leah Day and Lori Kennedy. I settled on a spiral pattern from Leah Day, which is listed in her “Super Beginner” group. I did lots and lots of practice before I gamely started on my quilt.

My borders are in black. The visibility of my meanders on the body of the quilt, I decided that quilting in black was the best gambit. It did mean, however, that the back side of the quilt would have black spirals against the cheddar. There wasn’t much of a choice…

At first when I looked, during quilting, at the black on cheddar, I wasn’t too impressed. But once done, I loved the affect of the squares that were made by the borders.

Again, wobbly and most spirals looked funny, but I found myself definitely enjoying the movement and rhythm of quilting them. There might be hope for me yet!

I discovered through the quilting of the borders, that my sewing machine has control issues. It’s sad but true. All had been going very well with my meander. I practiced the spirals on muslin sandwiches. Once I had the real quilt, it went a couple of vertical sashings then started looping in the back. I rethreaded the machine, practiced on sample sandwich and everything worked again. But then it started looping again. Sadly, this became a process. Each time after trying something new and getting a perfect back on the sample sandwich, all would go well and then it would eventually start looping again. I only had two horizontal rows to quilt, but just couldn’t get any cooperation from the machine.

Extreme frustration, anger and homicidal thoughts set in.

I stopped for the evening before I threw the sewing machines out the window. Then follow it out there with a chain saw.







Or start with a hatchet and turn it into something useful.




The next day I started with a different machine and finally got the quilt done. Breathe a sigh of relief.

I had decided to use a lavender binding that matched some of the flamingos on the fabric. I knew it would look good on the front, but wondered about it with the back. Silly me, I shouldn’t have worried. I absitively, posilutely love it!



And it is completely finished. It’s worth it because I want to give it to someone who will love it.

I’m hooking up with the following blogs. Hop on by to check out lots of lovely quilts! Their badges are in the right sidebar.
So Scrappy RSC Saturday
Patchwork Times
Show & Tell Tuesday
Fabric Story
Linky Tuesday
WIP Wednesday
We Did It Wednesday
WiP on Wednesday
Needle and Thread Thursday
Fabric Frenzy
Free Motion Mavericks
I Quilt
Fabric Frenzy
TGIFF
Finish It Up Friday
Sew Darn Crafty Linky Party

You might also be interested in:

Hand2Help: Flamingos

Pass The Peanuts, Please

Marvelous Marie #4Pixelated Posies

Marvelous Marie #4: Pixelated Posies

I’ve noticed that pixilation quilts and blocks have started to become popular. My Aunt Marie was ahead of her time! She quilted a amazing example of pixeled posies in a quilt. It’s also been one of my favorites. In fact, I’ve wanted to make one just like it, but probably in different colors.

Here’s her enchanting quilt!

This is a close-up of one of the blocks:

There are lots of little blocks in that one square. I believe they were 1-1/2 inches in size. 

When I inherited Aunt Marie’s quilts, I let each of my children pick one they wanted. Nancy Drew picked the Mystery Stars. TGS picked the Orange Poppies with Red Quilting, which I have not written about. I also let my Sisty Ugler and my DMIL (who quilts) pick one.

My DMIL chose this quilt, which explains why I don’t have better pictures of it.

My new mission, intrepid as I am, is to ask my family to send me the quilts so I can photograph them  When I started taking pictures of quilts, I didn't do a very good job. (fine example above!) Now I know how to get much better detail, to take more close-ups of quilting, blocks, backing and other notable features.

I will also get the quilt appraised at the same time. I get such helpful information from an appraiser. I will be thrilled to hear about the pattern, the fabrics, the time period and quality of construction.

Since I have so little information on this quilt, I'll tell you a story about my Aunt and Uncle.

Aunt Marie and Uncle Elbert lived in the Santa Ana hills outside Anaheim, CA. My uncle, who was a carpenter, built a home for them in the 1950s. They lived there until the 1970s. The area they lived in was susceptible to the wild Santa Ana winds. When the winds were combined with a wildfire, it was extremely dangerous.

At a time when I was in high school, just such a fire was in the area where my aunt and uncle lived. My uncle was hosing down the house and some of the grounds around it, hoping to protect the house from catching fire. He sent my aunt ahead of him and continued to hose down the house.

When it was time, the only thing that mattered to him was to save Aunt Marie’s beautiful quilts. He grabbed them and put them in the back of his truck and headed down the long gravel road to the highway.

This gravel road had been dug through a medium-sized hill to make a small road. The hill rose up on either side of the road, about six feet higher than his truck.

The fire was on one side and jumping the road to the other side. As he drove down the road, a piece of smoldering wood landed on one of Aunt Marie’s quilts. Uncle Elbert immediately got out and began hitting it with his bare hands. He put it out and then continued down the road.

All of the quilts made it safely to less treacherous spot. There was just a small spot on the quilt where the burning piece had landed.

My heart always aches and is proud at the same time. The most precious possession that my uncle wanted to save in a fire were his beloved wife’s quilts! The scene of him jumping out of his truck and killing the spark with his bare hands is amazing.

There was good news all around, the house was safe and the grounds around it were also not burnt.

My uncle was his wife’s biggest fan. He always wanted to show off her marvelous quilts. He was a taciturn guy, but he showed his big heart that day.

Pass The Peanuts Please!

A post in which the blogger unveils a little known fact about her town.

I live in Santa Rosa.

Do you know who else lived in Santa Rosa?

Charles Schulz.

For the uninformed, he wrote the Peanuts comic strip. He started drawing the comic strip in nearby Sebastopol in 1958, then moved to Santa Rosa in 1969. One of my favorite “Peanuty-ness” are the statues all around Santa Rosa. 


In 2005, five years after Charles Schulz died, the city began an event called, “It’s Your Town, Charlie Brown.” Scores of unpainted, fiberglass statues of Charlie Brown were available for purchase. The goal was to have painted Charlie Browns all over the city.

Make Tracks to Railroad Square

This is Charlie Brown on Railroad Square. Like many towns, a railroad ran down one side of Santa Rosa. While there isn't any train now, the depot remains and it is the Welcome Center. What used to be the downtown stretched a couple of blocks from the depot. It is now called Railroad Square. So our guy, Charlie Brown, is a conductor complete with watch and his characteristic chevron stripe.

I loved Peanuts cartoons and read books of them voraciously when I was a child. The statues are great fun to see & photograph. The downtown Welcome Center has maps of where the statues are.

You can go on Google and find pictures of all the Charlie Brown statues. I could even download them. Instead I decided to go photograph them myself. I can get front & back views and detailed pictures.

Wednesday is going to be the day to check in at Quilting Nonnie’s blog to see a weekly Charlie Brown statue photo.

For today, leave a comment telling me which Peanuts character was your favorite?



I’ll even keep a tally and report back next week!

P.S. Mine was Snoopy!

Caught Up At Last!

I caught up with my Rainbow Scrap Challenge this weekend. Hurray!

Last month, May, the color was green. Just couldn’t get “a round tuit” because (everyone join in!) school…






This month is yellow and I’m finished already. There’s a first time for everything!

Here are the greens:





The blocks in the bottom row of four contains some special blocks. Left to right: Daisies from a vintage sheet, I think I had that exact pattern on a sheet in the 60s? Plaid, I lovey dovey plaid! Realio, trulio 30s fabric from my Aunt Marie’s stash, froggies from my Sisty Ugler’s stash.

Now that I’m half a year into RSC, I’ve come up with a plan!

For each color, I want one plaid block, one vintage block and quite a few novelty fabrics. I don’t have many novelty fabrics and especially in my past quilts. I decided that I’d like to get a bunch in here for the giggles.

Moving right along…get along little doggies…




The bottom set has the special ones. Left to right:
Row 1: Authentic 30s fabric, a yellow I adore, used sparingly, plaid,
Row 2: vintage gingham (like you can tell!), a baby print (nothing special), a quilt from our local guild show 2007

Row 3: My dad and I—Happy Father’s Dad!, A silly photo of my hubby wearing my sisty ugler’s glasses and my grandpa’s hat, my sisty ugler 1989.

Hooking up with Rainbow Scrap Challenge (badge on the left) and the wonderful blogs listed on the right. Be sure to check them out and see other quilter’s wonderful work.

This May Be The Silliest Post I’ve Ever Written! & The Shortest Too

Don’t you love my slippers?

Don’t judge my floors, please! But I actually know how to clean the black pitting in them! I should practice what I preach. Here’s a link to a blog post by Jillee with a tute on how to get out ground in dirt.


Linking up with Really Random Thursday, see badge on right.

Hands2Help & Flamingos

For those of you who are looking for For Pinks Sake, go to this link.

What a glorious day! It is the final day of the Hands2Help quilt drive. Each year Sarah (Confessions of a Fabric Addict) offers quilters a chance to make a quilt for 2 or 3 different charities. From March to June quilters can choose a charity, sign up and make a quilt.

I chose Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo. This organization captured my heart immediately. Emily, of Em’s Scrapbag, has an ongoing project of making quilts for Happy Quilts. “This wonderful effort provides quilts and comfort for chemo patients.” (Sarah Craig)

The number one reason I chose this was because of my Mom. 42 years ago my Mom had her first surgery for cancer. She went through chemo at one point and suffered the common lot of others who have chosen this option to try to rid themselves of cancer. I wrote a post about my courageous and beloved Mom, which you can read here.

Without any more chatter, here is my Flamingo Quilt!

The Quilt with my 1940 Elna Grasshopper

Don't look too closely at the p-i-n-s.

Kaiju, my kitty, helping with the backing

In all it's glory

What are those? Let me take a closer look? Pins???? Does she plan to have someone snuggle up with a quilt with pins?

No she doesn’t. With school and the Log Cabin (oh boy, she’s rolling out the excuses!) I knew I’d have to make the quilt the week after school let out. Errr, the last week before the H2H deadline.

Fortunately, this was a joint effort and my Sisty Ugler had made the blocks. I started in on last Saturday and was toodling along. Then an unexpected lost day showed up.

I worked my little beehind off yesterday. I thought I could make the finish line. I started quilting at 5:00. After a half hour, which meant I only covered about 24” (2 12-inch squares), I stopped to look at the back.

Eeeeeegads! The tension was all wrong! Loopy loo! And I had checked and adjusted the tension before I started. I stared at it in frustration and mounting apprehension. I would have to pull out all the stitching.

I should have thought to take a picture of my own quilt back!

Four hours later, I had finished ripping it out. It was then I realized it wouldn’t get done for today.

And (get ready for another excuse, group) today is our local guild’s Quilt Show. No quilting today.

And now you know why there are pins in it!

Look for another post next week with the unpinned and completely finished quilt!

** I have to apologize for the quality of the pictures. They are blurry and the color's faded. Darn! **

The Unveiling: For Pink’s Sake

Welcome to all who are blog hopping For Pinks Sake. Anna, who writes Life Sew Crafty, is hosting this blog hop to raise awareness of cancer, to make a quilt for Lemmon-Holton Cancer Pavillion in Grand Rapids, MI.

Anna is quite familiar with this hospital. It is where her mother-in-law, Tina, has had all of her cancer treatments.

Any of you who have had someone you love go through cancer treatments, know how the bills pile up. Anna is asking that anyone who is able to donate to help defray Tina’s medical bills.

Each of the bloggers on the hop are making a block to donate to the quilt for the hospital. You can help by donating a pink block. Instructions are here.

Those who read my blog regularly will know of my Mom who died from breast cancer in 1984. The radiation treatments had just started being refined. While my Mom had them, they learned how to pinpoint just one area to radiate instead of a buckshot approach.

The positive aspect now in 2014 is death rates from breast cancer are declining since 1990. This is because more and more women, like myself, have chosen to forego hormone replacement therapy. The breast cancer incidence rates among women aged 50 and older have seen a gradual reduction. This is due to early detection, increased awareness and continually improving treatment options. It’s a better world now and hope is growing all the time.

For my block, I wanted to make an “old-timey” block I found in my Aunt’s belongings. The publication, Grandmother’s Patchwork Quilts, was has no date. I’ve read about this small, paperback books, approximately 24 pages long, were done in the 1960s.

Young Man’s Fancy was the block I chose had 74 pieces! Yikes! Sooooo, for my block I chose the Klondike Star. It’s paper pieced and has much fewer pieces. You can find the instructions for this block at Quilters Cache, a wonderful site with 60 pages of free block patterns. The Klondike Star is found here.

The blog hop goes on through July 19th, posting every other Saturday. Here is a list of the bloggers who are helping out! Go and check out their blocks--very cool!

May 10

Anna @ Life Sew Crafty

Sarah @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Robin @ Miscellaneous Thoughts

Kathy @ Kwilty Pleasures

May 24

Jess @ Quilty Habit

Melinda @ Quirky Granola Girl

Kristyn @ Melon Patch Quilts

June 7

Amy @ The Calico Cat

Leanne @ Devoted Quilter

Terrie @ Quilting Nonnie

June 21

Carla @ modern bias

Meli @ Munchkin Quilts

Stacey @ The Tilted Quilt

Julie @ The Crafty Quilter

July 5

Erin @ Sew at Home Mummy

Lyanna @ BlueStripedRoom

Heather @ Quilts in the Queue

July 19

Katie @ Swim Bike Quilt

Sarah @ {no} hats in the house

Katie @ Snuggle Up with a Dish from Karma