Perry Moffitt

July 19, 2010

More Rainbows!

I am trying to make a baby quilt in a hurry for an old friend and her darling baby who we are seeing on vacation next week. It is fun revisiting some of these fabrics, I have had some of these scrap triangles for ten years, just waiting for the right project. It felt like I had pulled out millions of triangles, but when I laid out this pieced top  I was  disappointed in the smallness. In my mind’s eye this was going to be big enough for a toddler bed but it is currently too small to be a baby quilt. Even though the triangles were mostly half of a 5.5″ square the finished squares ended up being 4″ . I think I have to add at least 2 rows to the long side. And a ginormous border. Of red? of white? of a rainbow polka-dot?

I loved doing this pattern with Lauren’s quilt, but those triangles were bigger and maybe more forgiving? I am having a hard time making clean points with such small triangles. Such is the nature of slightly wonky scraps.

And a picture of the darling baby.  She learned how to roll from her back to her front this weekend. And then when she gets there- cries in frustration that she is stuck on her belly. It must be tough to be a baby :)

July 2, 2010

Baby Paintbox Quilt

I started this while in the last days of pregnancy. Baby turned 3 months old this past Tuesday.  So, this is what 20 minutes of sewing a day will get you;

I was stumped on what the binding should be for a while but ran across this lovely polka dot satin at the Joann’s and made half a yard into just the right amount of binding.

I added a stripe on the back in the dead center. The minkee came up just a smidge short and this is how I made up the 3 inches I needed to match the front.

In full disclosure I should tell you I did not use any batting in this quilt. Strange, right? Well, it was very intentional. I noticed that we had not been using the baby quilts I had for miss d. but instead using the store bought minkee blankets, and I realized the reason was the quilts I had made, even with thin cotton batting, were just too bulky to use. So, this is just fabric and minkee and it feels like just the right weight, better for traveling from room to room and snuggling with at naptime.

April 30, 2010

Paintbox quilt, start the timer

There is no telling how long it will take me to get these squares made into a quilt. But I wanted to share how I spent my last days of pregnancy.  These are made from all my skinny scraps. I confess I separate my scraps into stripes, squares and triangles. A bit of my OCD showing.

I was inspired by the paintbox quilt by Oh, Fransson. She is a little more measured and specific in her sewing but I love the result. I am a little more haphazard, maybe another green square, make the yellow ones bigger. I have plenty of plans for it, but sewing is one thing you can’t do while cradling a baby. Small sacrifice…

July 13, 2009

Doesn’t this look familiar? Blue and Brown for Baby

I enjoyed a weekend with no real plans and was able to finish up 2 quilts that have been “marinating” for a while.  This one is every single little scrap left over from the wedding quilt from 2 weeks ago. Along with some pieced together batting. It is almost a genuine scrap quilt but I did buy the blue minkee backing specially for it.

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I am  regretting not using a true binding, however not enough to rip it out and start over. One more quilt for the Farmers Market!IMG_1842

December 13, 2008

Scrappy Baby Quilt

This was a special request quilt, which also happened to be a stash buster. The mom requested a quilt that has lots of different images, to have fun identifying things with baby. dscf1461

As a result there is a little of everything in here. Ladybugs, cupcakes, rabbits, birds etc.

dscf1467I used some batik for the backing that I got on the $3 a yard sale cart at On Board Fabrics and some butterfly fabric that had been cut in squares for a long-abandoned project and all in all, a great stash buster!

June 16, 2008

Lovely weekend, the finished Scrap Quilt

I had planned the last few weekends full of events to distract myself from being all alone at the house but that all seemed to fall apart this weekend. I taught a sewing class on friday night and then I had 2 days that stretched out in front of me with no real plans except to dog sit for a friend. It was lovely.

I finished my scrap quilt- Ta- Dah! rainbow thread, although you can barely tell.

I polished all the silver my mom and aunt have given me and I had so graciously stored in a cardboard box. I sorted through it and transformed a little used cupboard into a display. Which I then took a zillion pictures of – all of which looked terrible. So instead, a picture of one untarnished piece and some hydrangeas I borrowed from the abandonded house on my street.

Okay, more about this silver polishing; I ordered this plate called “Metal Brite” from the fabulous internet. When you put it in a sink with hot water and Calgon Water Softener it removes tarnish from all your silver, brass, ect. It arrived and I realized that it was just a piece of aluminum. I work in the office of a wood and metal shop so I decided I would try this trick with a regular piece of aluminum from the metal shop. Surprise! It worked like a charm. So I am returning this $20 piece of aluminum (which is actually worth less than 15 cents) and using the big chunk I brought home from work with the $6 box of calgon water softener. SO- lesson learned- ignore the lure of the miracle product and just go to home depot and pick up a chunk of aluminum. Much faster than silver polish, and it gets all the hard bits too!

I awoke on Sunday and felt the need to go to IKEA, a place where I can wander for hours. I have big plans on making a lovely desk under this living room window. But couldn’t find any desks that fit very well. I did however find this headboard. I nearly took it off the display wall to carry it home with me.

But I just bought my bed last year and spent a good while painting it white and attaching the new knobs. And my guest bedroom has a slanted ceiling which is too short for this 5′ gorgeous headboard. Maybe I can make it into a garden gate. Or maybe a tomato cage. But it might rust. Or I could hang it in the living room. Would that be weird? A head board just attached to the living room wall. Oh the dilemma.

June 11, 2008

Scrap Quilt, still working

It has taken me more than a week to piece together the top for my scrap quilt. I went through 3 spools of thread which I thought was pretty impressive, or maybe a sad reflection on the free thread I got. Anyway- The squares are 5″ x 5″ so the total dimensions are roughly 70″ x 70″. I am pretty happy with it, more pink than I usually like, but, who can be picky about scraps? I am not really looking forward to the actual quilting , I have never done such a big quilt on my little machine. And who wants to fight with such a big quilt in this heat? Yuck.

And Petunia would also like to tell you how very hot Philadelphia is these days.

May 1, 2008

Scrap Quilt, in progress

Filed under: Cybele's Crafty Good Stuff,Quilts — perrymoffitt @ 11:17 pm
Tags: ,

A quilt for me this time, this is the first hundred squares for my scrap quilt. I think I need another 125 to make it a full quilt top, 15 rows 15 columns. Although I suspect I will give up and make a wide border. Maybe another 70 squares for 13 rows 13 columns.

I never realized how many pink scraps I had. All of them are from the baby dress making but I genuinely though I had been making a wider color variety. I love all the green but I think I will make an effort to put in more blue.

****UPDATE**** see finished quilt here****

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