Creeper Pillow + Vintage Quilt

Hi! I finished up my oldest son's Creeper pillow last week and wanted to share:

 

He plotted out the piecing diagram by himself, and then did a good job sewing it together. I quilted it a while back and decided to finish it up. One mistake--he wanted me to use black thread on the green part and green thread on the black part--but there was a miscommunication on that. Next time we collaborate I'll make sure I clear the thread choices with him before quilting!

I've also been working on a quilt for a friend:

 

Jan asked me to quilt up this vintage quilt top for her a while back. (Actually before we moved away from Kansas.) I can't remember the details of where she got it but it's pretty cool. The navy blues, reds, and small calicoes remind me of being a little kid and hanging out with my Grandma.  It's a generous twin size, and parts of it aren't exactly flat, so it's a bit of a challenge to quilt, but I'm making good progress. I decided to try out a different batting (Hobbes 80/20) than what I normally use and I like the extra loft.

This week's projects

I worked on some small projects this past week. It's been a nice break from making bigger quilts, but I'm gearing up to get back to that and finish 2 larger quilts really soon.

 

I made this zip pouch for my 3rd grader's teacher for an end of the year gift. We put a gift card and some dry erase markers in it. I've made a few of these bags, and I like using 5" charm squares for them.

And I got this Madrona Road scrap mini quilt top finished up. I started the improvised log cabin blocks a while back and decided to make them into something. 

 

I wish I had realized the dark pink "L"s on the top and bottom were both facing the same direction, that's not something I would have kept, but I'm not going to change it now. I need to figure out a quilt back for it and it should be quick to quilt.

And here is a big log cabin block:

 

It's the beginning of a quilt back. A (long) while back, my friend Jan asked me to quilt a quilt top she had, and I'm finally working on it. It's a traditional log cabin quilt with a lot of navy blue, and some pink, red, green, yellow, and orange. I need to press the top and then I'll show it here. 

And here's a frog my kids photographed earlier in the week:

 

She's a little tiny one.

I have one more cool finished project to share, that I haven't got a photo of yet. I'll get that done soon and hopefully be back with a quilt back to show, too. Hope you're having a good weekend!

What I've been working on

I've been working on a few different projects and quilt blocks and it's finally time to blog about them.

 

These are the (late) May blocks for my do good stitches group. The pattern is from Sew, Mama, Sew (but modified for a 12" block) and I didn't follow the instructions. I put mine together half-log-cabin style and the pattern directions suggest sewing it together in straight rows. Which makes sense because it would have been way quicker and easier.

  

These are a couple more scrap blocks to add to my slowly growing pile. I sorted scraps today and I'm thinking I might need to focus on scrap quilts for the summer or something like that. Need to make a dent in the pile o scraps. 

And here is my completed scrappy tripalong quilt top for my do good stitches group:

My request for group members was to make "boyish" blocks with red, yellow, blue and their preferred neutral (could be solid or printed white, offwhite, gray, brown, whatever.) And also to make sure the middle diagonal row was an obvious dark or light. With the variations of colors and those obvious diagonals, I think the quilt top is really dynamic and just...full of energy. This quilt top has 20 scrappy trip blocks and it measures 61" x 49".

Finally, I made this dress for my girl:

I still need to tuck in thread ends, I know.

I cut off the bib part of her overall shorts that I got a couple years ago for the bodice, and made the skirt with a clearanced cloth shower curtain I got at Target sometime last year. 

I'm not sure about it. The skirt pattern is from Ottobre Design issue 3/2006 (it's on the cover) and the ruffles are a bit over the top compared to what she normally wears. The other thing (really, the main thing that's bothering me) is the overalls "bodice" is longer than the one in the actual pattern, so the skirt doesn't really have that empire look it has in the original pattern. I'm considering taking the skirt off of the overalls and making up the bodice from the pattern; and then attaching a different style skirt to the overalls bodice. I'm not sure what I'll do yet but it's always a bummer when things don't turn out the way you envision them.

I'm finishing up a teacher gift next week (maybe a couple) and also making the back for my son's creeper pillow. And working on scrap blocks. What are you working on?