gifts

You are currently browsing articles tagged gifts.

Charlie

February 2, 2010 in Finished Objects, Quilts | 14 comments

That’s right, it’s madness up in here! Two finishes in less than a week! Well, it makes sense, as these two babies were born less than a week apart.

My nephew, Charlie. My very first nephew. My brother’s son.  He was born last Wednesday, about 10 days ahead of schedule. I was already working on the quilt when I got the call, but obviously his arrival sped things up a bit.  I hope they like his quilt. Because if they don’t, I’m taking it back. Because I am in love with it.  It feels so “boy” without beating you over the head with BLUE and TRUCKS and STEREOTYPES!

Charlie

It all started with a fat quarter bundle of Robert Kaufmann’s Animal Party prints that I bought from an Etsy seller, ages ago. I bought it on a whim, thinking it would be great for a baby boy at some point. Lo and behold, the ultrasound revealed that my brother’s first child was, in fact, a boy. And my sister-in-law mentioned something about a jungle/animal/explorer theme.  Golden!

I was undecided on what to do with these prints for a long, long time. I toyed with a whole bunch of different ideas, and couldn’t settle on one that I liked. And then Ashley posted about the Spotted Squares quilt she’s working on, and I had my inspiration.

Charlie

I felt compelled to be somewhat organized about it, not totally improvisational. (Because, seriously, improvising takes time! I like to chain-piece, people!)  They are all 8″ (finished) blocks. There are two different sized center squares (2″ and 4″, finished). There are two different layouts (centered and off-center). And there are two styles (print/color borders and white borders).  I picked fabrics from my stash to coordinate with the prints I already had, sticking mostly with brown, green, blue, and orange.

Oh, and the back. I kind of love the back. As much, if not more, than the front. I have to remember to do an actual quilt like this. Maybe for my kids…

Charlie

I was also torn as to how to quilt it, as I seem to be on almost every quilt I make.  I didn’t want to quilt it too densely, that much I knew.  But I’m psyched with what I went with: straight horizontal and vertical lines at random intervals.  I love that it kind of works with the square-but-wonky style of the front. I marked the lines with a washable pen and my ruler to keep them as straight as I could.

Charlie

Binding is from Connecting Threads, their Riviera line, which is now discontinued and on major clearance (those circle/dots are still available in three different colors).

Charlie

Anyways, I’m thrilled that this one is done. And I can’t wait to deliver it in person on Saturday, when I fly to Chicago to meet my sweet new nephew. Hooray!

Tags: , , , , ,

Lucy Elizabeth

January 28, 2010 in Finished Objects | 17 comments

My first finish of 2010 is for a good friend and her brand new baby girl, Lucy.

It was no secret I would be making a quilt for her, and I just waved goodbye to it on the mail truck. I was going to wait a couple of days to post about it, but someone decided she wanted to see pictures…

Lucy Elizabeth

Once I found out this baby was to be a girl, I ordered a charm pack and a jelly roll of Hushabye.  I went through various thoughts on what I’d actually do with it, and eventually settled on this.  5″ (cut) centers, 2.5″ borders.  The solid is Kona Cotton in Bone, which wasn’t quite so stark as plain white.

Lucy Elizabeth

The back is the bunny damask print from the same line, with a strip of squares.

Lucy Elizabeth

Quilting is diagonal lines in pink thread. Binding is also from the same line. Yes, I said I was going to try to do fewer quilts using all fabrics from the same line, I know. But I bought this fabric last October, so I think I get a pass. And sometimes it just looks so nice, you can’t pass it up.

Anyways, it’s in the hands of the postal service, on its way to Manhattan.  I hope Lucy likes it! (And her mom, too, I suppose…)

Tags: , , , , , ,

Scrappy gifts, Part 2

December 26, 2009 in Crafts, Finished Objects | 2 comments

Oh. Um. Hi there!

Holidays, travel, craziness. You know how it goes.

Anyways, I realized I never showed the other scrappy gift I made.  This one was a birthday gift for my husband, who tends to get tension headaches and loves heat packs on the back of his neck.

ricebag1

It’s a rice heat therapy bag with washable cover, and I found the tutorial at Sew, Mama, Sew.  Super easy, and I added an extra round of topstitching around the edges of the rice bag for a little more security.

ricebag2

Of course, when I made the second one, I realized that topstitching was a lot easier if I did the first three sides before I put the rice in the bag. Genius, here. And, speaking of being an idiot, I didn’t take a picture of the second one before I gave it to my aunt. But it was cream with green and purple scraps and really matched her decor. I swear.

Anyways, throw together a few today! It takes no time at all. Chuck that bag in the microwave for two minutes and you’ve got nice, toasty weight to put on that knot in your shoulder or tuck under the covers to keep your toes warm.

Tags: , , ,

Scrappy gifts, Part 1

December 13, 2009 in Finished Objects | 3 comments

I hadn’t really planned on doing a ton of homemade gifts this year. I didn’t think I would really have enough time. But, then, I couldn’t resist when I saw a few ideas that people would really like.  Plus, it gave me a chance to play with more scraps!  Ooh, Amanda Jean, I can see how this could become quite addicting!

So, the first thing I pulled together was a Kindle cover for my mom.  I used the tutorial from the Sometimes Crafter, and it came together super easily.  My needle complained a little when doing the final topstitching through a lot of layers of fabric, and I had to convince it to keep moving the bulkiness under the foot, but overall it was very fast.

Kindle Cover

Some of the fabrics I used were leftover scraps from the quilt I made for my mom, three years ago. The first lap quilt I ever made. I’ll have to try to take a picture of it when I go home next week.  I picked the rest to go with that group.  The inside is some leftover I have from a Neptune fat quarter bundle.

Kindle Cover

I’m hoping to have a reason to make another one of these for myself when the holidays are over! And I may make one more before I leave, as I think my stepmom recently got a Kindle, as well.

Tags: ,

Mod Rainbow

November 10, 2009 in Finished Objects | 12 comments

With no toddlers to entertain on my four-hour flight to Colorado, I was free to relax, listen to music, and stitch some binding.  By the time I went to bed on Friday, my sister-in-law’s quilt was finished.

Mod Rainbow - binding

She has been a great friend, awesome aunt, and is generally way overdue for a quilt of her own (not to mention graduating from medical school and having a birthday recently…).  When I asked her what colors she wanted in her quilt, she said, “rainbow!”  I assure you, she wasn’t kidding.

Mod Rainbow - Front

Obvious to the quilting folks, this is the Mod Sampler Quilt from Oh, Fransson, which I’ve been meaning to do.  The cutting instructions were insanely well-organized, so I was able to whip through the blocks in no time. (I also strongly recommend her writeups on color basics and choosing fabric, good food for thought even if you aren’t making this exact pattern.)  Sashing always seems to give me a headache, but is worth it in the end.  I put off the basting and quilting for a while, but once I got my foot fixed, it was a breeze.  I did my favorite loopy stipple, and it went super fast.

Mod Rainbow - detail

As a first-year medical intern, my sister-in-law has virtually no days off, so it may be another two weeks or so before I can get this into her hands.  But she said she wanted to see pictures, so here they are.  Rachel, I hope you like it!

Mod Rainbow - back

And, yes, I hung another quilt from the swingset just to get a good picture.  I haven’t the faintest idea what I’ll do once it snows!

Tags: , , ,

Appreciation

September 16, 2009 in Finished Objects | 8 comments

I’m sure that making quilts has different meanings for different people.  For me, especially when I’m making it for another person, I really try to make something that the person will like, something they want, something they will enjoy.  While there’s certainly a creative/artistic aspect to quiltmaking, I generally like to make them in the hopes that they are enjoyed and put to good use. So just imagine how tickled I was to get these pictures:

Could Marie’s kids possibly be any cuter? They’re adorable, and I’m so happy that they liked their new blankets.

Indeed, even my own little girl has gotten into the act, finally using one of the first doll quilts I made to “make baby all cozy.” Warms mama’s heart, to be sure.

Putting the doll quilt to use

Of course, there’s the flipside, when these things go off into nowhere and you have no idea if people are happy, disappointed, or indifferent.  Sadly, at the moment, that’s the status of my Doll Quilt Swap.  I sent the quilt, along with a charm pack I thought my partner would like and some treats for her dogs, early last week. Tracking info on the package was weirdly ambiguous, and no response to emails from our swap mama.  Obviously, I have no idea what’s going on with this person.  Part of me is really cranky about putting thought and effort into something and not getting so much as an acknowledgment of receipt.  But the mother in me worries. Is she OK? Is there something going on in her life?

Anyways, if she stumbles on this post at any point in time, I hope that she got it and likes it and that everything is alright.  And I did enjoy the process of coming up with something special for someone else, and hope to do another swap sometime soon.  But I won’t lie, it’s kind of rough to spend the time and energy making something essentially as a gift that you really hope they’ll like, and then… silence.

Tags: , ,

Vacation Finish #3

August 14, 2009 in Binding, Finished Objects | 6 comments

The final quilt I finished on vacation was a little something I made for this perfect little guy, not quite three weeks old when I met him on Wednesday.

Theo

Theo is the second son of one of my very good friends from college. I didn’t originally have big plans for a quilt for him, but when my friend mentioned a month or two ago that his nursery was done in a sock monkey theme… you know I just couldn’t resist.

Sock Monkey gift, finished

It came together ridiculously fast, especially since I found the fabric from an Etsy seller who was selling a bundle of 5″ squares, eight each of five prints.  Got a bit of extra yardage that became borders, backing and binding, and threw in that orange border from my stash, and it was a cute little thing. I didn’t measure it, but I suspect that it’s maybe a bit under 36″ square after washing.  I quilted it just with a random stipple in cream-colored thread.

Sock Monkey gift, finished

As much as I dig pieced backings, sometimes it’s nice to make something small enough that you can just use a single cut of fabric. And that numbers print was just perfect.

Sock Monkey gift, finished

And you know I can’t resist a dotty binding. :-)   So much cute, and I think my friend really liked it.  Hooray!

We’re finally back home after our two-week-long Midwest adventure, and I’m so glad to be here. Itching to get a lot of sewing done, but there also seems to be a million things to do around the house, so I’m going to try to find a balance and not totally neglect the rest of my house in the name of fabric. We’ll see how that goes!

Tags: , , ,

For Mallory

June 15, 2009 in Finished Objects, Quilts | 12 comments

So, it turns out I was justified in my paranoia, and the recipient of the purple & green quilt was, in fact, reading along as I was sewing. No worries. I think she liked it. And I know I sure did.

Zig-zag quilt front - vertical

Like isn’t strong enough. I love this quilt enough that I had a hard time parting with it. The pattern was fun and enough of a challenge to be interesting, but not actually terribly difficult. I love the colors and the white sashing, and the fact that I managed some semblance of order in my stripe layout (can you see it?).

Zig-zag quilt front - horizontal

I adore the back. The scraps were meant to be a variety of widths, but I don’t think the variation in size was large enough, so it just looks like I might have messed up. If you can actually look closely enough to see that some are smaller than others. Oh well. Love it, anyways.

Zig-zag quilt - backing

I’m even happy with my little label, and the excuse to use one of the pretty decorative stitches on my sewing machine. And my obsession with striped binding, apparently, continues. Whatever. It totally works.

Zig-zag quilt - label and binding

I could point out imperfections, of course. But I won’t bother. It’s pretty and big and soft and yummy. I’m really happy with it, and I hope a certain little girl (due to join us in the next few weeks) will use it and abuse it. That’s what it’s for.

Tags: , , , , ,

A label for every occasion

June 9, 2009 in Etsy, Finished Objects, Quilts | 3 comments

Since my first (hideous) attempt at a quilt label, I feel like I have made substantial improvement.  Where we stand now, I have two different labeling strategies.

For things on my Etsy shop, including custom/commissioned orders, I use my teeny tiny quilts label.  In a low-key attempt at consistent branding, I printed up some business-card-sized labels using a word processing program, and print them out on some iron-on transfer paper.  While I don’t adore the look and feel of the iron-on stuff as a general rule, I think it’s the right choice.  It’s small (only about 1.5″ x 2.5″), it’s clear and easy to read.  It says “handmade with care by: / teeny tiny quilts / 2009″, and also includes the URL of my Etsy shop and my email address.  Hey, you never know when you’ll get referral business…

doggy quilt labels

For quilts that are given as gifts to friends, or that I’m just making for myself, I have started doing handwritten labels.  The wording may vary, but it seems that the critical components are:

  • some description of the quilt’s purpose (“for baby Henry,” “Old Red Barn Co Quilt-along”)
  • some description of when it was made (for now, I’m just sticking with the year, I think that’s specific enough)
  • my name (since, you know, the whole purpose of a label is to virtually sign your work)

Here’s the one I made for Duck, Duck, Frog.  “made with love for / Henry Joseph / from / Liz J— / 2009″

frog quilt label

Simple, small, to-the-point.

So, here’s my question for anyone out there reading, and you don’t have to be a quilter to help me out.  The purple & green quilt is complete (and I love it and can’t wait to show it off…), all it needs is a label.  And I’m not sure how to word it.  It’s a gift for a good friend and her baby-girl-to-be.  To the best of my knowledge, they have either not yet picked a name, or not yet shared that name, so I can’t address it directly to the baby.  Just saying “baby girl” seems too generic.

How would you word a baby shower quilt label?

Tags: ,

Duck, Duck, Frog

June 7, 2009 in Finished Objects | 6 comments

It was 9PM Friday night.  We talked to some friends on the phone and decided we would finally go visit them on Sunday afternoon. Haven’t seen them in quite some time.  Long enough that we have yet to meet their youngest son, now three whole months old.  Shame, shame, shame.  Anyways, plans were made for Sunday.

And here I am, thinking… how can I go out and meet a very good friend’s new baby and not bring him a quilt?

So I ran upstairs (where I had been in the middle of working on my strip sets for the Old Red Barn Co quilt-along) and look at the stack of fat quarters I picked up in Maine.  Hello, duck and frog novelty prints! Won’t you be cute with that white-on-navy polka dot? But what is simple and quick enough to get from start to finish in 36 hours, when you still have to take care of two toddlers?

I sketched out a little sunshine and shadows thing, three fabrics, 4.5″ squares, 7 across and 7 down.  Need 16 squares of two of the prints, 17 of the one that lands in the center and the outside corners.  Start cutting. DOH!  Genius, you can only get 16 4.5″ squares from a fat quarter. Hrm. Improvise.  Center square will be a different yellow fabric, but I’ll use it to embroider the baby’s initials.  Sweet!

Embroidery closeup

The top was pieced by 11PM Friday night.  The next morning, I ran out to Joann’s to get some fabric for the back and the binding, as I wasn’t thrilled with my stash options.  Quilted quick diagonal lines in a variegated red/orange/yellow thread, except for the center block, which got three concentric squares around the embroidered initials.  Had it bound and in the washing machine by midnight.

Backing and quilting

Sunday morning, threw it in the dryer.  Shrinky, crinkly goodness. Made and stitched on a quick label.  While packing a bag for the excursion out to our friends’ house and rounding up the kids into the car, made my husband hold it up so I could snap a picture.

Full view, quilt front

Ran out to get friends’ oldest son a birthday present, grabbed lunch with the kiddos.  Packed them into the car just as they were getting nice and drowsy, ready for them to sleep on the way to our friends’ house (about an hour away).  Started the car.  Phone rang.  Friends sick. Plans canceled.

Scrambled to keep kids awake on the way home so they’d take an actual nap when we got there.

Quilt finished. No idea when we’ll see them.

Sigh.  After all that rush, it comes to a screeching halt.

Folded

It’s not the fanciest or funkiest design you’ve ever seen.  It’s super simple, and it’s small (26″ square after dryer shrinkage).  But it’s cute and snuggly.  How much do you love that Duck Duck Goose print?  Or the little frog holding his own doll?  Backing is a cute frog print from Joann’s, and the striped binding (yes, I’m in a striped binding zone right now) is, I believe, from the same line as the backing.

Duck duck goose closeup

Frog print closeup

At any rate, hopefully we’ll get around to seeing them soon.  Or maybe I’ll just throw this in the mail, in case it takes us another 3-6 months to coordinate a weekend.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled quilting.

Tags: , , ,

« Older entries