TIGER Baby Quilt

Every disaster movie starts with the government ignoring a scientist.

Quilting

If you follow my posts, you realize I often create baby quilts in series which frequently use leftover blocks and scraps/offcuts from larger ones. Not that I ever tell parents this. People who don't quilt think scraps mean roadkill or something! We know the fabric is still in the $10-15/yard range. 

Once I made a series of Lone Stars; I still have some ideas about that. They started with lots of WOF strips that were hanging around. 

The Word series began from the idea of traditional four block quilts - those lovely, large (usually appliquéd) blocks that fill the entire bed. I could make them smaller for babies and instead of appliqué, use the alphabet because... four-letter words. Wordle uses five-letter words. That made me wonder how many four-letter words are suitable for babies. LOVE came first; eventually a list developed. Not all have been used but I'm running out of Coin sets - only a few left in the scrap bag. 

Combining the last few sets, a yellow and purple group emerged… because my youngest is an LSU grad and surely one of his friends would like a baby quilt in these colors. 

The next step was to find a pertinent four-letter word. Unlike his Arkansas brother, all the words were three or five letters: Geaux, Tiger, LSU. Rats. Eventually I realized the “I” could be altered to take less space. A capital I runs into the letter T but the lower case i solved the problem.

TiGER baby quilt

The purple print was purchased at the closing of my LQS but, as usual, it needed to be widened a bit. Two strips of yellow turned up in a search through my stash. 

Choosing the plainer one finished the back. Then it was spiral quilted and bound with the last of another purple print. 

We’ll see who gets it. 

Quilt Specifics

Size: 44” x 44”

Design: Coin or String quilt

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose cotton

Thread: yellow Superior Masterpiece cotton

Quilting: spiral with a walking foot

Approximate yardage: 5.5 yds

Reading

The Black Angels are trained black nurses, mainly from the South, who moved to NY to escape the worst of Jim Crow. There was no cure for TB. Staff members risked becoming patients themselves. With plentiful easier positions available, white nurses quit and/or refused to work at tuberculosis clinics. The authorities advertised down South, promising the women could gain RN status after a few years. 

Cures for TB were not found until after WWII.

Enjoy the day, Ann

REST Baby Quilt

Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts. 

~E.B. White

 Quilting

The previous quilt used the medium green sets but there's still a bunch of dark green ones. They only seem to work with these dark browns. I like the combination although it's pretty old-fashioned. My stash also contained these pastel tan and green solids. That's how this quilt came about. 

The back came from a LQS closing sale. While it's exciting to get the fabric so cheaply, it means fewer choices in the future. I have trouble getting fabrics I really like online - either the colors are off or the fabric itself doesn't have a nice hand.  

Quilt Specifics

Size: 44” x 44”

Design: Coin or String quilt

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose Cotton

Thread: green Superior Masterpiece cotton

Quilting: spiral with a walking foot

Approximate yardage: 5.5 yds

REST also goes to friends of my youngest. 

Reading

Who remembers Orange Guy's terrible response to the Covid-19 outbreak that led to one of the worst outcomes in any country? Nightmare Scenario was written shortly after the end of his term but I only read it now. What a reminder of horrible actions or lack of actions. Who else recalls that Orange Guy got Covid and then got experimental treatments that were unavailable to regular citizens. So many people died unnecessarily.

Enjoy the day, Ann

WISH Baby Quilt

If you're going to rise, you might as well shine.

Quilting

We're feeling better and now trying to reschedule all the appointments we missed this fall. We voted by mail and verified our ballots have been accepted. As Nann said, “May the best woman win.” There's a lot of yard- and house work to catch up on. We aren't at full strength yet but improving daily. I restarted exercise classes and am worn out after each. Again, it will get better. 

I've washed as much red out of the nine-patch quilt as I possibly can. The white background of that lovely floral is still pink but I'm out of ideas of how to remove it. It's folded up again. Waiting. The other two quilts cleaned up very well though.

Fortunately, there's still a lot of partially processed quilt blocks/sets that make quilting easier. Blues and greens are the next combination of coins for a baby quilt. I sewed the sets a few years ago, rolled them into tight cylinders. and set them in my scrap bag.  Now is the time to use them up.

W was the hardest letter to create. Truncating the corners of the letter made it easier. I used that effect for previous letters like V, too. When the letters are angled I find making a template works best. Afterwards I pin the templates together in case they are needed for future words. 

When I first started this series, each quilt was four different colors - one for each letter. However, the Arkansas quilts showed well two color choices work. 

WISH baby quilt

The back is fabric I purchased online for a dress then didn't like when it arrived. The colors are much less saturated in person. After a few months of pouting, I'm putting it to use as quilt backs. Since the quilt is just a bit wider than one WOF, I inserted leftovers blue and green coin sets. The value sequence looks interesting to me.

Quilt Specifics

Size: 45” x 45”

Design: Coin or String quilt

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose Cotton 

Thread: green Superior Masterpiece cotton

Quilting: spiral with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 5.5 yds

Reading

The subtitle of Cat Bohannon's book explains her premise: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Evolution. She notes that the past century of research has focused almost exclusively on males, leaving us with less than half the information we should have on everything from medical care and drug interactions to anthropological studies. 

Cat chooses points on the evolutionary timeline that illuminate changes that led to the development mammals and humans. The book is densely packed with information but provides a very different explanation that all the previous male-centric theories. Definitely worth reading. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

Love Two

The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change, until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.

~R. D. Laing

Quilting

The mockup should have helped... and it did in a way. The print/solid combinations are not what I might have chosen otherwise. But the final version is still a surprise. That L looks quite bold. White may be a mistake but I pushed on quilting it instead of setting it aside to marinate like Audrey wisely does. 

LOVE2 baby quilt

Many things stay the same through the "Word series". Spiral quilting; narrow border; similar size; all the various words we use with babies. {Oh, my. Word Series and World Series. Only funny to baseball fans. }

Here's a closeup of those two shot cottons. The pinky-red makes a good background for the white L and the purple border ties everything together. And I'm sure you noticed the backing is the very last {I promise} of the Kaffe fabric that is a skirt and the back of a previous baby quilt. 

The binding is more of the coral-with-arrows so now one of those two pieces is used up. That makes room for more wonderful things. It was hard at first to use my "best" fabrics but the more I do, the easier it becomes. There will be more fabric in stores and I feel free to purchase whatever interests me.

I'm unsure if I'll give this quilt away now or keep it to see what I can do about the white L. So frustrating. Any suggestions?

Quilt Specifics

Size: 46" x 46"

Design: Coin or String quilt

Batting: Hobbs Heirloom Premium Natural Cotton

Thread: YLI cotton thread in blue

Quilting: Spiral with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 5.5 yds

Previous post: Reprising Love

Reading

Bridge to the Sun relates the actions of Japanese Americans in World War II. Not the famed 442nd who fought in Europe, but the Nisei who worked as translators and interrogators in the Pacific theater. Their ability to read formal, informal, and casual Japanese script saved Allied lives. Many of these soldiers volunteered for combat, even more dangerous for them because of the risk of capture by the Japanese as well as the risk of being mistakenly shot by Allied troops. I'd heard of the Navaho code talkers but didn't realize the debt we also owe to Japanese Americans.

One section of the book covered an area where my father fought, something I've rarely read about and that he never discussed with me. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

Reprising LOVE

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?

~Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Quilting

Sewing a back for the Optical Illusion was the alleged task but all these scraps are scattered around my sewing area. Although I started to simply push them into the scrap bag, they insisted I pull out more material for a front instead.

I said I wouldn't repeat any words but Love is the greatest thing of all... and I wanted to make one with a different V.  I'm truly running out of fabric (hooray!) but there are these two shot cottons that have been saved way too long because they are so "precious." Who am I saving them for? If I don't get busy, they will end up in an estate sale. So, I set them down to see how to use them today.

Mock up of LOVE2 baby quilt

Reading

Like Alexander Hamilton, everyone knows his name; however, no one knows what happened to him after the Revolution. When John Adams went to Europe before the war, people were excited to meet him until they realized he wasn't his cousin, Samuel. Stacy Schiff researches meticulously. The book is filled with information - names, dates, events, speeches, diaries, and articles; more difficult because always Samuel moved in the background and regularly burned his correspondence. 

It took me several weeks to finish but was well worth the effort. I wonder what Lin Manuel Miranda would have made of this had he taken it to the beach instead of Ron Chernow's book?

Enjoy the day, Ann

CAMP is a Baby Word

Convenience culture seduces us into imagining that we might find room for everything important by eliminating only life’s tedious tasks. But it’s a lie. You have to choose a few things, sacrifice everything else, and deal with the inevitable sense of loss that results.

~Oliver Burkeman in Four Thousand Weeks

Quilting

So many things have happened here. Many have been long expected though long delayed. At first I simply stopped blogging but still kept mindlessly sewing Coins in the evenings. They were a good way to meditate. I made more than I planned; the stack was enormous. Then I injured my arm. Physical therapy is almost done so I am turning the comments on again although typing is still hard. I may not answer everything. Sorry.

Our niece is expecting. The adorable wallpaper/mural for the room has a row of  stylized deer, fox, bear, and rabbit so I chose these colors. Then discussed words with my sister: Wild, Free, Camp, Hunt... Wild and free sounds great together but not so good individually. I wouldn't want anyone to think the baby was either free for the taking or a wild one.

CAMP baby quilt

There are quite a few browns in my stash but I had to work to soften them.

And the binding was supposed to be the dark green on the left. However, the brown on the bottom looks so much better. I can't tell you how long that piece has been in my stash. I had to buy it but could never find a home for it. Who'd have thought it could be a binding?

Two binding choices for CAMP baby quilt

The back is mostly two greens: a half yard and a yard. Of course, that wasn't quite wide enough so the dark brown print makes a good inset.

Back of CAMP baby quilt

Quilt Specifics

Size: 46" x 46"

Design: Coin or String quilt

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose cotton batting

Thread: Metler tan cotton thread

Quilting: Spiral with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 5.5 yds

Reading

Perhaps because I'm from Texas, I read about Admiral McRaven's address to the 2014 graduating class at UT. Here are his ten suggestions in a short book starting with the admonition to make your bed well every day. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

A Hidden Message Baby Quilt

In stripping time of its illusions, in seeking to find out what is the heart of the day, we come to the quality of the moment, and drop the duration altogether. It is the depth at which we live and not at all the surface extension that imports.

~Emerson

Quilt

It's not a hidden message if you're a Razorback fan like my son. WPS stands for Woo Pig Sooie, the chant used by fans at sporting events. The original suggestion was WPS! but once I realized OOIE created its own quadrant, it made perfect sense to add that to the fourth block instead of an exclamation point. 

These are the same fabrics as the two previous Arkansas baby quilts because I calmed myself by sewing long columns this winter. Now they need to be sewn into something. And the same fabrics accepted fugitive dye when they were first washed... even with color catchers. 

WPSooie baby quilt

The back is another half yard of pig fabric from my sister. She goes hog-wild when I ask for her help. ;-)

And the red and white is the last of that yardage from her stash. 

Back of WPSooie baby quilt

The binding was supposed to be red but my remaining bits didn't look right. Then I pulled some black and white prints. Most were too strong but this funky print with large-scale telephone poles and wires worked very well. Since it languished in my stash for several years, I'm delighted to find the perfect place to use it... and use it up.

Detail of WPSooie baby quilt, folded

Quilt Specifics

Size: 46" x 46"

Design: Coin or String quilt

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose cotton batting

Thread: Superior 50 wt white cotton thread

Quilting: Spiral with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 5.5 yds

Reading

Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram Kendi explains another side of American history - how racism persists through the years. He notes that every group of humans contains good and bad, diligent and lazy, smart and dull. And then he explains the moving targets set up by racism that keep people from obtaining equality. It seems to me that the most pernicious idea is that Blacks need to improve themselves to become worthy.

Enjoy the day, Ann

A Baby Word for Arkansas Fans

The measure of achievement is not winning awards. It’s doing something that you appreciate, something you believe is worthwhile.

~Julia Child

Quilting

Of course a second Arkansas baby quilt is needed. Have you noticed how frequently friends do things together? From sports, to schools, to buying houses, and having babies. This is not exactly a word but it toots the University of Arkansas. 

UARK baby quilt

The background fabric is Kona Snow and Red. Over the years I've found several pig fabrics of my own that have white backgrounds so they are in both white letters. 

Details of UARK baby quilt

The back is another half yard of pigs from my sister, this time on green. The quilt is a bit wider than a WOF so I added black and white fabrics from my stash above, below, and on each side. The binding is another black and white remnant. Each time I think there will be nothing left in my stash but good stuff still appears. However, I hope to be able to shop in person soon.

Back of UARK baby quilt

It's good to be able to continue making a few baby quilts even with all the events going on here. I sewed scraps into Coin columns this winter and now try to find ways to incorporate them when possible.

Quilt Specifics

Size: 46" x 46"

Design: Coin or String quilt

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose cotton batting

Thread: Superior 50 wt white cotton thread

Quilting: Spiral with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 5.5 yds

Things are going slower than ever for me. When these scraps are gone, I'm not sure what I will do. My arm hurts using any tools - quilting, cooking, gardening, or cleaning. Not that I will miss cleaning.  ;-) The specialist sees me this week. 

Reading

Critical care doctor Daniela Lamas wrote You Can Stop Humming Now to highlight the results of our choices. Some patients don't survive an emergency but others do. Some of those return to their previous lives while others... don't. Their lives are altered in small or extremely large ways. What kinds of rehabilitation is required? What modifications? A thoughtful read as we age.

Enjoy the day, Ann

How is HOGS a Baby Word?

See the light in others, and treat them as if that is all you see.

~Wayne Dyer

Quilting

Just one letter change and it’s a whole new quilt. This one for the baby of a University of Arkansas graduate {and friend of one son.} Lucky me. These are all easy letters so everything can be rotary cut.

Cardinal red and white are their colors and Razorback {feral hog} is their mascot. All of these were red and white fabrics but something ran in the wash. Funny how only a couple of the whites picked up a pink cast. I washed it four times {including twice with colorfast bleach} but they stubbornly remain  tinted. 

Arkansas HOGS baby quilt

The border is a stripe purchased a few years ago. I thought it would be the binding but it worked perfectly here.

Lots of hogs on the back. My sister sent this half yard when she found it on vacation. It was supposed to be the border but didn’t look right. The red and white print is yardage I commandeered from her, too. She purchased a couple of yards for backing but when I told her how perfect it would be, she graciously allowed me to take it. I need to find something special for her in return.

Back of HOGS baby quilt

Now the binding is leftover red strips. They were the right widths and easily available.

Quilt Specifics

Size: 46" x 46"

Design: Coin or String quilt

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose cotton batting

Thread: Superior 50 wt white cotton thread

Quilting: Spiral with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 5.5 yds

Reading

Over the past few months I’ve read three “bookshop” books, generally a light and easy genre: a woman buys or inherits an old bookstore and finds love with a new life. Definitely escapist since we know how few bookstores exist these days when even the large box retailers struggle. Nevertheless…

In Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan after being laid off as a web designer, Clay starts working the night shift at this store and notices how odd the books are and how the few customers come in regularly to borrow very obscure books. He decides to investigate along with some code writing friends. I enjoyed the San Francisco/tech company setting. A male protagonist and not a love story.

The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs is also set in San Francisco. Natalie inherits her mother's struggling store as well as the care of her elderly grandfather. She finds amazing items inside.

Jenny Colgan’s The Christmas Bookshop finds Carmen trying to rehabilitate an ancient Edinburgh shop whose owner really doesn’t want to sell his merchandise. 

Physical therapy takes much of my days so quilting is even slower.

Enjoy the day, Ann

HUGS is a Baby Word

Remember that art is about being interested, not about being interesting.

~Julia Cameron

Quilting

Apple pie without some cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze. Although that saying was in my grandmother's Betty Crocker cookbook, I never put cheese on apple pie. However, my family never gives a kiss without a hug. How could I make a kiss quilt without a hugs one, too?

HUGS baby quilt

With my excellent analytical skills I chose to make quilts with difficult words first. Haha. The letters in this one are all vertical/horizontal. So much easier to sew than V, A, R, and K. Why didn't I think of that earlier? OTOH, I have less time these days so perhaps it's better to sew easier letters right now. 

Partially completed spiral quilting

This one went together like a piece of cake. I used the same spiral quilting because... why not? It's a natural plan for me now, looks good, and required no decisions or marking.

Detail of letter G on HUGS baby quilt

If you read my posts regularly, you may recall the backing. It's some of the leftovers from a skirt I made last summer out of some old Kaffe Fassett yardage. 

The binding is a beautiful coral with arrows. Not that you can see them. I liked it so much I purchased the fabric twice. Shesh! And it's sat in my stash ever since. 

Binding, back and spiral quilting on HUGS baby quilt

Now it has a home where it will wrap a baby in hugs. 

Quilt Specifics

Size: 45" x 45"

Design: Coin or String quilt

Batting: Hobbs Heirloom Premium Natural Cotton

Thread: Metler cotton thread in pink

Quilting: Spiral with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 5.5 yds

Reading

How have I missed this author until now? The Guncle by Steven Rowley is well-written and engaging. Actor Patrick lives/hides in Palm Springs. When a series of tragedies strike his family, he becomes the temporary guardian of his young niece and nephew. In helping them cope with their losses, Patrick begins to face his own. An insightful story that is both warm and funny.  

And... he's written other books that I'm adding to my list.

Gee’s Bend Quilts

Improvisational quilts are stylish these days and few are more recognized than the Gee’s Bend quilts made by many generations of Black women in Alabama. Most of the makers still live in poverty. The proceeds of their quilts usually go to the purchasers and almost everyone feels free to evoke the name for their personal use. Now Gee’s Bend quilters have an Etsy shop. Read the article here.

 

Enjoy the day, Ann

KISS is a Baby Word

It is the cardinal difference between gift and commodity exchange that a gift established a feeling-bond between two people.

~Lewis Hyde

Quilting

Here's another word used for babies. Don't we all want to kiss and cuddle them! 

While there's not much free time here, it soothes me to sew random strings together. Working a few minutes at a time, sometimes only a few minutes a week, I've finished a pile of string sets in a variety of colors. Making the letters takes more effort though. The K took some thought; it was made on New Year's. The other letters ares easier to make with tiny bits of time. 

As I run out of one print, I can usually find some more in similar values in the stash... or not. But the solids are a different story. There's never many of them in my purchases. With both yellow and pink used up, there's only this tan left. It actually looks good here. Maybe. 

Fortunately there was enough peach for most of the border. It just needed some cornerstones.

KISS baby quilt

After four years, my quilt (gardening) gloves are peeling at the fingertips. I treated myself to a new pair this week. These will never be used in the yard. They grip fabric well and last so much longer than any marked just for quilting... at about a quarter of the price. 

New gardening gloves for quilting

What else but spiral quilting. I do like the way it looks. It's easy to stop and start once the tight center is done. 

Detail of letter K on KISS baby quilt

The back took a yard and a quarter of this gorgeous print. Somehow it reminds me of those 1960s Peter Max designs. That's all of it and it needed just a bit more for the width. Hello, green. Always nice to find a remnant in the scrap bag. 

Back of KISS baby quilt

The binding came from the binding scrap box. It's a mishmash of most of the blues there.

Binding, back, and spiral quilting on KISS baby quilt

This one is staying here for a bit but I'm sure it will be needed soon. It will be nice to have one quilt waiting in the wings for a change. 

Quilt Specifics

Size: 45" x 45"

Design: Coin or String quilt

Batting: Hobbs Heirloom Premium Natural Cotton

Thread: Aurifil cotton thread in blue

Quilting: Spiral with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 5.5 yds

Reading

I read and enjoyed Dorothy Gilman’s Mrs. Pollifax series over the years but never realized she wrote a memoir about her time in Nova Scotia. A New Kind of Country begins with the purchase of an old house on ten acres. She discusses her {long past} divorce, the contrast with suburban America, and learning to live quietly and simply. After that I read her first adult novel, An Uncertain Voyage, about a woman asked to deliver a book to Majorca by an American spy. Many of the same themes were there although the novel hasn’t aged as well as her autobiography.

Dorothy herself passed away in 2012 from complications of Alzheimer’s but her last book was published in 2020.

Enjoy the day, Ann

I Hope This is the Start of the Baby Words Series of Baby Quilts

Beginnings could happen more than once, or in different ways. You could think you were starting something afresh, when actually what you were doing was carrying on as before.

~Rachel Joyce

Quilting

Since this is the third baby quilt with a four letter word, it must mean a new series has begun. The Coins will make words suitable for babies... even if they are  FLWs {four-letter-words.} I wrote down several then used an online Scrabble dictionary to find others. {There were amazingly few appropriate ones in the that dictionary.} Now ideas come day and night. 

My DIL highlighted the ones she thought her friends would prefer and I've {sort of} prioritized them. Of course sometimes a word will pop to the top of the list depending on who the quilt is for. 

This is HOPE as a top...

HOPE baby quilt top

and again when it's finished. 

HOPE baby quilt

The border is supposed to make it a bit larger and set off the words better. Not sure if this version succeeds with the second task. With solids running low, two were combined to frame the center. {It does look better in person.}

The quilting is a spiral.... again. I enjoy this {now} easy design although sewing and watching the circling sometimes makes me dizzy.  I'm also using up all the thread that's been hanging around for years. There's no selvedge on thread so no way to know how old they are. This time I used two partial spools of pink. 

Detail of letter P, spiral quilting,
and binding of HOPE baby quilt

The back contains a reef print. Is is sea fern? I'm not sure, but the colors are quiet and the fabric was on sale. To make it wide enough I inserted an ombre remnant from my sister and, since that remnant wasn't wide enough either, I added a small scrap of pink in the center. 

Back of HOPE baby quilt

The background solids each use about a fat quarter. I purchased them for this quilt since there is none in my stash {Hallelujah!}  It's obvious I'm out of those soft pastels of the previous two quilts because the prints are mid-range values. Some more fabric, both solid and printed, will be required soon if I keep up this series. I see shopping in my future.

HOPE baby quilt, folded

As soon as the last thread was buried and the quilt washed and dried, it was off to my DIL's house for a friend of theirs.

Quilt Specifics

Size: 45" x 45"

Design: String quilt

Batting: Hobbs Heirloom Premium Natural Cotton

Thread: Aurifil and Metler cotton thread in pink

Quilting: Spiral with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 5.5 yds

Reading

Stories like Becky Chambers' are creating a new genre - Hopepunk {like Steampunk.} Her first was intriguing and engaging; each subsequent novel has been better as her talents strengthen. Although most consider her a science fiction author, A Psalm for the Wild-Built has no aliens, weapons, or space travel at all. Instead, Becky's populated a world with humans who realize they are destroying it. As their robots gain sentience, they {the robots} put down their tools and head into the wilderness never to be seen again. Two hundred years later a tea monk encounters a robot who asks him, "What do people need?" 

This is an insightful and thoughtful book as the two characters begin to learn from the other. Hopefully it is the start of a long series, too. 

Enjoy the day, Ann