A Quilt for Teens

Here is a photo of the top of my Crazy Nine Patch Lattice Quilt (fabric is Lark by Amy Butler).  I think it looks pretty crazy!  But nice too.  Just like a certain soon-to-be teenager I happen to know!

I think I am going to give this quilt to my niece for her 13th birthday in January.  I mean let's get real:  Can you think of anything a teen would want more than a quilt made by her dumpy aunt?

(Don't worry.  I'll go to Hollister too......)

Memories, Like the Corners of My Mind

I was looking through some old photos the other day and came upon these cuties from June 2009:

Then I realized these are not just cute pics of tiny Griffin wearing puffy pull-ups under his PJs, these are photographic evidence of my VERY FIRST home improvement/DIY project!

I had just started reading Young House Love (it was called This Young House then) and, inspired by this post on how to paint furniture, I decided to give it a try.  I zipped over to Home Depot and picked up sandpaper, paint, polyurethane, brushes and rollers.

Over that weekend, out on our old apartment's tiny balcony, I sanded, primed, painted and poly'd this sort of barn-red bench tan.  Why did I paint it tan?  We'll never know.  Why didn't I paint it a "fun" color or at least white?  Who can say.  And, most importantly, why didn't I take a "before" picture of the bench?  Again, we will just have to live with the mystery.  But this is what got my ball a-rollin'.

Here's the bench today -- still tan and still lookin' (semi) good!

Another New Project Alert!

I used to not be able to start a new project until I finished what I was working on.  Now I can't stop starting new projects!  I just started another one using Ruby patterned and solid white charm squares.

I'm making them into little 5" Wonky Cross Blocks (free pattern!).  Once they are all done, I want to make a cute lap quilt or table-topper for my mother-in-law.

Don't these squares look like cute little Christmas presents?????

ADORABLE!

That Was Fast!

Ready for an update on the Crazy 9 Patch Lattice quilt?  Yes, I realize it seems like I started this project only yesterday, but I actually finished all of the crazy squares this past weekend!  MAGIC!  Now I just need to cut out the plain white squares and sew it all together and make the back and quilt it and bind it and oh dear.

Anyway, as I told you yesterday, I divided the 24 Lark prints into three groups (greenish, bluish and reddish) and added one solid into each group so I had three stacks of nine fabrics.

With each stack, I was able to make nine crazy blocks that each include a little piece of each of the nine fabrics (each print is in a different position in each block).  Does that make sense?

Here is one of the reddish blocks:

Bluish:

And greenish:

This quilt is going to be loud and possibly obnoxious with all the colors/patterns.  Maybe it would be good for a tween/teen?  Maybe a tween/teen who lives in Maine and likes bright colors?  Hit me up in the comments if you know of any such tweens/teens!

New Project Alert!

Do you recall my recent acquisition of all 24 Amy Butler Lark prints?  They mostly look like this (mostly):

Anyhoo, I was trying to find a way to incorporate all the prints into one quilt.  And I think I've found it!  It is called the "Crazy 9 Patch Quilt" by Elizabeth Hartman.  Free pattern!  Score.  Her example quilt is so nice, done in shades of orange and red, with all her seams and corners perfectly lined up:

Photo from Oh Fransson

Mine is not going to look like that.  Moving on, the blocks are made in sets of nine using a group of nine prints.  As there are 27 print blocks in the quilt (4 are on the back), I could make three sets of crazy blocks if I had 27 prints ... and right now I have 24 ... so I divided the prints into three groups of eight by sorting them into greenish, bluish and reddish piles and added one solid to each group!  MATH WORKS!

I've already started cutting, sewing and squaring the blocks.  This pattern is very easy and goes quickly.  It would be a good starter project if you want to make a quilt of your own!

Here is an in-progress shot:

More later!

Successories!

Even though I'm supposed to be hard at work on my aprons, I also need to quilt and finish my Modern Meadows quilt.  The quilt top and back have been done for a while, but I've been dreading the quilting process  It is such an ordeal!  Then I realized that's just because I don't have enough quilting accessories!

So in order to fully embrace the quilting lifestyle, I needed to buy specialized sewing machine feet and other items.  I found what I wanted -- The Quilter's Kit II!

I found a super cute store near me that sells it.  They even gave me the 20% off nice face discount!  Well, more like a 20% off damaged box discount.  Whichever one -- I'll take it!

I already set up my sweet acrylic quilter's table and walking foot with guide.  Now I can quilt in nice straight lines and learn how to free-motion quilt.  I made this tiny green quit out of scraps for practice:

Here's hoping we all get nice face discounts more often!

Adleresque

I really like Jonathan Adler's line of white pottery pieces.  Especially this cute elephant tea pot:

I do like elephants!  I like elephants so much, in fact, that I realized I already have an elephant teapot!  Except mine looks like this:

So .....  What would my teapot look like if it was solid white?  Let's spray paint it and find out?

Well, what do you think???