Quilting Gone Wild

Nothing says Christmas like February!

It's raining, it's pouring, the two greyhounds are snoring. I'll be spending the weekend sewing, staring at the kitchen ceiling and spending time with friends. And in the spirit of friends and projects I bring you the pajama quilt.

Anyone out there who has any skills (computers, cars, knitting, sewing, etc...) will understand how this quilt came to be. I was sitting with my mom in the kitchen of our adopted family, eating dinner, decompressing from work when I heard the following words:

"Hey, could you do me a favor?"

Uhm, ok.

"Lexi has all these pajamas that she can't part with so I thought you could make something out of them."

Uhm, ok.

"Here's the bag."

Uhm, ok.

That bag sat for about two months in the same spot in the entry hall. I didn't move it. Mom didn't touch it. Finally one Saturday I opened it up, spread it out on the dining room table and saw what I had to work with. I moved the feetie pjs around like fabric swatches trying to figure out what would match what and what I could actually do with them.

And, in case you ever wondered, size 2T & 3T pjs don't give you a whole lot of usable fabric. You have to cut off the zipper, the cuffs and the feet. And, again, in case you were wondering, cutting up a small child's old pjs feels oddly rude. I mean, I was asked to do this, but I still felt like I was punching a teddy bear.

Without further ado, I present you with...

The pajama quilt! I have to admit, doing projects like this make me feel a little less odd about quilting. I mean, when you think quilting do you think of a fabulous 30-something who wears 4 inch heels on a daily basis. Sorry, off-topic, just something I think about.

Here's a close up:


Yes, this wee lady has a thing for dinosaurs. She LOVES dinosaurs. And Shamu.

For the back I just did a piece of baby blue minky fabric. For those of you who don't hang out in kids stores or fabric shops, this is minky:

You've seen the super soft nubby fabric. Yeah, this is it and its called minky (minkee? minkie?). I said I worked with it, I didn't say I knew the proper spelling of it.

I'd love to show you a picture of Lexi with her quilt but she was sick on Christmas so this had to travel to her house with one of Santa's volunteer elves. But, I did receive a plethora of texts about the quilt so I deem this project a success!

JennyLeeQuilt

As you know, in January I started taking sewing classes. I did pj pants, a skirt and the dreaded dress. By April, I finished my first quilt. (I'd insert a picture here but I worked on it until and after I gave it to Todd so I don't have one. But, you'll have to take my word that its the most fabulous turtle-themed quilt ever. Seriously, its fabulous.)

Since Regina & I had so much fun in our first quilt class we figured we'd take another one.

Now might be a good time to mention we did a really basic quilt class to start. Here's a picture of Regina's. Fabulous right?

Ok, where was I? Right, taking another quilting class. Then, real genius struck me. Why don't we each make TWO quilts, one for each of us and together we'll make one for JennyLee?! Brilliant right? JennyLee is getting married and it would be the Best. Gift. Ever.

Luckily Regina suffers from the same delusional disease I do and agreed.

I'm in Minneapolis giving Todd his quilt and no sooner is out of my hands that we're at my favorite fabric shop Crafty Planet. I'm pulling together fabric, trying to figure out what I'm doing (lets take a minute to note that I don't have a pattern, I don't know what kind of quilt I'm making or how much fabric I need). So, I buy a TON of fabric. Again, no definitive idea what sort of quilt it will be, only that it will be a quilt.

Regina & I get to class (Double Irish Chain for those keeping score at home) and she takes the fabric I bought in Minneapolis and makes it work for the JennyLeeQuilt; she tosses in a few accent colors to make everything pop and figures out what fabric should be the focus.

Six classes and countless Sundays later, I present you with the JennyLeeQuilt.

Yeah, its a queen size and if you've ever tried to photograph anything that big you can understand it why I hung it from the upstairs banister with binder clips.

Here's the focus fabric...

I love the birds. I love them even more since JennyLee used this fabric in her wedding. And no, I didn't know that when I bought it. We're just on that bird level.

And these swirls. I just loves these floral swirls. And, if you know me, I'm not a floral swirl kind of girl. I'm not sure what came over me when choosing fabric.

Another thing about this quilt that really worked was the division of labor. When it comes to quilting, there is a fair amount of work, especially one of this size. It just so happens that Regina & I loathe different things so the aspects we like least about quilting, the other person actually enjoys. I was happy to iron and do the top quilting while Regina is brilliant at accurate cutting & making all the wee squares match up. So, oddly the work division was 50/50. I don't think anyone was more surprised than we were.

Yeah, I took this as JennyLee was opening her gift. Nothing says thoughtful like Yeah,-sorry,-forgot-to-take-a-decent-picture-of-the-borders-&-binding. But, I LOVE this wood fabric. Its the backing for the quilt in case you were curious. Its among my favorite prints. And, we hand-stitched that binding shut. Its the only part of the quilt that's hand-done so if you had visions of Regina & I hunched over the quilt for months, make sure you have large sewing machines in that picture. We did the hand-stitching on our lunch hour in various available conference rooms because nothing says investment banking like two girls hand-stitching a quilt.

And, we figured if JennyLee didn't love it, we could share custody of the quilt. Its PERFECT in my yellow guest room. (I threw it over the already made bed so no the quilt doesn't have any lumps.)

But, JennyLee did love it, so she gets to keep it.

Happy Wedding JennyLee!!