Some commissions through the holidays

I found more photos, yay!  My mother-in-law asked me months ago about helping help make a quilt for a Sunday school teacher at her church.  I cut some blocks and gave them to her with a pack of fabric markers.  The kids and various church members drew pictures or messages on them.  It took a few months, but she brought back a stack of little works of art with a big bag of markers.  I guess one of the other teachers added to my supplies and wanted me to have them all, I thought that was sweet.  I met MIL at the fabric store and she picked a backing, which of course I neglected to photograph.  It was a pale blue fleece with foot prints in various ginghams.  She liked it because it reminded her of the story of Jesus and his foot prints in the sand.  She picked one print with words of inspiration and bits of scripture.  I also had some some ginghams cut that matched the backing fleece.

After playing around with a few different arrangements, I came up with a design that used all the blocks the church members had colored and had to add just one.  My daughter drew the winged sacred heart in the top left corner.

An aunt of mine has had me make quite a few different things for her over the past year.  She contacted me in the fall to see if I could make some collegiate themed quilts as Christmas gifts.  At the time I wasn't sure, but it turned out that I had a decent fall break that I would be able to dedicate some time to quilting.  She wanted 2 with Clemson and one with UK.

I found fleece backings and a few different collegiate print cottons at Hancock Fabrics online.  I took them to a local fabric store to match up solids and coordinates once they arrived.

They had an array of chevrons in the perfect colors that I couldn't resist working into the design.  I had a zig zag rail fence pattern planned for the UK version, so I used the chevron for binding.

The Clemson quilts were for a brother and sister, so I added a polka dot print on one that I referred to as the feminine version.  I cut a few blocks from the fleece backing fabric to start these over-sized impromptu log cabins.

I'd been wanting to try a quilt as you go method using Jelly roll strips where you wouldn't have blocks to connect in the end.  I cut all the strips and connected them end to end, then just layered the backing and lining fabric (I didn't need a true batting, just something so the bold backing print didn't show through quilt top fabrics) and starting sewing them on one row at a time.  I liked the overall product, it probably saved quite a bit of time in the long run, but it was a little monotonous sewing a strip, moving from the machine to the ironing board to press is down, then back to the machine to sew the next strip, over and over.  I like having various different steps to break up the process so I don't get bored with it.

Overall they came out nicely.  My husband has requested a WVU version.  I think I could probably sell a lot of these if I had the time and initial investment.  I probably will make some more on commission since one or two at a time is not an overwhelming project and they are guaranteed to be sold.

I had some interference with this project.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned our cats on this blog.  We had a gray long hair named Smokey that disappeared late last summer.  We were all pretty devastated and within a few weeks were bringing home a new orange kitten from a free listing I ran across on Facebook.  This is Jax.  I had forgotten how mischievous kittens are.  And difficult to quilt or sew or manage any kind of craft that might involve a string or anything that has small parts or things that dangle.  I have to lock him in a bedroom when I'm basting quilts so he won't steal the pins.  In the photo above, I was doing the hand stitching on the binding and had got up to refill my coffee cup.  He thought he was will hidden here, but his tail gave him away sticking out the other side.  I'm sure you'll be seeing more of him as he's into everything and I try to get lots of photos when the animals are small since they grow at lightening speed.  He can be irritating and destructive, but he is so loveable and I think its safe to say this one has stolen my heart.