Swan Lake Surprise

 

One time when I took a road trip (I can' t remember why) I decided to stop in at my last work site on my way home. I had a great visit with my former colleagues, and discovered that one of them (the one who took my position) was pregnant with her third child. As I was off on mental health leave when she had her first two (was I really off work that long? Or maybe she had been on her first maternity leave when I went on mental health leave). Anyway, I had not given her anything for either of her other children, but I determined to give her a quilt for the third one.
That visit happened before my vacation to Ontario, and then there was the fair and getting projects finished for it, so I was kept busy with other projects. I was rather hoping that she would have a boy as I still have Work Zone and Blast Off that haven't found recipients yet. But in case she didn't, I decided to start working on a gender neutral quilt. More about that one in another post. 
However, as her due date neared, I decided I might as well wait and see what the baby's gender was. I still had the rest of the Lily's Pond layer cake that I used for La Petite Princesse, plus more backing fabric in that line, that I could use for a girl's quilt, if necessary. And, as it turned out, she did have a girl.
However, I decided that I didn't really want to use the Quick and Easy Baby Quilt idea again. I didn't want it to be too similar to La Petite Princesse, and might have used a different background fabric like a bright pink, if I had it, but my only other background option was black - definitely not for a baby girl! I pondered different options, rummaged in my stash a little, and finally decided to do another Baby Alter Ego.
Bad choice! When I put the blocks up on my design wall, I didn't like it at all. The fabric in this line is all so pale that there wasn't enough contrast to give it any visual interest. It looked washed out and boring. And I didn't know what to do to make it better. 
There is some brown in this fabric collection, and I did have some dark brown solid in my stash. It wasn't a perfect match and I was afraid that it might overwhelm the pale colours. So, I decided to experiment with some narrow sashing between the blocks. And I liked it!. So I sashed the whole quilt top, and added a pale pink solid border. And in case you're wondering why I didn't use the pale pink as contrast/background with the Lily's Pond layer cake, I felt that it was just too pale and the whole quilt would look washed out. But it looks great in the border. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I often find myself singing something that, however loosely, coordinates with what I'm working on. So this time it was "Swans on the Lake". If you've ever used the John Thompson Grade 1 piano book, then you might remember it. You can find the words here. 
On to the quilting design. Depression and anxiety can make one very indecisive, and I have been finding that I am often challenged when it comes to picking a quilt design for the quilt. When I first purchased the fabric, I also purchased a pantograph called Pond Lily to go with it. Unfortunately, Lily's Pond - the fabric - features swans, whereas Pond Lily - the pantograph - features frogs. I chose not to use Pond Lily when I made La Petite Princesse, choosing Crowns-n-Diamonds instead to go with the princess theme and the fact that some of the swans were wearing crowns. But I didn't want to use that one again. As I've mentioned previously, I'm trying to go through my stash of pantographs and use every one at least once. But which one to use? I considered several and, on Facebook, jokingly suggested quilting spiders on a little girl's quilt. And then I thought, why not frogs? It's funny and cute and a little surprising. And the pantograph does feature lilies as well, as does the fabric. Besides, there once was a frog that turned into a handsome prince (although not in the same fairy tale as the swan). So that's what I did. And then the song going through my head was, "Frog, He Would a-Wooing Go".

Not everything has to be exactly as we expect. And hence why I called the quilt, "Swan Lake Surprise". I haven't shared a link to the pantograph because it was a Willow Leaf pantograph. While Urban Elementz does have one by the same name and by the same designer, the design has been changed and I like mine better.
Meanwhile, I played batting chicken when I short-changed myself in cutting the batting. 

I'm not sure how that happened, but thank God, I won. 
I also decided to do a vertical seam on the backing. Directional prints can be challenging when making a quilt backing, because they're usually running in the wrong direction. Sometimes, like with La Petite Princesse, I don't let it bother me and just make the quilt with the print running sideways. But this time, I decided against it, which meant I had to piece the backing differently, having to use smaller pieces at the bottom to make all of the print run in the correct direction. And since I've had the fabric in my stash for several years, not to mention the fact that the new Craftsy no longer sells fabric, it's not like I could buy any more. 

But it's done, and thank the Lord, it arrived at it's destination shortly before the latest postal strike started. 
I thank God that He inspired me with the idea of the brown sashing. In my opinion, it vastly improved what would have otherwise been an incredibly blah quilt. You may not agree with me, but I believe God is the original author of all good ideas. And that brings to mind one of my favourite Bible verses. 

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

GOD'S PLANS ARE ALWAYS BEST
I'm not talking about quilts here. Whether I had gone with the brown sashing or some other idea is really insignificant in the eternal scheme of things. But He does have a plan for each one of our lives. And His plans are always best. We may think we know best, and things may appear to be going better when following our own plans. But ultimately, if our plans do not agree with HIs, we will eventually meet with loss by following our own ideas, if not in this life, then in eternity. 
However, I will admit that it isn't always easy to discover God's plan for us. While He is trying to teach us valuable lessons, we are often too impatient to wait and proceed without His guidance. And then what? When we find ourselves down the "wrong road", is there any hope?
GOD ALWAYS HAS A PLAN 'B'
It's been my experience that even when I take a wrong turn, God is still patiently waiting for me to ask for His help. He may have to take me through an unpleasant detour because I've gotten so far off the track, but He can and will get me back, as long as I am willing to continue to follow Him. The verses following the one quoted above have this to say: 

"Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back..."
Jeremiah 29:12-14a NIV

Never fear to return to Him, even when you think you are too far gone. As the apostle Paul said, 

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
1 Timothy 1:15 KJV

Exploring Space

I was looking through Jenny Doan's YouTube tutorials for quilts that I could easily downsize for baby quilts. I had previously made a couple of Baby Alter Ego quilts, the first one still unfinished somewhere in my stash, and had figured this would become my go-to quilt for babies. And I bought a bunch of layer cakes to use in these. However, I'm really not the type to make the same quilt multiple times, so I was looking for new ideas. One of the ones I found was Night Sky. Here's the video:

I really liked this pattern and figured I could make it work, using half of a solid layer cake and half of a print one. I had this space-themed layer cake and decided that would work perfectly for this quilt. 
I used to think that layer cakes were my favourite fabric pre-cut. Now that I've made a few layer cake quilts, I'm beginning to wonder if I actually have a favourite pre-cut. I don't like the pinked edges. In spite of googling and finding that I'm supposed to measure from the peaks, I still don't find that consistently accurate. And it's really challenging to keep your piecing accurate when all of the pre-cuts are not precisely the same size. And then there's the fact that many patterns waste fabric and time because they don't call for the exact measurement of the pre-cut. This pattern was a case in point. 168 half square triangle units that had to be trimmed up to 4½"! I suppose if I had the Clearly Perfect Slotted Trimmer (which is currently "only" C$64.59 on Amazon), it might have gone a little faster than using my small Easy Angle. But I seldom trim at the best of times. Trimming 168 squares was pretty painful for me, and a colossal waste of time, in my opinion. I think I would have been much better off starting with the exact size squares I needed to make the Easy 8 HSTs and not have to trim each individual one. So, using a layer cake was kind of pointless. And that made this quilt tedious instead of quick and fun. I was really glad when the quilt top was finally finished. 

Initially, I wasn't sure what I was going to put in the corners. Based on Jenny's pattern, I couldn't fit more stars in and I tossed around different ideas. But then when I started playing around with the HSTs, I realized that I could fit the stars in just by a bit of rearranging. 
As to quilting it, I was hoping to use Urban Elementz' Blast Off pantograph and had ordered it from a Canadian supplier during a sale. I should have known better. That particular vendor has a reputation for terrible customer service, but I thought, "How difficult can it be to ship me a few pantographs?" I won't go into all the details, but suffice it to say that I finally left them a message to either ship me my pantographs or refund my money. And I did get my money back, thank the Lord. But meanwhile, I missed the Urban Elementz sale because I had chosen the Canadian vendor. So, instead I chose the Windy Stars pantograph. I bought this one used and I think it's by a company that's no longer in business. It's the first time that I have used a staggered pantograph. I had to shift the pantograph each time I advanced the quilt so that the exact same part of the design doesn't line up all the way down the quilt. 

It was great and quite attractive. I didn't have a navy blue thread, which would have likely been my first choice for the quilting. So, I went with something more radical - a bright orange. And I like it. 

Finally, I had to find enough fabric for the binding, which was rather challenging during a pandemic. I managed to piece together enough leftovers from the backing of a previous quilt. However, I didn't have quite enough of it that had all of the stripes going in the right direction. Look carefully and you can see it at the bottom left side of the quilt - the binding looks like it's a solid colour. Who cares? I'm sure the baby won't. 

More baby quilts to come. 

Baby Blues

One of my favourite antique malls had a vintage sewing and crafting show and sale last month, where I spied what I thought were several flannelette jelly rolls for $9 each, and so I purchased one in blue children's fabrics. When I make a quilt for a baby or child, I don't normally use fabric specific for children or babies. I like to make them big enough and with non-age specific fabric so that the child can use them throughout life, if the quilt lasts that long, without them being embarrassed by the rubber ducks or teddy bears or whatever on the fabric. However, I had one more baby boy quilt to make, and this appeared to be a deal too good to pass up. Was I wrong! First of all the strips were not 2½" wide, nor were they all the same width. They were an inconsistent 2", and some were so poorly cut, that they varied in width from one end to the other. They were not all the same length. Some were cut lengthwise along the selvage, and included the selvage and the warning to not use this fabric in children's sleepwear! At least one strip had a flaw in it that rendered that section of the strip unusuable. I later told my buddy Phil, who had been with me at the antique mall, that if this mock jelly roll had been sold by a quilter, she (or he) should be ashamed of herself, selling to other quilters what should be thrown in the garbage, or at the very least sold as "scraps" or "as is." Caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). 

At the same time (and from the same booth), I purchased this book:

 I had every intention of using my not-a-jelly-roll for one of the patterns in this book, so I was quite disappointed to find that it wasn't going to work. But I do like a challenge and am good at math. With some major recalculations, I was able to figure out how to use my strips for the Decadent Victorian pattern. I planned on reducing the size of the quilt anyway, but by eliminating borders, not by having strips that were smaller than I had realized. I purchased some fabric for the borders (medium blue and navy blue). I probably have enough leftover strips that I might have been able to finish the quilt top with them, but I was tired of having to work with these wonky pieces of fabric. And I felt that it was already scrappy enough. I needed some consistent fabric to give it more structure. I had to buy something for the backing and binding anyway. The backing is the navy blue snowflake. It looks black in the picture, but it is dark blue. The main medallion follows the pattern, with my recalculations, but I did the borders a little differently.

All my quilts are cat-tested and approved, and this quilt was no exception. I put that pink and red cushion on the corner of the table beside my sewing machine for Mystery because he loves to be near me wherever I am in the house. However, he thinks it's far preferable to test out whatever project I am working on rather than sleep on his cushion. Because this quilt is made of flannelette, his hair sticks to it like glue. And it was very noticeable on the dark backing. So, I went over both front and back vigorously with my lint roller once the quilt was finished. 

For the quilting, I used this sample cone of Superior Threads Magnifico that came with my machine. 

It's such a pretty blue. I used the Animal Crackers pantograph (Patricia E. Ritter/Urban Elementz). 

Can you see the lion, the giraffe and the elephant? Unfortunately, I was having major issues with "eyelashes" in my quilting, something which I haven't quite resolved to my satisfaction. 

I was able to find a good match in my thread stash for topstitching the binding (which is what I was doing when Mystery decided to test the quilt).

All things considered, I think it turned out quite well for my first flannelette quilt. 

But I'm not finished telling about my shopping trip. After the antique mall, we went to a thrift store. And honestly, I was whining because it's in a busy part of town with a tight parking lot - not fun when you drive a full-sized pickup truck. However, I did apologize and was even more apologetic when we entered the store and I almost immediately found the Dear Jane book. I have been wanting one for some time and put it in my Amazon wish list. I didn't buy it, however, when it was $40 or $50. And now the cheapest you can find it for on Amazon is $158.24. I don't know who would even consider spending that kind of money on it, but I have seen it for over $1000! 😮 Seriously, this is not the Geneva Bible we're talking about or an original Charles Dickens or Jane Austen. It just happens to no longer be in print and all that's available is software now. And I wanted the book, not the software. So when I found it in a thrift store for $3.75, I was thrilled. Plus I got a couple of other quilting books for even less because they were on half price that day. All in all, it was a good shopping day, in spite of the less than perfect fabric purchase. And I was still able to make a quilt with the fabric strips and figure I probably got my $9 worth out of them. I actually went back to pick up another one of the fabric rolls before I checked out, but couldn't find the booth again. I thank the Lord that I didn't. While I was able to make do with the one that I had, I wouldn't have wanted that disappointment and headache with a second (or a third?) one. I think there had been four and I had been tempted to buy all of them. 

When life hands you lemons,

you can make lemonade.

And when life hands you scraps, 

you can make a quilt!

Baby Alter Ego

I was searching for a pattern for a baby quilt that worked up fairly quickly and easily. I had a layer cake, but most layer cake patterns make bigger quilts and are more complex than what I wanted. Then I found Jenny Doan's Alter Ego tutorial. 

This quilt is much bigger than what I wanted. But I figured by using half of the layer cake for one quilt, I could still have a decent sized quilt. I should tell you right here that when I make a "baby quilt," I generally choose not to use baby/children's fabrics and make it bigger than the average baby quilt. That way the child can use it throughout childhood, and even when he/she gets a little older and not be embarrassed by the childish fabric. I added 2" and 3" borders and it worked out to be about 46" by 54".
Initially, I didn't actually like this quilt much. This layer cake was not your typical layer cake in that all of the fabric was not from the same fabric line. I think it was called Textures and Brights and I really didn't like the scrappy look of it. Once I started quilting it, however, it sort of pulled it all together and I decided I do like it after all. I used the Sweetness pantograph from Willow Leaf Studios.

Isn't it adorable? Here's a close up of the quilting: 

I quilted it with a multi coloured Signature thread. 

This quilt is going to the baby of a Health Care Aide that worked for me when I worked as a Director of Care. 

Stay tuned, I have another Baby Alter Ego quilt partially finished and I suspect at least one more to come.