fly, butterfly: a memorial quilt

My husband grew up in a small town; the kind where one group of 25 kids go through K-12 together, so they get to know each other pretty well. One of his classmates was Rebecca. I have met her a handful of times, and by some luck of fate she found me online via this blog and we chat from time to time. She is one with a golden heart- when I started to knit last year, she sent me a surprise package of knitting gift tags in support.

Last week I read the terrible news that Rebecca had suffered an unexpected stillbirth of her second child, a daughter. As a parent, or just as a human being, I am sure none of us can imagine anything worse than losing a child.

She has been on my mind and in my heart, and I wanted to provide some comfort. In the obituary for Olivia, they mentioned that donations were being accepted for a bench in a local butterfly park in her memory. "Fly, fly our little butterfly," the notice read. From these words, inspiration for a butterfly quilt was born. Something the family could keep in memory of the baby that they could not.

Simple. Grey for the grey skies that they are facing. A smattering of cheery pink butterflies making their way across the sky...and one wee butterfly veering off on her own path. Framed in a binding with cheerful flowers, to symbolize hope, a silver lining. Pink loopy quilting, like butterflies in flight. A few words incorporated into the loopy quilting...."Olivia," "fly" and "love."


More fluttering butterflies abound of the back, a great print by Valori Wells which was literally in my very first fabric order a couple years back....been hoarding it for awhile waiting for the perfect project.



The back also has a label and a quote, which I thought both lovely and appropriate to the situation:

The butterfly counts not months by moments, and has time enough.
-Rabindranath Tagore

I hope that the quilt can provide a small bit of comfort for Rebecca and her family during this heartbreaking journey.

Quilt stats:

Finished size: 26" by 31"

Design: inspired by this quilt. Butterflies from this template, raw edge appliquéd.

Fabrics: backing is Valori Wells Monarch, front scraps of Nicey Jane, Hunky Dory, DS quilts, Children at Play. Grey solid from local quilt shop.

Binding: Children at Play Meadow

Quilting: loopy stipple in pink cotton thread (note- tried this with my feed dogs up this time as I have seen others try, it worked great!)

Label: I used this product (first time, and I was quite pleased with it!)

Gifts revealed: Russian Doll makeup bags

I was perusing Noodlehead for something else altogether when I got distracted. You see, I have a touch of ADD to go along with my OCD. I stumbled across Anna's tutorial for her patchwork makeup bags, and decided on the spot to make a couple for a couple of my favorite people for Christmas.
I love how they turned out! I used some Kokka material I had picked up with these sweet Russian Matryoshka dolls, which are a favorite of my friend Samantha. I paired it with some scraps containing mostly reds, then added one Hunky Dory print in aqua to add a splash of color.
The inside is some Amy Butler Love Spots that matches the outer aqua perfectly! It feels so fresh. I love that red/aqua/linen combo!
One the reverse side, I appliqued a little doll :-)
Ummm, ignore the wrinkles!

My only regret is that most of the red Amy Butler Love spots at the bottom of the patchwork strip became hidden under the bag when I squared off the corners. But otherwise, a pretty nice finish for a job on the fly! Now, what was it I SUPPOSED to be doing??.........

Pot holders

Made me some of those quilted pot holders I have been seeing everywhere, out of a bunch of my wee scraps and some natural cotton:
Nothing fancy, but I am a sucker for the simple look of a strip of patchwork against linen or cotton, aren't you?

I was thinking that pot holders are the perfect "tutorial" for quilt making- it involves a bit of design, piecing, quilting, binding. I think this would be a quick and cool way to introduce non-quilters to the craft, with a quick outcome. Maybe I should see who else of my friends I can get addicted......

Stash additions and ramblings of a fabric addict

I have been a bit of an online fabric shopaholic lately. But who can help themselves with all the gorgeous fabric lines out there, and the amazing quilts people have been turning out on their blogs of late to inspire us? Here are a few quilts and fabrics I have been obsessing over:
Red Pepper Quilts has to be one of my favorite blogs at the moment. I have a stash of Anna Maria Horner Little Folks I love, and think I will have to cut it up to make and adult version of this quilt for myself. I also got some size 8 Perle cotton thread to try my hand at hand quilting like shown on it. I also ordered up some flannel Little Folks this week, you know, just in case I "need" it. RPQ is also responsible for the pile of Far Far Away 2 Fabric I just ordered from an awesome online fabric store up here in Canada called Pink Panda Fabrics. The prices are slightly higher than in the US but still very competitive, especially with the "quantity discount" (cringe) that I earned! With no border duty and free shipping (!!!), it gets me every time. Plus it arrived in 3 DAYS...unlike the weeks of anticipation waiting for a cross-border buy. I will make a couple girly quilts with the FFA2 for sure, but can also see it paired with linens in some cute fall dresses or tops for my girls, or some bibs......Then, another couple beautiful quilts in Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow. A baby boy one by Bijoux Lovely blogged here, and another by Cluck Cluck Sew. I love the masculine feel to many of these prints, and I am a sucker for blues..... That addition to my stash is in the mail and should be arriving shortly.

I have also added some of this and that. Some pretty things on clearance from My Needle and Thread,

then some charm packs of these adorable Japanese fairy tale prints, some more Hunky Dory....

And finally, there is the Heather Bailey Nicey Jane. I love it! I have tagged some of this stash to make a quilt for me, mixed in with some solids in grey and seafoam, and the rest for a couple other projects. Then, this week I had the happy accident of finding a sweet little quilt shop on the strip at Winnipeg Beach, a beach town just north of home. It is called Keeper Quilts, and I picked up some beautiful natural cotton, some thermal batting (for pot holders) and a bunch of lime green plastic mesh fabric, which I plan to use to make a beach bag tutorial! Stay tuned!

Now I just need to find more hours in a day, right?

And please- nobody forward this blog post to my husband! What he doesn't know won't hurt him, right? I'll start my "12 steps" next week....or after the fall collections come out....

Sharing my own quilt story

I blogged not too long ago about each quilt having its own story. It just so happens that there is a wonderful blog, aptly named Quilt Story, dedicated entirely to the sharing of these tales. And today, they are featuring one of mine!


This is certainly my favorite quilt to date, both for its beauty and its meaning. Head over to Quilt Story and take a look, and be sure to check out the selection of amazing quilts by some very talented quilters!

Mckinley's quilt

Post-publishing note: For those who are interested, I have now posted the pattern for this quilt here.

I am so pleased with how this quilt came out, I seriously considered changing the name of one of my girls to Mckinley so that I can keep it. But, in the end, I can't think of a better home for this one. Mckinley was recently adopted by long term patients who I consider friends, after a long struggle with infertility. It is such a happy ending, and I am thrilled to do something for this beautiful new family!

I made the quilt using a Moda Hunky Dory charm pack, then framed each square in white to make it pop. The back is a solid of my favorite pattern from this series- the flowers are so vibrant and retro looking. I then bound it in the pink polka dot from the series. I also put in a white bar on which I hand embroidered Mckinley's name. To do so I printed a font and size on my computer, held it up to a window, and traced it onto the white sash. I then used 3 embroidery threads to stitch it up. Thanks to Amy at NanaCo for the advice! I extended the name stash to the edges, beyond the borders of the blocks, to add interest. I really like how it breaks up the quilt.

Next, I added a few shabby fabric flowers, with mismatched button centers, to add more texture and interest to the quilt. I love it! This idea was from Kathy at Magnolia Designs- she even lent me her Big Shot to cut the fabrics :-) They look even better all wrinkled up, once washed.

For quilting, I machine stitched 1/4 inch from all the borders. It really brings it all together!

I hope Mckinley and her family enjoy the quilt!

In another note, the hubby and I are celebrating our 10 year anniversary today! Time flies. We are heading out for a swanky dinner tonight....and I have a BIG surprise gift planned. Can't wait to see his face! I will reveal tomorrow......

Feelin' Hunky Dory

Well, it was not the best day...started at 4 a.m., involved brattier-than-normal kids and house cleaning. Then I was sour because I was out and missed my highly anticipated delivery of Anna Maria Horner Little Folks fabric (a present to me from me for Mother's Day) and the delivery slip indicated that I owe over $50 (!!!) in duty charges! Stupid Canada Customs. Anyways, I needed a pick-me-up, so I grabbed some left over chocolate cake from last night's baby shower (yum) and headed to the computer and the Noodleheads blog, where I found the gathered clutch tutorial. I was envying Kathy's clutch the other night, and she told me about the tutorial....anyways, I had to have one. And, now I do!

I plan to take it out on the town tonight for date night with hubby (yikes! The sitter is due in 6 minutes, so I better wrap this up!). Anyways, I made it out of a beautiful linen, and some scraps of Moda Hunky Dory fabric left over from my next quilting project. It is lined with the pink dot fabric from the same line (not shown here). My one modification was a wrist strap- again, I have to credit Kathy with this bright idea, although I did it slightly differently than she had (I just cut a 14 inch by 2 inch piece of Hunky Dory, added some interfacing, sewed it wrong sides facing along the length, inverted, pressed and topstitched along each length). I am so pleased with the end result! If you want one, too, check out Anna's Noddlehead blog- you won't be disappointed.