Tag Archives: inspiration

It’s a Girl Quilt.

My friend Katie posted photos of a gender reveal party today. Look at their sweet happy faces.

The baker was given a piece of paper with the baby’s gender written on it. Parents didn’t find out until the moment this photo was snapped. Pink cake = baby girl! (Check out Katie’s blog for her chocolate covered oreos recipe. )

Baby girl might need something special from Aunt Megan! Let’s look at some cute baby quilts. These designs can all be altered to be for boys or girls. I haven’t yet made any of these. Click on ’em for more information including designers and makers. Which are your favorites?

Check out my quilting Pinterest board for more inspiration.

I’m working on a floral baby quilt and one with Raggedy Ann fabric. I’ll show them to you guys once they’re complete and photographed! Maybe I’ll head to the playground to take the pictures.

Linking up with Weekly Inspiration.

Inspired By the What-Is-That

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What is that? It’s a dog, or a watermelon or a goat, or whatever it is that you see. This is the piece of art that’s the topic of tonight’s conversation with some of my quilting friends.
We have monthly challenges and come together to share our works. I usually sew something. This time I got my camera out to play.

My first idea was a mosaic with buttons. It’s cute and was fun to scrounge up all those pink and red buttons.

Then I went a little more abstract with ribbon, thread, and wound cards of embroidery threads. If you step back, you can still see the shapes from the original piece, especially since I kept the colors.

I got messy. Pepto Bismol is the right kind of pink this and ketchup works for red. Since I finger-painted this onto a white plate I filled in the background. The negative space is chocolate syrup to form around the white shape.
While I was in the kitchen, I grabbed a cup for water. I saw the pink plastic one and went searching for more to complete the picture. The pink cup became the white shape. The round plate mimics the pink half-circle as it’s segmented by the red square-ish one.

It was fun playing around. I can’t wait to see what my friends came up with!

That Crumb-y Pillow is Awesome!

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I’m so blessed to have friends who will brainstorm craft ideas with me. This time it was the snowflake mini-group who helped me out. Soooooo… in addition to offering the super-cool letter pillows, state pillows are making an appearance in my etsy shop.

Founding snowflake, Trisha, ordered the first one so I could use it as a sample. She got a 16×16 inch square pillow cover. The crumb block is reverse-appliqued and in the shape of Wisconsin. Can you see the little heart? That’s over the city of her choice. I also hand-embroidered the word “Wisconsin” on it. Cool, huh?

Here’s a close-up of that heart button. It’s sewn onto a yo-yo and is a little shiny so that it pops out and can be seen against those crumb fabrics.

And here’s a close-up of the hand-embroidery.

Trisha didn’t need it, but I also sell the pillow forms. Order from me and it’ll save you a trip to the craft store.

You can have these be as simple or complex as you want. Just the state? Order that. The other options are add-ons for a few more dollars. What about getting a letter “J” pillow embroidered with Jaime’s name? I do custom orders! What’s your idea? Maybe a football with your team written on it, or a heart that says, “Will you marry me?”

Check out the pillow covers and more in my etsy shop. https://www.etsy.com/shop/QUILTArtbymegan

Follow me on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/QuiltArtbymegan

Coming soon: an update on the turtles and turkey quilts for summer camp, a portrait quilt of a dog and her owner, some baby quilts, and giving new life to an old quilt. Stay tuned!

Turtles, Turkeys, Wolves and Bears Oh My!

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I love collaborative projects. They’re always such an adventure. This one is for the lodge at my childhood summer sleep-away camp, Crystal Lake Camps. I have such awesome memories of this place and the people I met there. So when the idea was pitched on the alumni Facebook page to make clan animal themed quilts for four rooms I was eager to help.

There many ways campers are grouped together at CLC. One is by age, which determines your cabin assignment. Another is girls’ camp and boys’ camp. Also your skill level in classes like swimming and horseback riding. Clans are something different and special. Boys, girls, and counselors of all ages are split into four groups: turtles, turkeys, wolves and bears. These clan groups compete in events like blueberry picking and tug-of-war, make their own cheers, and sit together at council fire. It’s another opportunity for bonding and though I haven’t been to camp since 2001 I’m still a proud turtle.

So here’s what we’ve done so far for these four clans… starting with the turtles ’cause, well… I’m a turtle. I’m collecting blocks that have a light blue background and one or more turtles on them. The blocks’ measurements must be divisible by 3, so they’re not the same size but I can puzzle them all together. So with seam allowances, you can have 3.5″ x 3.5″ all the way up to 15.5″ by 15.5″ and anything in-between. Here are some of the blocks that have been made.

I’m the maker behind this one. Can you tell? Its shell is crumb-pieced then reverse appliqued under the blue fabric and the rest is hand-embroidered.

Okay. Onto the turkeys quilts. This lodge room gets two because it has a set of twin beds. I’m also coordinating this project. I sent off some quilt blocks to the alumni reunion weekend along with fabric markers. I haven’t gotten them back yet but am so excited to see what everybody wrote/drew on them for the turkeys quilt! I’m kind of hoping I get a hand print turkey or two back. Do you remember making those in elementary school for Thanksgiving? Anyway, alumni weekend was populated with several generations of alumni and their children so I’m sure the quilts will be awesome. Here’s what some of the blocks looked like before decorations.

The next two quilt tops are for the wolves and bears. Their very talented maker Betsy Huffman gave me permission to share them with you guys. Another volunteer will quilt and finish them. So all four quilts are technically still UFOs (unfinished objects)…. with a lot of love put into them. See?

Yes, that bear quilt has a cat on it. My cats are also quilt-inspectors. I love how Betsy included the traditional “bear paw” block as one of her borders.

I love the howling wolf in the corner of this quilt. Did you notice that Betsy also made matching pillowcases? She said she made them with the leftovers from making these quilts. What a good idea.

Playing Around at My New Place

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Hello everybody. I’ve been offline for a few weeks as my hubby, cats, and I move into our new place. We’re now living in a house while we help clean it out, do general maintenance, and update it. (Including ripping out 70’s carpeting.) It’s been hard work, especially while still working full-time. Love those kiddos I nanny, and the new place is freeway close so I’m able to keep the job.

Anyway, thought I’d show you guys the photos and tell the story of my latest finish. I’ve been working hard on the house and hadn’t touched any of my quilting supplies for over a week when my husband suggested that I open up one box and play with the things inside. I was grumpy, tired, feeling isolated, and creatively drained. The boxes were packed months ago, before we moved to the motel. So I had no idea what specifically was inside of this one simply labeled, “Quilting.”

So here’s what I made from bits found in that box plus a few things from my purse. I wasn’t making anything in particular, just (as my husband suggested) playing around. It turned into this coolish mixed-media piece. The background is a scrap of my crumb-quilting fabrics. The centerpiece is a laminated meditation card I’ve been carrying around with me to help reduce anxiety. Other treasures include the pin I got for helping with my guild’s quilt show, a friend’s bookmark, antique buttons found in grandma’s dresser, and scissor charms from my last job. It was fun to experiment. I probably won’t be doing much mixed-media art going forward… it’s not my preferred style. But hey, trying new things worked. I was far less grumpy after the last trinket was stitched on.

Keep Calm and Don’t Die

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I was feeling run down today. Just tired and discouraged in general. My new years resolutions for 2013 were to notice the goodness around and within me and to be my own advocate. So I decided to focus on those things once I got home from work.

Goodness around me – my husband made me dinner, his shepherd’s pie recipe and pumpkin pie, too! He borrowed a toaster oven and we shared some of the pumpkin pie with friends here at the motel.

Goodness within me – I’m good at my job and can stay calm under pressure. I understand the reasoning behind kids acting out and don’t take it personally. I appreciate positive things and can learn from the negatives.

Be my own advocate – I’m grouchy when I’m tired, so a nap was in good order. Tomorrow’s Friday and I plan to get in some sewing time.

And hey, if all else fails, remember this piece of advice that the three-year-old gave his screaming baby brother today: “Keep calm and don’t die.” Later, he gave the same advice to a toy car that flipped over.