Saturday, December 23, 2006

Cookie Night Catch-Up

Tonight was cookie night--gingerbread, sugar, and chewy chocolate; all are safely packed away for family gifts. I've been making my Christmas cookies from the same special cookies-only edition of Martha Stewart Living since 2001. Say what you will about her personality (and ethics), every darn recipe I've made from her cookbooks or magazine comes out wonderfully. This year, both of the kids were old enough to help with the decorating, which was both hilarious and horrifying. Luckily, good taste and good taste need not go hand-in-hand.

Since I'm feeling productive, I thought I'd go through my picture file to see what I haven't posted. I'm realizing that I never posted the quilts I made for my son. So, here goes.

The first is based on a Country Threads bulls-eye pattern. I think it was *the* pattern that inspired all the raw-edge cut-n-piece blocks that appeared a few years back. His nursery was blue and yellow, so I knew my color scheme--and again, all these fabrics were from my stash at the time. Here's the weird thing--I know exactly when I made this quilt because I was sewing it the morning of the Columbia shuttle disaster. Initially, I just had on CNN because it was background noise. Then, I looked up because I started to hear those eerie calm tones in the NASA radio announcements; the same ones you hear from doctors when things have really gone wrong. I had already decided to name the quilt "Digable Planets," as a nod to a long-ago trip hop band and to the fact that I had put up star curtains in his room, but the events gave the name an edge that otherwise wouldn't have been there. I quilted it with lots of spirals. At a distance, the disjointed blocks in this color scheme have a real Eric Carle-feel to them that I like very much.



I made both of my children a pieced and an applique quilt. Initially, I bought the Monsters pattern for another quilt for my daughter, but life intervened (literally). So, I redirected this project for my son. As it turned out, the Monsters quilt suits him perfectly, my wee little beastie. When he was still in his crib, I would take both children over to touch each monster at night. They especially loved the green one in the lower right with perle cotton "fur." Now, it hangs above his bed, and he fiddles with the bottom when he tries to fall asleep. So, at least once a week, I rehang it to get the weird wrinkles and warps out. This pattern was a block of the month through a neighboring quilt shop, but I skipped the massive triangle overload border in favor of a plain one (quite honestly, time was of the essence at that point). I still love this border fabric; it's such a fun red. The blocks are closely stippled on the interior, and the border is looping squiggles. I remember that I initially stippled a couple blocks in variegated primary, but it was so distracting that I ripped it all out and did it again in plain white.

9 comments:

Cher said...

what a fun and bright monster quilt-your quilting is wonderful as are all your quilts ...I enjoy your use of color and design..nice to discover your blog

The Calico Cat said...

Nice quilts, I love the circles one - those are "my" colors & that is my style!

Helen said...

Cool bulls eye quilt, lovely bright colours.

Cheers
Helen in NZ

heather said...

I love both of your quilts. The monster one is super cute and makes me laugh.

Carolyn said...

Love the quilts, especially the monsters! I too have gotten some good ideas and recipes from Martha Stewart books. Cookie night sounded like fun...I didn't make any cookies this year! Happy New Year!

Tonya Ricucci said...

Love the colors in that bulls-eye quilt - fantastic. What a bright, cheery quilt. I remember that monsters applique pattern too - fell in love when I first saw it, but way too much work for me to do. You did a great job. Wonderful quilts.

Catherine said...

I always wanted to make both the bulls eye and the monster quilt...yours are really nice looking.

Giusy Jdeebella said...

I love those bright colours and love those nice monsters! If I will have a little boy someday I would love to make one similar to this. Ciao, Giusypatch

Samantha said...

I have that monstrs quilt all neatly kitted up and ready to sew. It was to be for my now 5 yeard old daughter when she turned 3... Maybe I can get it done for my son before he turns 4...

Your Bull's Eye is one of my all time favorite quilts to make- esp for babies. The tactile edges are so much fun for them.