Blog tags

I want to make the blog more reader-friendly, and I realized that tags are a good way to do this.  I’ve gone through all of my posts and added tags based on various themes. I’ll tag this post with all of them so you can more easily find anything you’re interested in, and my goal is to be more conscientious about tagging in the future.

In the course of doing all my tags, I realized that I posted twice about the Storm at Sea runner I made my parents, once in 2011 and again last December during my Advent posts.  Perhaps if I’d had a better tagging system I would have remembered that I’d done it before!  It was fun to go back and look at the old posts – I’d forgotten what some of the blocks were called and I had to read the posts to see which quilt I was writing about.  Most of my pre-blog quilts are on here, although I know of at least four that aren’t.  Perhaps those will be fodder for Advent 2014!

The tags fall into several categories: block type, type of item if it’s not a quilt, language if I was quilting in something other than English, etc.   The blocks I have thus far are as follows:

Drunkard’s Path – Storm at Sea – Hunter’s Star – Lone Star – hexagons – pinwheels – Steps to the Altar – Rail Fence -Windowpane – Log Cabin – “Elegance” fan block – Korean patchwork – Amish Square – Bow Tie block

If you happen to notice that I have the wrong name for a block or if there’s another name for it, please let me know!  In one case – the wedding quilt I made for my friend N last year – I’m not sure if there is a name for this kind of quilt.  (https://habibihomemade.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/wedding-quilt-for-n-and-a-part-i/)  If there is a name, please share it with me.

I made a tag for doll quilts, since I make so many of them, and if I used a particular block I tagged that as well.  I may have missed some, so leave a comment if you notice that a block went untagged.

Tags for non-quilts include, in no particular order: pot holders; kitchen/household; holiday; decor; pillows; napkins; clothing; ornaments; aprons.

I’d forgotten how many pillows I’d made, for example.  Kitchen/household covers pot holders, napkins, and aprons; aprons fall under clothing, too.  Decor includes pillows, runners, and wall hangings, but runners and wall hangings don’t have separate tags.  Holiday includes ornaments and stockings, the latter of which also don’t have a separate tag.  If you think it would be helpful for me to make a runners tag or a wall hangings tag or a stockings tag, let me know.  If you see anything I haven’t tagged that you think I should – a quilting design or a specific stitch or whatever – just leave me a comment.

Hopefully this way my blog will be much easier to navigate.  I like to read other quilters’ blogs and I’ve learned not just from what other people are making but from how they’re blogging about it.  Tagging struck me as a relatively easy way to be more accessible.  This is for you, so feel free to give me your input.  If you want a “wedding” tag or a “birthday” tag or some other category that you think would be useful, I want to know about it.

Enjoy!

Baby quilt for a little boy

We’re keeping with a theme here.  My last post was about the quilt I made for my friends J and N’s little girl.  This post will feature the quilt I made for my friend S’s baby boy.  I made the quilts around the same time and I think you’ll note the appearance of several of the same fabrics, including the ducky flannel.  The banana fabric also makes an appearance.  (As I type, I can see leftovers of it hanging out of my yellow/cream/gold fabric bin and I’m trying to think about what else I can make with the scraps.  I think it’s the cutest fabric.  I suspect it was part of one of those sock monkey collections.)

I made patches with strips of four in a red-yellow-green-blue pattern and I alternated placing them vertically or horizontally.  I don’t remember the measurements, I’m afraid.  There are twenty-four total patches, arranged four by six.  I purposely used bright primary colors (and green), in child-appropriate prints – they feature lots of animals, but the important thing for me was that they be bright.  People who read our blog regularly will surely have noticed my affinity for mixing lots and lots of bright prints.  My quilts are rarely subdued.  I suppose that’s my design sensibility.  It’s pleasing to me and I think it works well for a baby quilt.

The top of the quilt

A close up of the patches

Another close up

I added strips to the edges to get the size I wanted (although now I don’t remember what size that was).  First, a flannel border with letters that spell out the word “bear” and little bears to match.  Then, rubber ducky prints (not flannels – the ducky flannel appears in a couple of the patches).  Finally, the graphic red border.  This is a holdover from the train quilt I made my grandpa.  I had yards and yards of it – it, too, still exists in scrap form somewhere in my red/pink fabric bin.

The borders

I quilted it by machine.  I quilted criss-crossing lines over the patches.  I used baby blue thread.  I sewed two lines going vertically on the left and right sides of each patch and two lines horizontally at the top and bottom of each patch.  I think the pictures clarify that better than describing it could.  (A picture is worth a thousand words!)  My quilting isn’t entirely straight, I’m afraid.

Close ups of the quilting

I bought this adorable blue bunny fabric for the backing.  I love it, too.  Maybe more than the bananas.  I mean, the bananas are so whimsical but the bunny fabric is so perfect for a baby quilt, isn’t it?

The back of the quilt

A close up of the quilting – which shows off the adorable bunnies

I hope you’ve enjoyed my posts about the baby quilts.    I haven’t had to make any baby quilts recently.  I believe my next posts will be about more current projects.