When it's shorts and swimsuit season, no sane person wants to touch a quilt. Summer is time for the heavy blankets and comforters to be put away and the lightest covers to come out. When I Summer-ize our house, all things related to the fireplace and couch potatoing are banished.
But what's a quilter to do when she gets four orders for custom quilts in the summer months? Crank up that air conditioner and get over it, it's snuggle time. The first order came the week before we went to Chicago. A friend called and said she needed a baby quilt and she needed it fast. Cindy came over, sat on the futon in my newly Kon-Maried sewing room and I brought out some pinky girl fabric. Cindy is not one to fuss or agonize over choices. We banged this quilt fabric out in a few minutes. She said perfect and that was that. If they were only all so easy.
Most of this fabric came from old clothes of mine. The core piece was a sundress, in a print with purses all over it. I wore it a lot when I could get away with a sundress with purses all over it, but the fabric on most of it was still in pristine condition. Two other prints were skirts that I wore when I could get away with them, one black and white checks (always a wee bit too short) and another a gorgeous pink flowered skirt from Talbots (with flowers a wee bit too big.) With some other prints from Goodwill and a lovely dress shirt from my husband's coworker, we had ourselves a wee little baby quilt in no time.
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| Greta, the Grab and Go Girly Quilt |
Next up it was time to finish a quilt that was mentally in the works for a very long time. One of my most loyal Etsy customers gave me a wonderful donation of fabric and asked that I make her a quilt from it, using whatever I thought would look good. Well, it all looked so adorable together, the choice was easy. I did add one project piece from Goodwill, it was some sort of easy quilt pattern preprinted. I cut that up in no time and repurposed it into this really sweet bear themed quilt. It's not a wee quilt, it's a whopper. The library bear, tea cup fabric and the calicoes say "Snuggle up on the couch with a good book and some honey sweetened Earl Grey". But not quite yet, because it's still "Stop touching me you hot fabric" season here in California.
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| Leslie, the Li-Bear-y Quilt |
As for the third quilt - I think I made this during the time I got a wee bit better from my Virus From Venus, Plague From Pluto summer sickness, but before it became Brontosaurus Bronchitis. That crud stole five weeks of my summer and it's all a bit of a blur, but somehow I managed to sew up this bright and fresh colorful bear quilt in the middle of it all. I love the colors in this, fresh and cute but not overly babyish. My neighbor and friend Rosie, the Great Grandma, reported it was big hit at the baby shower.
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| The Great Bear Quilt |
I've got one more baby quilt to finish for Cindy. The fabric is picked out and ready to get going on. I have a wee bit of a cold, but this seems like just an Easy Earthly one, so I should be able to sew it up before the baby's high school graduation. And then...I get to start on the quilts for the Curtis Park Craft Faire on December 4th. It's never too early to start thinking of Snuggle Season.
