Holiday Helping Hands

Last fall, my friend Clare asked if I would help a class with a service learning project. Clare has a really cool job - she works for a foundation and is in charge of pretty much all service learning projects in our city. If you aren't familiar with service learning, it is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.


I worked with students at Arlington Heights Academy. This is a sort of last chance high school for a lot of kids. Many of them have struggled at other schools for various reasons, but here they have an incredibly supportive teacher who truly loves them as individuals. She seeks out unique learning opportunities for them that set them up for success.


And, each December, they execute an event called Holiday Helping Hands. These students, many of whom come from severely disadvantaged backgrounds, donate various items from around their house to fill a secret santa like store. They create a literal wonderland in their school and invite hundreds of kindergartners to experience holiday magic. They create reading and math activities that teach the students while they have fun. It's a truly magical experience for both the older kids and younger ones.


My role was to help them make a quilt hat would reflect what they learned from the experience. My first visit was last fall, where I taught the students about quilting and helped them create a design. The students came up with exactly what they wanted - my only role was to make sure it was "do-able."


The students decided that they wanted a picture border around the outside, so they also chose pictures to go around the edges.

When I came back the second time, I had printed the photos onto photo transfer paper. The students cut out the pictures and ironed them on to white fabric squares. I was so surprised... they loved it!

Another part of their design was creating twelve circles that simulated a Candy Land board, one of their main decorating themes. Each circle had a word that described their service learning experiences.

They traced the shapes onto wonder under paper and then chose the fabrics they wanted to use. 

I took their work home and tried to turn it into their original design. I brought it back to school for them to tie together. I thought about quilting it for them, but I wanted to give the students as many opportunities to touch the quilt - literally and figuratively.

How cute are these high schoolers? Many of them are just freshmen.

I still need to add the binding -- but here's where we are now.

I'm really grateful for the opportunity to work with these students. Is the design my favorite of all time? Probably not. Is any single part of it straight? Nope - many hands don't make straight quilts. But it darn well might be one of the most beautiful I've ever seen.

A fundraiser quilt

The PEACE OUTside Campus Foundation, which was started in memory of my cousin Lindsey, is having a fundraiser at the end of the week. We can't make it all the way to New York for the event, but I wanted to contribute something to the event.

Enter -- the fundraiser quilt! I've made this quilt before. I love it because it's relatively quick to make and it's a great way to use up a jelly roll.

Apologies in advance for the pictures. I finished it all of 2 hours before I needed to mail it, and it was raining so this was the best I could do!

It's really bright and fun!

Zac helped me pick out the fabric for the back, and he felt very strongly that it needed to be dark to balance out the brightness of the front. Works for me! I did simple stitch in the ditch quilting on the front, and I like how the lines look on the back. They aren't perfect straight but it seems to work.

I have a few other jelly roll packs screaming to be made in to a quilt like this. Zac loves the look of the stripes, and I like it a lot too. It would be the perfect size for a baby quilt, as well. Hope you like it!

The Quilt Festival Part II

Yesterday I showed you all of the cool vendors, so today we'll explore some of my favorite quilts. There were so, so many, but I tried to be selective!

That's a QUILT. Isn't it unbelievable?? The lighter dancers are embroidered in thread. It was totally and completely stunning. and I didn't get credit info for this one either. Second media pass fail. 

Spring Blossoms by Terry Aske

Springtime in the Garden by Mary T. Schneider

I am obsessed with this one. How amazing is the applique? The picture doesn't do the colors justice. And look at the striped binding! Darling.

Something like this might be my next project. Swoon.

Is this quilt not absolutely beautiful? I captured the women in the picture to show you its size. It was HUGE.

The Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild had an exhibition of Ohio Star Quilts. This one is by Amy Thonnerieux, and was one of my favorites.

I'm sure I'm biased because I love Cincinnati, but look at this beautiful landmarks quilt project completed by the Contemporary Quilt and Fiber Artists. Members of the group worked together to create panels for an expansive quilt depicting neighborhoods and landmarks in Cincinnati. It was incredible.

Love the riverboat!

And the skyline!

There were many, many more beautiful quilts, a lot that we couldn't take pictures of. It was such a great experience, and I'm grateful for the International Quilt Festival for making me feel like a rockstar with my press pass. Can't wait for next year!

The International Quilt Festival comes back to Cincinnati

You might remember me going to the International Quilt Festival in Cincinnati last year... the day before my wedding! My gramma and I snuck away and it was a great experience. I was so excited to see it was coming back again this year, and that I'd have more time to enjoy it.

Coolest part #1:

I was fancy. I got a media pass because of this blog. When the exhibitors saw the media badge, they were extra nice and let me take pictures of anything I wanted!

Coolest part #2:

Meeting Andi, from Udandi, in real life. She's my third friend I've met on Twitter and then met in real life, and she is awesome. Seriously - go check out her blog. And her second blog.

The festival seemed even larger than last year. Half the exhibition hall was set up with booths and the other half displayed the most beautiful quilts. I'll go through the vendor part today and the quilts tomorrow, because otherwise you'll be overloaded with pictures!

This lovely lady from Embellishment Village showed us how to use Angelia Fibers, which were amazing. Have any of you tried to sew with them? She made beautiful applique designs (the butterflies on her jacket are made from it too) but I loved it most for embellishing quilts, which I've never tried before. 

The Angelina fibers fuse to each other. Here she set the iridescent fibers over the "water," and it truly added movement and depth. Gorgeous. I think I'm going to order some to play with! There were a lot of other applications for it too. Andi and I were mesmerized.

She had also made this gorgeous quilt. The dresses are 3 dimensional -- the aprons lift off the quilt. Isn't it so cute??

How cute is this??? Look closely - the triangles at the top hold a yard stick! I love texture and dimension on quilts and the pocket for the tape measure and thimbles holds them! I didn't get the information from this quilter (media pass fail), but it was too adorable not to show you.

There were a lot of booths selling wool this year, but Woolylady was our favorite. We met the nicest woman (hi, Lisa!) who actually hand dyes all of the wool. Her partner Gail is who creates the beautiful projects. We must have talked to her for twenty minutes -- I just couldn't pull myself away from the gorgeous colors!

It was stunning. So soft to touch. The most beautiful vibrant colors. I'm still dreaming about it. One of my other favorite vendors was Handbehg Felts. Because of this:

The applique is made from felt. I love the somewhat random stitching on it. Here are some close ups of the squares...

Isn't the wonky stitching so cool??

The woman who made the blocks said you can't really screw it up. They have patterns every month on their website, and this quilt will be one of the free patterns up soon!

And just when I thought I couldn't fall in love any harder, check this out.

This picture doesn't do it justice, but it's a garland made out of felt balls, wooden thread spools and Christmas themed fabric scraps. It was absolutely darling and would look so sweet hanging from a mantle!

That's just the first half of our experience. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post about the gorgeous quilts we saw. They'll blow you away!!

Quilts on a Ladder

I found this picture on Pinterest awhile ago, and I'd been dreaming about finding an antique ladder to hang quilts on ever since.

Love this one too. Especially covered in cashmere blankets. Sigh. As if.

Quick side note - when was the last time you said, "As if?" It seemed relevant in this post.

Fast forward to the day I decided I wanted a ladder for my living room. If you want one too, here's my advice. Good stinking luck finding one. If you can find one on Craigslist, it will likely cost a zillion dollars. And that's a huge IF. So unless you are already a garage saler / antique fair stalker, I don't know how you will find one.

Unless you are supremely lucky and the universe is smiling upon you.

I'm working on a project with a teacher whose parents love to antique shop. I mentioned months ago how much I'd love to have an antique ladder, and that if her parents found one I'd gladly buy it. This was pre-Christmas. It was awhile ago.

Fast forward again to last week. I came home from a meeting and saw this beautiful piece of wonderfulness next to my front door!

Even Instagram can't save my crappy photos. Oi.

I asked Zac where it came from and he said, "Some lady just came by and said it was for you?" My teacher-friend's parents had found it and gave it to me! And it's GLORIOUS -- It's about 8 feet tall, and has so many rungs, for so many quilts!!

My grandmother is bringing me some of her quilts when she comes to visit in June, but here it is filled in the mean time:

Do you love it??

It is SO tall!! Here's a view of it in the living room:

Another shot:

Don't worry. Taking a photography class is high up on my list of things to do after graduation!

If you're curious about the quilts...

1. Second quilt I ever made... still my favorite.
2. Quilt Zac's grandfather made. So precious that we have it.
3. Quilt Gramma made me for Christmas a few years ago.
4. Our Christmas quilt. It's a placeholder!!
5. I love this quilt. My gramma pieced it by hand from scraps. We only saw her a few times a year when we were younger, and I remember her making it over multiple visits. There's even a square that I added that has my name on it! It's GIANT, and it's so special.

What do you think about the ladder? Be honest. It's more country chic than we usually do in our house, but it's so unique and I think with modern quilts it isn't too much? Reassure me, please!!

A Sweet Baby Boy Quilt for a Sweet Baby Boy

When my friend Claire told me she was pregnant last summer, I was so excited! Claire and I met in college - actually, before the very first day of my freshman year. She's the reason I joined my sorority (she promised me cake. What can I say? I'm weak!), and we spent the next four years being inseparable. It turned out that our parents live about two miles from each other, and we helped each other get ready (in different years) for our first dates with our husbands. 


Claire and Brian found out they were having a boy in August, and I got sewing. I took this quilt with me to my gramma's house to quilt on the long arm, and it was the last one we did. Which means we did this one by generator during Hurricane Irene. Not sure it's my finest work, but Claire and sweet little Charlie seem to like it!


This quilt came from the same book as the animal quilt I made, and it's definitely worth the purchase. It's a great book. You can find it on Amazon here. You could get it from a library, but the templates are really big - I mean, really big - so copying them would be tough. This quilt for Charlie is one of the reasons I bought the book, and I was excited to finally get to make it!

I think the semi truck is my favorite part! I had a hard time finding fabric for the back, but once I saw this, I was sold. I love the road signs and the bright colors!

The sweet mama-to-be sure seemed to like it!

Charlie came almost a whole month early, so good thing this quilt was ready. The sweetest part of the whole thing? Seeing that darling little boy enjoying his quilt!

Nothing like cute baby pictures to make Monday feel a little less like Monday. Click HERE to see the blog parties where I'm linking!

A flowery baby quilt

Zac's cousin and his wife had a baby in September, and the whole family was thrilled when they found out the baby was a girl. Zac comes from a family of lots of boys, so Maddelyn is the first girl in a long time.

It was fun to make a girl quilt for a change, but I didn't want it to be too girly. Erin told me that they were planning a nursery with red accents that would be super pink, and when I saw this fabric, I knew it was perfect.

Maddelyn's older brother received one of the very first quilts I ever made. This is another favorite - it just turned out so cute!

I should point out that is my gramma's couch, not mine. No offense, Gramma. It's a nice couch!

I gave you a sneak peak of this baby quilt a few months ago, but I forgot to take pictures of it before I gave it away! Thankfully, I stole a few pictures when we saw them over the holiday.

Here's the quilt in progress at my gramma's house in the fall:

And here it is finished!

It looks really busy in this picture, but it isn't as crazy in person!

This gives you an idea of the size.

The back is a dot minky that is so soft. And you can see how pretty the quilting is!

I only quilted in the nine-patch squares, and left the flowers free. It made for a beautiful quilting design on the back of the quilt, too!

I found the idea in a book, but there's really no pattern. The nine-patch squares are made from jelly roll (2.5") strips, which makes cutting them a breeze. They are 2.5"x2.5" squares, and the flowers are appliqued on 6" squares.

This is one of my favorite quilts I've ever made... it was hard to give away. Hopefully Maddelyn loves it as much as I loved making it!

Click HERE to see the blog parties where I'm linking!