Sneak Peak

This is Elaine's house. Elaine is Joe's sister. She lives in Denver and we visit her from time to time. Next time we go, I want to give her a quilt. It will be called "Elaine's Place."


I drafted a block pattern for her house.

And a picket fence. Joe said "she doesn't have a picket fence!" So I said, "But if she did, it would look like this." It's called "artistic licence."

Here's the picket fence, under construction.

Elaine's house is quite small - she is only one small person so doesn't need a big one. It is immaculate. She loves her garden and it is a perfect tiny garden.

When we were in Spokane last month, I saw some Debbie Mumm fabric that totally reminded me of Elaine. And the colours are perfect, too. Take a look.

With some plain colours I'm ready to go. Elaine's quilt will have a winding garden path, flowers, birds and bird houses.

Birdhouse patterns from the Internet.

Country Bird pattern from Block Magic.

Flowers from 505 Quilt Blocks. (I love the library!)

New Cuts for New Quilts is one of the books I picked up on our trip. There is an idea in it that I may adapt for the winding garden path - or I may just wing it. I'll see how things go together.

So as you saw, I have a start on the picket fence. My plan - as per my "no rules" approach - is to make some of the feature blocks (bird, bird house, flowers) then see how they fit together. I'll fit the path around/between them and fill in the blanks as it all comes to me. This won't be a quick one.

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Luggage tags - front (with vinyl pouch for business card).

In the meantime, I was feeling pretty ragged this week and didn't feel up to focusing on a complicated picket fence or house, so I just puttered around a bit for a short time after work each night and put together some luggage tags from my scraps. If you've seen previous posts, you'll recognize most of the fabric.

I got this idea from on of the books I picked up - only it was suggesting decorative tags for gifts, etc. I thought they looked pretty much like fancy luggage tags and we're always looking for luggage tags! So I googled luggage tags and read a few items about them, got a few ideas and took it from there.

After a couple of experiments, I decided the optimum size to start out with is a 3.5 * 5.5 inch patch. Right sides together, fold two together lengthwise and round the corners on one end. Stitch the loop to the right side, center of the rounded end of one piece. Then both pieces right sides together, layer a piece of batting on one side (on wrong side). Using a 1/4 inch seam allowance stitch starting about 1/4 in on the bottom (square) end heading to the corner, turn at the corner, stitch all the way around to the other side of the bottom end, turn the corner then stop about 1/4 in from that corner. That will leave an opening big enough to turn comfortably. Turn it right sides out and work the corners out, press, topstitch about 1/8 all the way around (closing the opening as this is done).

Cut some heavy, clear vinyl (I got mine at Walmart) - about 3 * 3.5 inches. Stitch that on about 1/8 inch from the edge (i.e., directly over the top stitch). Obviously leave the top open - only stitch three sides. You should be able to comfortably slip a business card in there for ID.

My book has all sorts of ideas for jazzing these things up - beading, applique, etc. And I will eventually get to that, but my intention is to actually use these as luggage tags and I thought that stuff could easily get caught and ripped off so I opted to just keep them smooth fabric and let the fabric be the interesting part.
Back (no vinyl).