Dawn's Quilt

Dawn's quilt

It is heart breaking to find out that a close friend has been diagnosed with cancer. There is much hope at the beginning that a recover can be made, even when it seems hopeless, miracles do happen, and we always want to think positively.
The process of chemo and radiation is daunting and very difficult at best. I thought a lap sized quilt would be a comfort to my friend while she fought her battle.

I had some red, grey and beige 5 inch squares that I thought might make a happy, good looking quilt to cuddle under when a person was feeling blue.  The grey signified sadness, the red signified that battle to be fought and won, and the beige signified the dawn of a new day as the enemy was overcome.

Because of the time crunch, I thought a simple pattern was best. 
The pattern is called .....
The squares are split diagonally and sewn back together with a strip of grey, then split vertically and another grey strip is sewn in between the two pieces to form the blocks.

I cut out 5 inch grey squares and the edge triangles to sew the blocks together on the point.

I arranged and re-arranged the 36 blocks until I was happy with the appearance of the quilt top. 

I took photos and then marked each row, (covering them with a towel to discourage my kitties from sitting on them.)

12 rows of  blocks = 39 1/2 X 39 1/2" 

I like how the blocks looked when they were together but I wanted to add a border to make the quilt top a bit bigger. 
I cut 2 /12 inch strips and added the inner grey border. (43 1/2 X 43 1/2" square)

2 " inner grey border

pressing the quilt top

Next I cut 2 1/2 inch strips of red fabric from my stash for another border.  (47 1/2" square)

Then I auditioned a few fabrics for the outer border, but the best one seemed to be the same grey/tall grass fabric as used in the blocks. (Cut 4" border, quilt top = 55" square) 

I bought some light grey "Cuddle" for the back, then pinned it together, ready to be quilted.

I machine quilted (free motion) the flowers in a flower pattern as shown below:

Heart quilting on the grey blocks

I used an air erase pen to draw continuous hearts on the grey blocks, then free motion quilted them.

Heart quilting on grey blocks

My wonderfully always dependable Janome 7700 suddenly died on April 26! My friend was in stage 4 and only had a short time to live. How was I going to get this quilt finished in time?!
I frantically dug out my old mostly manual Pfaff machine.  

I used my triangle ruler and drew "echo" lines on the triangle blocks. My Pfaff (Select 1546) was giving me a lot of tension problems and I ended up ripping out so many terrible seams. It was heart breaking. I guess it was a reflection of the situation surrounding the quilt.  :(

I was determined to get it finished. My Janome required a new mother board which had to be sent from Japan ( 4 to 6 weeks, they said.) I didn't have 4 to 6 weeks to spare!

Back of the quilt 

I traced triangles with my ruler ( air erase pen) and slowly quilted them all around the red border. 

Next I free motion quilted the outer grey border (after looking it up in the Pfaff manual, as I hadn't used it in years) with leaves and vines. April 30th all the quilting was finally done and I was please, overall with the results.

 Last of all I cut red edging strips  2 1/4" width, folded in half) and bound the edge. 

The quilt was completely done except for a label on May 4. My friend Dawn passed away after a difficult, valiant struggle on May 8. The family had a wonderful celebration of Dawn's life on May 26, 2018.

Many tears, memories and love went into this quilt for Dawn. I made the label on the back dedicated to her two young grandchildren and gave it to them to use when they were feeling blue and missing their grandma. 

2018 Quilting Tooth Fairy Pillows

Tooth Fairy cushions March 2018

My twin grandchildren are 6 years old now and starting to lose their baby teeth. I decided to make them a Tooth Fairy Cushion to put the tooth in so that the tooth fairy could find it, collect it, and leave behind a dollar or two.

I looked on pinterest and found a lot of excellent ideas.
The idea that I decided to go with is from "Color the Moon.com" which I thought I would like to try.

http://colorthemoon.com/tooth-fairy-pillows/

Thank you, Ellie, for sharing your cute, clever ideas!

I made each of the twins a little Tooth Fairy cushion out of felt, using white glue to stick the pieces on to the tooth outline.

I drew a simple tooth outline on white paper and when I had one I liked, I cut it out and traced it with a felt marker onto the white felt to create the teeth.
I cut two 8 1/2 inch squares out of blue dot fabric and two out of the pink dot fabric for the cushions.

 8 1/2" inch squares for front and back of cushions.

I wanted to make a way to hang them from the twins' bunk bed frame., so I cut 2 long ribbons (10 to 12 inches long) for each cushion, pink ribbon for my grand daughter's cushion and black dotted ribbon for my grandson's.

I put the squares right sides together and tucked the ribbons inside, leaving about 2 inches sticking out of the top.I sewed all sides with a 1/4 inch seam  leaving a 3 inch opening on one side to turn the cushion right side out. (I also clipped the corners.)

Next I turned the cushions both right side out, ready to fill them with cotton stuffing.  The ribbons hang nicely out of the top of the cushion. 

The Pirate Tooth-

Using a piece of paper, I drew a simple pirate hat to fit the corner of the tooth, and a simple eye patch.

Once I thought I had the right size, I used the paper templates to cut the actual eye patch out of black felt and the hat out of red felt.

I made some simple boots the same way, white gluing each onto the tooth.  Next I added a "googley eye, a red felt smile and drew the nose. I thought his boots could use a bit of sparkle so I added the blue "jewels".  You can make it as fancy as you like. 

 I decided I wouldn't need a double sided tooth if I glued the pirate right to the cushion itself. 

I pinned, then white glued the pirate to the unstuffed blue cushion, leaving a pocket unglued at the top to insert the tooth, so some coins or a bill would fit in, but not sink down too far.)

Folded cardboard to get the pocket size right before gluing

After letting the pirate tooth dry overnight,  I stuffed the cushion, then I stitched the opening closed.

Voila! Ready for many adventures at sea!

Ballerina Tooth- double sided tooth / 2 white teeth glued together 

Ballerina Tooth- 

I had actually made the ballerina tooth first.This Ballerina tooth is double sided / 2 white teeth glued together with a  small pocket opening at the top for the tooth (and to allow the fairy to leave her contributions.)  I decided afterwards that it would work well without the double tooth and I made my second one,  the pirate differently.

I cut some red felt lips and black felt eyelashes for the ballerina with I stuck on with white glue. Then I glued on her "googly eyes" and found a piece of pink tulle for her tutu. (This pink tulle has a story behind it which I'll add at the bottom of this post. :) *

 I folded the long edge of the tulle over to create a waistband for the skirt, and with a few dabs of glue, I got the folds to stick. I let it dry for few hours, then glued the skirt onto the ballerina. 

Next I added a few craft "jewels", then I put dots of white glue on her and sprinkled gold glitter to make her sparkle.

She is ready to dance the night away! 

*We were on vacation in Hawaii a few weeks before I started these tooth fairy cushions and I had tulle in the back of my mind. One day, towards the end of our tropical travels, we found ourselves at a thrift store. I spotted a small wicked basket which someone else had decorated with pink tulle. "Exactly what I need," I though to myself. 

The basket was too big to pack in our suitcase, but I bought it anyway, and asked the cashier for scissors. I took the tulle off the basket to bring home and I re-donated the basket to the thrift shop. It makes me wonder who the person was who had originally decorated that basket. I'll bet they had no idea that their tulle was going to end up in Canada on a little girl's cushion.

Happy crafting!