L.A. Phant

Last May we traveled to the Los Angeles area to celebrate the marriage of Matt and Erica. You can learn about them and the quilt that we gave them by jumping over to True North.  On Thanksgiving they announced that their family would go from two to three!  YAY!

This weekend Erica was the guest of honor at a baby shower as they await and prepare (can we ever really be fully prepared??) the arrival of their sweet boy!

And every one of us quilters know that of course every baby needs a quilt! EVERY. BABY.

Matt and Erica are decorating using light blue and grey... Baby Chic is what I call it - which is quite popular now.

I pulled out a number of patch pals patterns from Quiltmaker and settled on the elephant because the colors.  Also in the grey family was a rabbit - This would have been really cute to do since their last name is Hopp!  But, alas, I settled for the Peanut Patch Pal...

One of the wonderful features of these patterns is that the main body of the tops are all the same size and the borders are interchangeable.

I softened the colors by choosing pastels for the elephant's stand and chose a different border.  The baby blue border and corners are a soft corduroy that offers a bit of texture and interest to the quilt.

I present to you... Mr. L.A Phant!

Since I was not at the shower, the soon-to-be Grandma shared a picture of Erica with the quilt with me...

Now we just need to wait for the little guy to arrive!  

Join me in wishing this new little family many years of joy and laughter.

Congratulations!

With love,

Melva

Quilter's Laundry Day

Jen Rosin over at A Dream & A Stitch and Janice Holton at Color, Creating & Quilting announced a quilt along and blog hop a few weeks ago.  The pattern was for a 16" mini quilt... and it was super cute!  And the ideas in my head were rolling - so there was no stopping them!

I really wasn't sure that I would have time to participate since I was in the midst of the Hanky Quilt and needed to continue working on the wedding quilt for our daughter... I mean the wedding is just 4 weeks away!  

But I was in need of "a change in scenery" of sorts and decided that one day away from the King-sized wedding quilt was much needed. The top was complete and had been sandwiched.  I felt that I "deserved" and had even "earned" the right to a break...

So I took one!

When I first saw the pattern I immediately thought of using the open sky space as an area for mountains.  

Using inspiration from Amy Ellis over at Amy's Creative Side  and her Majestic Mountains paper pieced pattern that I made last fall I came up with something similar... and what I think is a fair representation of our local mountain range. 






We live in Southern Colorado and every day we are fortunate enough to enjoy the beauty of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.

For the quilt drying on the line in the yard I wanted to make a play on my first published block Pieces of My Heart that was included in Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, volume 8.  

I took two pieces of paper 2" x 3-1/2" and drew lines on each to indicate which direction the fabric was to be sewn on and jumped into my scrap bin in search of 1 inch wide strips.








Placing 2" squares on each piece after having the strips sewn on, I marked a center line and did the sew and flip method and trimmed to create the bottom of the heart.  Using 1" squares I did the same to shape the top of the heart.





I added a border and used a fabric marker to draw in a line at the edge to look like the binding.

It was a fun break form the wedding quilt!
(I am now hand-sewing the binding)

I hope that you will stop by the other blogs and see what everyone has created. 

There are prizes to be won at some of the blogs!

I am offering a chance to win the recent copy of QuiltMaker's 100 Blocks, volume 14 (including my block - To Have And To Hold, #1310). 

Simply follow my blog 

(you can subscribe or follow along at bloglovin') 

and leave a comment about how you would add your personal touch on "Laundry Day"
before 11:59 p.m. March 12

(If you are a no-reply blogger, be sure to leave your email address with your comment.)

Join in on the fun of this hop by visiting the links below.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Melva

Jen Rosin  A Dream and a Stitch
Kate Heads at Smiles From Kate
Jennifer Fulton at Inquiring Quilter
Karen Thurn at Tu-Na Quilts, Travels and Eats
Melva Nolan at Melva Loves Scraps
Vicki at Vicki's Crafts & Quilting
Julie Stocker at Pink Doxies
Anja Clyke at Anja Quilts
Diann at Little Penguin Quilts
Jayne at Twiggy & Opal
Susan Arnold at Quilt Fabrication
Leanne Milsom at Lizzie the Quilter
Sandra Walker at Mmm! Quilts!

March 11 Reveal Day

Janice Holton at Color Creating & Quilting

Sola at Alice Samuels Quilt Co

Jennifer Strauser at Dizzy Quilter

Amy Gerlich at Amy Scrap Spot

Sharon Denney Parcel at Yellow Cat Quilt Designs

Tami at Sew Much for Free Time

Suzy Webster at Adventurous Applique & Quilting

Tish Stemple at Tish's Adventures in Wonderland

Susan Gordon at Sevenoaks Street Quilts

Anne Boundy at Said With Love

Barbara Wootie at The Flashing Scissors
Jan Welander at Making Scraps

Mary Marcotte at Fleur de Lis Quilts

A Little Kindness Goes A Long Way...

This morning I had received a message from a blog reader that had a question about a pattern for the Sleeping Couple quilt that I made a few months ago...

Hi, you had a quilt with a man and woman with feet hanging out of quilt. My 86 yr old sister has made the quilt but can't figure out how to do the faces. We love the quilt and I wish I could help but I am not talented like her. My question is, do you have a pattern or video to help. It would be greatly appreciated.   Thanks, Margaret Vanpelt

I explained that I too had searched for a pattern unsuccessfully and how I went about creating the faces...

What I did was crop the attached photo so that just one of the heads was showing and then enlarged and adjusted it to the size I needed. 

I attached an example of what I did and wished her good luck.

Her response and gratitude in getting an answer...

Thank you so much. you are too kind. she is going to be so happy. I sit here tears flowing because I never expected an answer. you just made a little lady very happy. 

God bless you. 

Thanks again.

It only took me a few minutes to respond to her... I could have easily discarded the message and taken up the attitude of "Well, I had to figure it out on my own, so she can too", but I didn't - it didn't even cross my mind.  It was no big deal to me, but it made a world of difference for these two ladies...

I  am so glad that I helped... I made her day and she made my day!

What a great place this world could be if everyone made even just one simple act of kindness to another.  Has someone made your day?  Have you paid it forward????  

Happy Tuesday!

Melva

See what other quilters are talking about at Quilter Blogs