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Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Bonnie Hunter's En Provence Mystery Quilt

Quiltville's Quips & Snips

Many, many moons ago (aka 3 years ago), when I was a wee little quilter of less than a year, I joined my first quilt-along. I loved finding a community of quilters willing to teach me all.the.things about quilting, as well as wow me with their work.

That quiltalong quilt ended up being my fifth quilt, which I gifted to my niece on our last trip to the Netherlands.


I have learned so much in the last 3 years and 65 (!) quilts. I had learned of Bonnie's famous mystery quilt on her website, Quiltville, but never joined before because I've been too busy making my own things.

Now that I've made quilts for all my family members except the mama to the cutie in the photo above, I thought it was time to try quilting along again. Fun fact, we're off to Europe again this summer to see family.

Last month, Bonnie introduced the quilt colors, which are based on Sherwin Williams paint chips. We don't get to see the final design, thus, the mystery. I'm wanting to use up more of my stash, so I'm happy to say that I got almost everything pulled from what I already had.


She posted the first clue a few days. Since I'm doing a smaller version of the quilt, I only need to make 111 four-patches. No worries, right?

My posts for this quilt will be short in the future, just a photo or two of my progress. If you are quilting along with me, please leave your blog or Instagram in the comments so I can cheer you on!

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Monday, November 28, 2016

Quilt #70: Tool Tattoo

Tool Tattoo by de Jong Dream House

When I first started quilting, 3.5 years ago, I set a goal of making a quilt for every branch of my family bush. I say bush, rather than family tree, because my family is a bit complicated. Especially on my dad's side. My dad has been remarried since 1986. With my stepmom, I also gained two bonus brothers and a sister. Dad and Carole gave me another sister in 1987. With this latest quilt, I have now made a quilt for each parent and sibling.

Let's recap.

Some of you may remember that my childhood home burned down in January 2014.  With the help of generous quilters around the world, I made Rail Fence quilts for Dad, Carole, and my brother Jake, who was living there at the time. I chose the rail fence pattern because it was an easy block for anyone who wanted to participate. I chose red, green, and white because the fire happened just after Christmas, and my dad has a slight resemblance to a certain jolly ol' soul.

Santa's Rail Fence
Quilt #22: Santa's Rail Fence
Carole's Rail Fence
Quilt #23: Carole's Rail Fence
Jake's Big Blue Rail Fence
Quilt #23: Jake's Big Blue Rail Fence
I still have to write about Jake's quilt because it took me quite a bit longer to finish his. My last post was a virtual trunk show to display my 2016 finishes. I will have to go back and do posts for 2013, 2014, and 2015, too!

I did post about the quilt I made for my brother Chris and SIL Kelly. My brother grew up in Minnesota, and rightly cheers for the Vikings. My sister grew up in Wisconsin and we'll leave it at that. Here's a peek at quilt #27, Rivalry.


I made quilts for my sisters last year. And no, I haven't yet posted about either of those, either. My 48th quilt was made for my youngest sister, Liz, and her husband, Chris, as a belated wedding gift. There last name is Burd, so I made them a Love Bird quilt.

Love Burd Quilt

Quilt #47 went to my younger sister, Carisa, and her husband Andy, who build and retrofit accessible homes.  Carisa's favorite color is orange, and each home has the initials and a photo of one of our siblings.

Sibling Neighborhood Quilt
All this left one quilt remaining. For the other quilts, I had an image pretty quickly of the kind of quilt I wanted to make. My brother John and his wife, Mary, are closest in age to me, but while I sit at home and sew, they get out and do fun things follow their favorite band, Tool. I didn't want to make anything that seemed too traditional or granny for them. I knew I would have to incorporate the band somehow, but it took me at least 14 sketched out iterations (and more yards of unused fabric than I'm willing to admit!) before I figured out exactly what I wanted to do.

The final inspiration came from two different quilts. The first is from Boo Davis of Quiltsryche. She has some awesome non-traditional quilts on her website, as well as a super cool pattern book that I may or not have ordered for myself as a Christmas gift.

Source
I loved the hand, but wanted to do something a little different with the background. I was stuck on the idea of thunderbolts, which made Jenn of All Trades' Lightening Zig Zags jump out at me when I found it.
It took a couple of tries on my new toy, Electric Quilt 7, to figure out the parts where the blocks were not either a solid red or a full zig zag. Then it was finally time to get going!


I made more than my usually share of dumb mistakes on this quilt, which I am going to attribute to the fact that I sustained a new concussion to my collection a few weeks ago. The most expensive mistake I made is that I forgot that the slashes of my zigzags go one way for 2 sections of the quilt and the other way for the other sections. So I had time to work on my next quilt top while I chased down more fabric, some of which was now out of print. Yikes!

Once I had my fabric and blocks in order, I was able to start working on some of the odd blocks.


This was a quilt that kept me second guessing myself a lot. Up close, I wondered if it would be too loud.


I was so relieved to get to this point. I think I made the whole quilt three times with all the times I changed my mind about how I wanted the zigzags to go, plus all the times I apparently couldn't read my own pattern! I made a few changes from Boo's design, with the thumb, size of the ring and middle fingers, and the wrist.


The reason I changed the wrist is so that it would be big enough for an appliqued band logo.


I modeled the quilting of the hand after the lines on my own hand.


I added "fingerprints" to the tips of the pointer and pinky fingers.


The quilting is a bit hard to see, but I echoed the zig zags for the non-hand sections.


I've started adding the Instagram tag and website on my quilts so recipients can come back here and read about their quilt.


My sister Carisa was here with her family to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. We loved having them here, and we love that she will be able to hand deliver this quilt to John and Mary.

To see more pictures of this quilt in progress, look for #tooltatquilt on Instagram. If you'd like to see what I'm currently working on, follow me at de Jong Dream House.





Tuesday, November 15, 2016

2016 Trunk Show


For the last few months, I have been attempting to blog about each quilt I complete. I've also started adding this website name to my quilt labels so recipients can read a bit more about their quilts. And I'm finally on Instagram, so new friends who follow me there can come learn more about the projects they see me posting there. In other words, I like to remember my quilts. Especially because I've given all but 4 of them away!

Today I saw that Soma, over at Whims and Fancies, had the brilliant idea of hosting an online trunk show so bloggers can virtually display their quilts and other sewn items So here's a look at what I've made this year. I haven't shared some of these before so if they are new to the blog, I'll write a little more. I still have hope that I'll go back and write up the older quilts, but just in case...

Quilt #56: Branch's Carpenter Star


This baby quilt went to my friend Kim's little guy, Branch. While she was pregnant, I knew I wanted to make a quilt using some of the same fabrics as the quilt I made for baby's sister, a maple leaf quilt that was quilt #21 for me back in 2014.


With the scraps from Branch and Piper's quilts, I made a few new goodies for big sister.


The ironic part of this quilt is that when I selected the design, I was looking for something quick because we needed to make an unplanned trip to Kim's town for a funeral. I only had a few days to make the quilt so I picked  a carpenter's star. The irony? Carpenter - wood - Branch. I love it when that happens.


Quilt #57: Grayson's Around the World


My next quilt of the year was also a baby quilt. This one went to my cousin's son, my aunt Lori's first grandchild. The baby's nursery had a world theme, so I chose an Around the World pattern. The prints  are meant to be colors in nature.


This quilt has one of my favorite labels.


Because the quilt would be given to baby and mama at the shower, I made a few extras, too.


As part of this care package, I also learned how to make microwave cozies, and my auntie was kind enough to be my guinea pig!


Quilt #58: Hello Kitty Expanding Spiral


Another quilt I haven't yet shared! I originally found this pattern, Expanding Scrappy Spiral by Sharon of Mystery Bay Quilt Design on Pinterest. Our quilt group was needing quilts for girls so I whipped this up.



This past year, our son has had the sweetest little old lady for his Sunday School teacher. On the Sunday of Holy Week, she was not at church. I not always as observant as I should be about these things, but that day I happened to ask where she was. Her beloved husband had passed away unexpectedly. I knew I had to make her a quilt.

The cross is my take on the talented Judit Hajdu's Carpenter's Star Cross. The tulip tops came from Apple Avenue Quilts and the stems are modified from Pam Kimmorning.


This was my fourth quilt inspired by the Ohio State football helmets. This one went to some good friends who are some of the most diehard Buckeye fans I know!




Finally! A quilt I have posted about previously. Timur's Russian Heart was made for a little boy in Minnesota to comfort him as he recovered from a heart transplant.



I made this quilt for a very special baby. You can all about her and her quilt here.



It has been the year of the baby quilt, I think. I had so much fun making this original design for our son's preschool teacher. (He's now in 2nd grade!). She is a pretty amazing person and we are so happy she added "Mommy" to her resume this year.

Quilt #64: 49 Hearts



Like so many, I was heartbroken to learn of the attack on Orlando's Pulse night club. When I learned that the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild was collecting quilts, I went right to work on my original pattern, 49 Hearts.



What do you know? Another baby quilt! This one went to another mama friend. She mentioned loving these Shabby Chic fabrics. When I found the French Roses quilt pattern, I know it was just right. Read all about it here.

The best part of making this quilt is that Davinder Skyped me so I could watch her open the quilt, as well as the goodies she didn't know were included in her care package. Then she sent me this most adorable photo of Gioia with all her goodies.




This Trinity Celtic Knot quilt was the opposite of all the quick baby quilts I've made this year. I affectionately called this wedding quilt, "the beast" as I was working on it. I wrote about the quilt and my dear friend Ang who received it as she married her Sergio here.

Quilt #67: Ruff Patch


My second charity quilt of the year used a good amount of my scraps. I wrote about it here.

Quilt #68: Orla Take 2


Last year I made a baby quilt for a friend based on her awesome Orla Kiely wallpaper. This year I made another version for her sister.

Quilt #69: It Is Well


As of today, this original design is my last quilt finish of the year.  It was good for my soul to be able to delivery it in person.

It's only mid-November as of this posting, so I'm hoping to have two...maybe three finishes before I ring in 2017.

Updated November 23, 2016:
Quilt # #70: Tool Tattoo


Updated December 7, 2016:
One more!
Quilt #71: Colton's Minion


Updated December 19, 2016:
Whew! I managed to finished one more quilt before giving my machine a break for the holidays. Quilt #72: Falling for Alex.


Updated December 31, 2016:
And finally, I went back and finished a UFO I started in 2013 (this actualy quilt #15!). I call this one the "Not a Tree Skirt Quilt."


Quilting is my first love, but I also sew some other things to make money to buy more fabric. You can check out my Facebook page to see items I have for sale including more microwave cozies and my popular marble maze fidget bracelets.

Thanks for checking out my trunk show! I hope you head over to Whims and Fancies to visit more trunk shows. I'm on my way there now!

Online Quilt Trunk Show | Whims And Fancies

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