Beanie Baby Fun

Owl

I was recently invited to appraise and lecture at the Willow River Piecemakers quilt guild in New Richmond, Wisconsin. During the break they began to share quilts from a special challenge they were doing.
One of the members had a collection of Beanie Babies that she decided she needed to get rid of. She brought them to the guild meeting and each person drew one and then made a coordinating crib quilt for it.

Here are a few of them.

As you can see, they went to some trouble to match the particular Beanie Baby they drew to appropriate fabric.

( Click to enlarge for better detail)

Monkey

Deer

I'm afraid I don't know their official names

Kitten

Dog

Hippo?

Bear

Bunny

They will all be on display at their quilt show in New Richmond at the Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College this Saturday and Sunday (September 29th and 30th) They will  then be donated to a local hospital children's ward.

I will be there on the 29th doing appraisals. If you are in the area I hope you'll stop by.

Well, you guessed it! I made up my mind to make some of these and immediately began looking for Beanie Babies! - within the next week I found several new Beanie Babies at a garage sale and at a week-end flea market for $.25 and $.50 each!.

Here's my little menagerie:

I think the puppy is an imposter but they accept him!

I have some cowboy prints for the horsey and some African prints for the giraffe. Until I get around to starting they will keep each other company on one of my little quilts.

And here's a link to another of their innovative charity projects; making storybook quilts to go with particular children's books.

Medallion - Drum Roll Please!

At last....the top is done!!

87 x 96

I've labored over this one (as you know if you follow my blog regularly). I felt like giving up for awhile. I just had to let it sit, again and I learned that was for the best. If you don't feel like working on something, give yourself a break. Let it simmer.
I came back to it with a fresh attitude having spent time thinking about all the possibilities...(you know, at 3 a.m.) and lo and behold....one day I was ready to move forward.

The most recent hang up was what to do for the border between the blue strip and the outer points. I tried all kinds of things and ended up using the medium tone prints from the collection in rectangles of various lengths. I didn't want another plain 'slab' border and this seems to be subtle enough while still being scrappy.

This is how much of the mottled tan I have left.  I thought I had enough pieced points made but had neglected to add in that final border (this math...aargh!) so I decided not to put them at the top edge. I could have found something close I'm sure.... but then decided it was a good accident. I did another row of rectangles and think it is a better plan. Those points would not have shown behind the pillows anyway. This quilt is designed for use on a bed...not a wall.





I will be curving the two bottom corners so they won't drag on the floor.

Now - to baste and think about quilting. I may get a long-arm quilter to baste it for me. I've never done that but I think it would be a great time (and back) saver and I would not be dealing with the safety pins as I quilt.



I'm using a wool batt for the first time and am eager to see how I like it; working with it, sleeping under it, washing it. Just in time, too, as the temps are beginning to feel like fall. I lap quilt (no hoop) and I can imagine a quilt on my lap - which was not the case over the past summer!

More history on the medallion setting style at womenfolk

Previous posts about this project:  1   2   3   4

Now What?

:)