Quilt 248. Friendly Faces 3.0

With this quilt, I'm all caught up with completed quilts.

 Here we are again with a third iteration of Friendly Faces. When I made the Bound quilt, I trimmed off large triangles from the roof of each house. They were large enough that I knew I had to find a use for them. I still had some of a favorite background fabric (by Victoria Findlay Wolfe, sadly no longer available--but I used it in three quilts so I figure I got very good use from it). 

After using it with the triangles, I used the remaining scraps to surround more Friendly Faces. When I finally ran out of the background print, I made the rest of the squares using solid white in the center, surrounded by colorful solids.

It was definitely a "use it up" kind of project, which made me super happy. It needed a fun border and I found these colorful dots in my stash (I'm having the best time using what I already have rather than purchasing anything new).

I used this quilting design on Friendly Faces 2, and really liked it, so here it is again.

Another fun find for the backing. 

I'm so happy with this quilt. I gifted this one to my oncologist, Brittany, who has two small children. 

Quilt Name: Friendly Faces 3.0

Quilt Pattern: Original

Made by: Cindy Wiens

Quilted by: Darby Myers

Completed 2023

Size: 46" x 52"

Quilt 247. Bound

 Our very dear friend, Jessie, got married in January 2023 to a really wonderful guy, Timothy. They are both Disney fans. In fact, their ceremony took place at the Disney Grand Californian Hotel. It was a very small ceremony (Mark and I would love to have crashed it, but we did not.) They even had their wedding photos taken inside the park. 

For their wedding quilt, I used a pattern (Quilt Fort) by Laura Loewen, and used a stack of beautiful fabrics I had hoarded for a long time (Modern Solids by Alissa Haight Carlton--I wish they were still available).

I made the entire quilt top at our annual quilting retreat at my friend's cabin near Yosemite. We always drape completed quilt tops over the railing, and I can tell you that it has been years since I have had a finished quilt top to hang on the railing!

Darby used a Mickey/Minnie design. So perfect. And cute!

How cute is this fabric (waiting in my stash for the perfect project)!

I'm particularly pleased with the name of the quilt, Bound, and the symbolism it represents. Jessie and Timothy are now bound together in love. 

Also, as they frequently go to Disneyland, they do something called Disney Bounding. So the quilt name serves a dual purpose. It is also why I used a Disney font. What is Disney Bounding, you ask? You are not allowed to wear a costume into the park if you are over 14 years of age. So fans emulate a character with regular clothing. See how cute they are as Rex and Hamm from Toy Story. 

We took the quilt downtown and photographed it in front of these cool metal sculptures called Acero Picado by Gordon Huether. They have long been on my list.

Jessie and Timothy were scheduled to have lunch with us on their way to the mountains for the weekend, but Timothy had to stay home due to illness. But it was so much fun giving Jessie the quilt in person. (I think she likes it...)

We are so happy for the two of them. 

Quilt Name: Bound

Quilt Pattern: Quilt Fort by Laura Loewen

Made by: Cindy Wiens

Quilted by: Darby Myers

Size: 60" x 65"

Sewing Room Friday, 9/22/23

 Let's see. Where did I leave off? Oh yes. I made four totes from the pattern by my friend Krista @poppyprint. I already showed the one I made for Charlotte's friend, Grace, so here are the other three. One is spoken for, but I'm not sure where the other two will go.

While going through my fabric for these totes, I found something hidden deep on a shelf--some original Cotton+Steel canvas called Ruby Star Shining by Melody Miller, circa 2011. It's such a great print, and has my favorite thing--the typewriter. I used a pattern by @crazymomquilts, the Show and Tell bag. It's a nice large tote bag and will be great for hauling things to quilting retreats. And lately I'm in a mode where my favorite color combo is purple/rust/pink with that touch of lime, so this checked all the boxes.

A friend saw the coasters I made Aaron for his birthday and requested a set of six.

As mentioned in yesterday's post, I made a vinyl zipper pouch for Janice. These are fun to make. And I have quite a bit of printed vinyl and fun stripey zippers so I need to make more of them.

I'm nearly done with Gabe's afghan. I wish I had listened to myself when I told Charlotte to weave in the ends of the rows of her temperature afghan as she goes along, rather than waiting until the entire thing is completed. 

When I get tired of weaving in those ends, I procrastinate by knitting a scarf with the beautiful yarn I bought in Skagway, Alaska. 

My biggest accomplishment of the week is that I finished this quilt top, which I have named Lumos. 

I feel like the last couple of weeks have been quite productive. Hopefully I can keep up the momentum.

Really Random Thursday, 9/21/23

 It's been quiet around here. Two weeks ago was "donuts with grandparents" at school. Gabe was sick that day :(

My favorite time of year...

Starbucks has opened a new location close to our house so a couple of times a week I walk there. One of the employees drew this as part of a contest. It's really beautiful!

Janice and I went to dinner last week. Shortly before I left the house I decided to sew her a vinyl zipper pouch. I ran out of time to complete it, so I took it along and turned it right side out while waiting for our dinner. I need to do a better job with time management.

We had a little mini celebration of a great medical report.

Saturday morning a little before 7 a.m., there was a huge BANG. Mark was already in the kitchen and he saw a bright blue flash. The next thing we heard was the sound of crows screeching loudly. We went outside and across the street, we noticed a crow who was apparently electrocuted on the transformer, shutting down electricity to the neighborhood. Those crows circled and circled, about 30 of them, for the longest time. PGE (our service provider) came shortly after the call, knocked the crow down, and drove off. The whole thing was so weird. 

It is water polo season, and water polo has turned out to be one of my favorite spectator sports. Levi plays goalie on his high school varsity team (photo by Ron Bryan).

See what I mean? Quiet week...

Quilt 246. Italia

 

Most years, we meet our friends, Ingrid and Russel, at the coast in fall. One year, Ingrid showed me this photo she had taken of some tile in Italy. She thought I could maybe use it as quilt inspiration. She was right about that! Robert Kaufman had just come out with a lot of new solid colors and I had a fat quarter bundle. I chose the brightest and began making blocks.

This was a project I took to many, many quilting retreats. When I was bored with whatever other project I had brought along, I would make one or two of these blocks. There were times that I did not think I would ever complete this quilt.

I love the way the blocks form a secondary design--a fun surprise. I decided it needed a black border to tone down the bright colors, and I extended one of the circles into the corner. 

I had been waiting to use this Tula Pink dripping roses print, and the bright colors are just perfect for this quilt.

I found the most perfect stripe in my stash for the binding.

We drove around downtown trying to find a suitable mural. I had seen pictures of this hummingbird, but the fence got in the way. And besides, it was too small. 

We drove around some more, and serendipitously found this one. Absolutely perfect!

Quilt Name: Italia

Quilt Design: Original (based on old Italian tile)

Made by: Cindy Wiens

Quilted by: Darby Myers

Mural Artist: Jorge Guillen

Completed: 2023

Size: 60" x 72"