Hello, hello!  Today I have a fun new pattern I want to share with you!  It's a sentimental one for me.

It's called Gigi's Quilt and was inspired by one of my grandmother's quits.

This is my grandmother, Delma Baldridge (circa 1960).

She taught me how to quilt; we had a special bond.  She had a Churn Dash quilt that I always admired.  I loved the classic block, the scrappy red and blue color palette, and the Baptist Fan hand quilting.  

Several months ago, I wanted to design a quilt pattern in honor of my grandma.  So I took the Churn Dash block but I flipped it on it's head.  I designed this block with the same construction but different color placement and some 9-Patches added in.  It looks so different don't you think?  (That's the beauty of quilting!  With a few small changes you can completely change a design.)  

I ended up using the above block as a test block and started over with this color palette:

I used blues, purples, dark greens, and browns.  Several of the fabrics are wovens.  

Jen Ostler in Highland, Utah quilted it for me with the Gemma 3 pantograph.

I made the throw-size quilt but the pattern includes instructions for 5 different sizes.

I love the secondary designs this pattern makes.  Stars, Half-Square Triangles, 9-Patches...

everything that makes my quilter's heart happy!

I even made up this red and blue block to try to make one that more closely resembled my grandmother's quilt.  I'm not sure if I'll make a quilt with it?  Or maybe a pillow?  I think it's super cute and the red striped fabric was my grandmother's so I'm loving that!

I can't stop making these Gigi's blocks.  I have another quilt in the works as we speak.

I'd love to hear what you think about this pattern.  What colorway would you make it in?

You can grab the paper pattern HERE or the PDF pattern HERE.

Thank you for stopping by today!  Let me know if you have any questions!

Mary did it. So...so can I!

I think it's time that I can share a little "secret" project that I've been working on.  I'm really excited about it! 

So, remember how I told you that the

2011 International Quilt Market is in Salt Lake City this year?  

[que: freak out] 

Well, that's just a hop, skip and a jump away from my house.

And remember how I told you that I am going to have a booth there?

[O.K.  I'm starting to feel some anxiety up in my throat now.] 

[No, really.  As I figure out how to word this post I'm starting to loose feeling in the upper half portion of my body.  I'm thinking I may not be cut out for this...]

* Focus Amber *

O.K..  So anyways.  There's going to be a really fun "booth hop"

that a bunch of us Utah based designers are hosting.  It's called,

All Dolled Up in Salt Lake City!

Each of us has been asked to design a block based off of a doll template we were given.  All of the blocks will be put into a quilt or two and one or two lucky

"market go-ers" will get a chance to win them!

So...

Wanna see my block?

Here she is: 

Yeah.  That's right.  All hand-appliqued.

[That's why she was a week late.]

Anyways.  It's kind of based off of me [long brown hair and blue eyes],

with some references to my grandmother [Gigi]. 

I had to put a 4-patch on there because that's how my grandmother learned to sew.  When she was a little girl her mother gave her a basket of scraps and taught her how to hand-sew 4-patches.  She "went to town" and made enough blocks to make a small blanket for one of her younger siblings.  She grew up in the 30's, thus, the pinafore.

Two of my great loves are represented ~

Family and sewing.

And, I love the socks.  I use to wear socks like this when I was a little girl.

But I didn't grow up in the 30's.  I grew up in the 80's.

I have to tell you, that I had some help designing this.  I am not an artist, nor a graphic designer.  I am a quilt maker.  I design quilt blocks.  With squares, and triangles, and such.  I am really good at drawing stick people.  But not so much real people.  So.  I had a neighbor friend of mine (who is a great artist) put my ideas on paper.  I told her what I wanted (I even drew out a sketch.  You should see it.  It's hideous!) and she brought me back a presentable (paper) version of what I described.  I felt kind of bad that I needed some help, but trust me when I say you would not want to see my attempt at drawing this up all on my own.   

So the appliqued version is going into the prize quilts and I also get to make one more block to hang in my booth.  I'm going to embroider it since I am a little burned out with applique for now.  As you can see, she's all traced on and ready to go!

I think there will be patterns available of all of the blocks at a later date.  I'll let you know when they're ready.

I'm sure you'll be seeing lots of these blocks around in the next few days/weeks.  I can't wait to see them all.  I know Mary and Lila have both posted about theirs already.  You should check them out!

O.K.  I know.  I do long posts.  I'll go. 

But don't forget to enter my giveaway for my new pattern [Mod Meadow] and a kit.  Click HERE if you haven't entered yet.  Giveaway ends tomorrow night.

Have I shown you this before?

RaeAnn asked me to guest post again over at Stash Manicure.  I'm posting there today about this beautiful, hand-quilted quilt that my grandmother (Gigi) gave to me:

It's really dear to me, so go on over there to read more about it. 

Meet Gigi ~

I thought it might be fun for you guys to meet my Grandma, Delma (affectionately known as Gigi by her grandchildren).

Today my little sidekick and I stopped by my grandparents home to get some pictures of my grandma and some of her quilts. These are just some of my favorites, but I've got lots of pictures to share, so let's get started.

First up - she just had to show me this new purchase that she made a couple of weeks ago:

Isn't this quilt fabulous?!?  She got it for $100 from an antique store while on vacation in California!  It had only been in the booth for two days when she found it.  $100 dollars?!?  That is a steal of a deal if you ask me.  It's in great condition and is hand quilted with a scalloped border.  She's got it on her bed for Spring.  I just fell in love when I saw it.

Then we ventured into her sewing room to see some of her works in progress.

These blocks on the chair above are for her most recently started project.  A replica of an antique quilt.  She definitely likes scrappy quilts, which I know has rubbed off on me too.

I love the scrappy flying geese on this border.  They're tiny (2 inches wide)!  What a great way to use up scraps!

When my grandma was a little girl she learned to hand sew when she was about 8 years old.  This is the machine she used when she started on a machine at the age of 10.

The basket to the right of the machine is full of her yardage stash.

Here's some more of her stash.

Now this is what I really went over there to see.  Her red work quilt.  I love this quilt and I remember seeing this on the hoop in her front room as she has been hand quilting it over the years.

These red work patterns were originally for tea towels, but she decided to use them in a quilt.  She only had 7 patterns [and really wanted 8] so she found another pattern similar to the little girls. 

The one in the top right-hand corner is the one that was not part of the original set of patterns:

 

[This is Gigi!]

 

My grandma referred to this kind of echo quilting as "Hawaiian quilting" because it's all "eye-balled" [if that's a word?].  None of the quilting was marked on there except for one of the little waves that you see in the big four patch blocks in-between the red work blocks.  Amazing!

The embroidery is so beautiful on this quilt.  My grandma learned to embroider as a young girl [you know, when they didn't have t.v.'s and such.  That's how they entertained themselves.  I'm pretty sure my kids are not doing anything that even closely resembles that right now :)]  The embroidery that is on the red sashing is a pattern that my grandma had kept from the 40's or early 50's.  She was so thrilled that it worked so well with this quilt.

I absolutely ♥ that quilt!

Another quilt that absolutely boggles my mind is this one:

 

Does anyone recognize this?.  The pattern was in an American Patchwork and Quilting magazine from a few years ago [I'm sorry I don't know which volume.  Mine are lent out right now, so I can't look it up right now.]

This quilt is crazy!  There are 12,600 3/4" squares in it and it only took her 4 months to make.  Absolutely amazing!!!

One last thing I want to show you is another antique quilt that my grandma keeps on her kitchen table:

Look at the curved piecing and the flowers hand quilted in the circles!

She purchased this quilt for about $300 many years ago.  [Wouldn't you agree that the other one at the top of this post was quite the steal at $100!?!  That one fits their queen or king bed - not sure what size it is, but this one just fits over this table.  Your latest purchase was a great find Grandma!  But I really think they are both beautiful!]  

Well, I do have more pictures from our visit with Gigi, but that will have to do for today.  Thanks everyone for staying around long enough to see why my Grandma is so amazing.  I love having her close by.  It was a treat, Grandma!  Thanks again!

Oh, and thanks to you too Grandpa~

[for the songs and coloring!]