Patty Murphy

Little Girls, Big Style

My friend Mary wrote a book. It’s called Little Girls, Big Style. The book was just published by Stash books and I can’t wait to get my copy! I’ll get mine Saturday at her book signing at my favorite local quilt shop. If you are in the Atlanta area you can get a signed copy, too. Mary will be there from 11-2. There will be food and drink, samples, demos and general merriment.

She’s also doing a blog tour. Mary worked really hard on her book and I know it’s going to be a huge hit!

I love that I can call this incredibly talented woman my friend. You’ll love her, too!

Tree

I gave birth to Q Man 6 weeks before my friend gave birth to her daughter, Miss A. Of course, I made a quilt for Miss A. Well, technically I’m still making it. I gave it to my friend at her shower. In February. I took the unfinished top back from my friend the other day (Indian giver!) so I could attempt to get it finished before her daughter goes to college. Seriously. It’s taking forever but time is an extremely limited commodity right now.

Little Mister quickly grabbed the quilt from the bag. He ran around with it like he was wearing a cape. It was pretty darn cute.

Then he got bored

And I snapped a few detail shots while the gettin’ was good!

Not the greatest photo, but you get the idea – wrinkled corners and all.

Since I have been trying to talk about the process here’s where it all started. My friend has some wallie art in her daughter’s room. It was the inspiration for the baby quilt. Here it is*:

So the wall art was the starting point. Once I decided to make a tree I needed it on a background. I didn’t want to put the tree on a solid piece of fabric. I wanted more depth. I have a friend that (I think) makes some really cool quilts. I love how she pieces her backgrounds and they were the inspiration for the background of Miss A’s quilt. I drew the tree (several iterations, really) and all the other parts** on newsprint before copying and pasting them onto the background.

Yellow seemed like the obvious choice to me. Miss A’s room is brightly colored and I wanted the reds, pinks, greens and blues to show up against the background. No pink overload. I used Steam a Seam Lite to fuse everything. I just love how you can get all your parts to stick to the background and move them a little, too, before deciding on the final placement and ironing them down. I’m pretty pleased with how the quilt looks so far. Just need to add a few things – like the bottom border!

* yes, I took the photo from the website. Going into baby A’s room to snap a photo of a tree decal while juggling four or five schedules is a feat nearly impossible

** thank you Pottery Barn for having such great and easy modern forms in your repertoire that I could use for inspiration for the butterfly and owl. The wren, well, that was all me.

Copycat

I like to make gifts. It’s fun, WAY more personal and often much less expensive. Okay, well sort of. If you factor in time it’s more expensive, but hey! a one of a kind gift is priceless.

I always peruse catalogs, brochures, etc. to find inspiration. I tear out anything that catches my eye and put it into my inspiration book. The book is full of clothing ideas, quilt ideas, helpful hints, photos I like – you name it. When I need a gift idea or “inspiration” (yeah, really creative name for the book, huh?) I flip through my book(s) to find it. Sometimes I just need some eye candy and I find staring at George Clooney, Patrick Dempsey and the other McHotties brings a smile to my face. I digress.

There is one particular kids clothing line that I just love and I recently hosted a trunk show at my house. The clothes are absolutely adorable and make perfect gifts. Many of the items they offer are easy for me to copy – can you say hello adorable appliqued shirt? Yeah, that’s a good thing since along with all the cuteness comes the hefty price tag.

Little mister has several girlfriends with upcoming birthdays. Sooo, I had to make this girls scarf. I loaded up the kids this morning and we went to my favorite quilt shop. I let little mister pick out the fabrics. He did pretty well. Patty Young’s knits – bright, fun colors. I was sort of surprised, and pleased, with what he chose.

Here’s what I managed to make during nap time today. It took about 30 minutes to cut out all the parts and assemble. Cute, easy, quick – fabulous!

detail of the ruffled edge

Baby Quilt

It must be rough to be the second child. Little Mister’s baby quilt was completely finished for his big arrival. Q man’s quilt has been pieced. The back has been pieced. And I’ve not gotten any further.

It’s not that I don’t want it finished. I do. But even finding time just to baste the darn thing has been next to impossible.

I know that I’ll have a few hours to myself a few days a week starting tomorrow. And I’m so glad.

Really. Really. Glad.

One of my first goals is to get Q man’s quilt basted. My second goal is to get some shirts made for Little Mister. My third goal is – oh, who am I kidding? I should get through one and two first, right?

Here’s a sneak peak.

Burp

A friend of mine gave me some adorable burp cloths when I had Q man in March. I absolutely LOVE them and use them all the time! She bought them at a boutique shop just north of town. I quickly realized that burp cloths like these would make perfect gifts. They are super easy to make and I have a lot of friends having babies right now.

To make them buy a pack of white burp cloths (or colored or patterned if you want). Embroider child’s name about 4″ above the bottom of the burp cloth. I kept the name centered on the thickest part of the burp cloth – actually, my Mom did since her machine does embroidery. Thanks, Mom!

Next, make a pocket and insert the bottom of the burp cloth in it. I chose to have a 3″ high fabric border, leaving a few inches between the bottom of the name and the top of the fabric border.

Stitch down close to the top. I used a 1/8″ seam.

I like to give these as a set of two. It makes a nice presentation and it’s something you always need when there is a baby in the house.

Folded and bundled with a ribbon makes the perfect presentation!

Beautiful words

Last fall a lovely woman asked me to make a quilt for her daughter for Christmas. Her daughter had recently gone off to college and she wanted to make her high school t shirts into a quilt. I was happy to make it for her, and I love making t shirt quilts. She picked up the quilt a few days before Christmas. She promised me she’d email and let me know what her daughter thought and send a photo. As promised she sent such a kind email I thought I’d share it.

Here it is:

Happy New Year, Patty! I bet you thought I forgot to send this! I have
been trying since Christmas to get the quilt, my camera, and L with
her hair combed all in one place to take this picture!
Patty, she absolutely LOVES it – she was blown away when she opened it and
realized what it was – then the more she looked, the more amazed she was at
the work you put into the quilt. Every time we look at it we talk about how
intricately the pieces fit together and the color combinations, and each
time we find some new piece we hadn’t noticed before.

Your work is fabulous, amazing, incredible – more than I ever imagined! You
should be so proud to put these works out into the world – please know that
this one is loved and will be loved for many, many years. I am driving
L back to Illinois this weekend and the quilt will be going with her –
all her friends agree it is the best gift ever!

I hope you don’t mind if I give your name out – know you’ll be busy with the
new baby in March, but please keep me in your email list if you ever have
any shows or contests – I will be there rooting for you!

Good luck, and many, many thanks – D

25 hours in a Day

I need more time in my days. I’m pretty darn efficient, and focus on the task at hand, but I always have more I wish I could have accomplished by the end of the day. I am grateful that little mister still naps for two to three hours a day and goes to school two days a week. That’s handy and allows me an opportunity to do my chores buutttt…..

I’ve been wanting to post some new photos up here for, oh, I don’t know, eight months? Seriously. It hasn’t been a priority. So now I’m home, and I’m sick and little mister is with his grandmother. Seems like a fine time to work. Maybe.

I need to add photos of my newer quilts, but found some of these while going through all my files.

I made this quilt for little mister when he was born. It sits on the end of his bed. He doesn’t use it a lot, which makes me sad, but maybe one day.

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This was the 2008 paper pieced block of the month at Intown Quilters. Original design.

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My friend emailed frantically one day. She was a month or two away from having her son and the person that was going to make her a baby quilt fell through. Of course, I couldn’t tell her that I wouldn’t help. So she sent me some swatches and the cool giraffe minkee for the back of the quilt and Voila! I bought some cotton prints that coordinated with what she sent me and magically a quilt appeared.

Gherkin

This quilt is the 2009 Block of the Month at Intown Quilters. Original design.

Dresses I made for little mister’s best girl

This quilt is a masterpiece! It’s Jacqueline de Jonge’s pattern Be Colourful. It took several months for me to piece, and I had Regina Carter to the quilting. She did a superb job! I love this quilt and am proud that it was accepted into the East Cobb Quilt Show this fall. It’s a judged and juried show. Wish me luck!

And last but not least, I designed this quilt and it was published on the cover of Better Homes and Garden Quilt Sampler. The shop was a feature shop in spring 2007 – just before little mister was born, though the quilt was made the previous autumn.

Out with the old

A dear friend was saddened that some quilt photos were missing from my blog. They are older quilts that haven’t quite made it onto my blog – that requires time. I’ve been wanting to add them for eons, but just haven’t found (er, made) the time. So today, while the tot is sleeping, the dog isn’t fussing and my head is on (relatively) straight, I decided to get busy.

Here are pics of some of my favorite quilts:

This quilt won a blue ribbon at the Georgia State Fair in 2006. It is named Firecracker because my husband kept referring to it as such. It’s a favorite of mine. The pattern is Judy Neimeyer’s Fourth of July.

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Here is a detail:

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Terrible photo of this quilt. Yes Ma’am Damn! Won three blue ribbons at the 2006 Georgia State Fair: one for best piecing, one for best machine quilting and a blue ribbon because it’s awesome (my words, not those of the judges)!

The quilt was name for my friend. She tells me I was “raised right” because I always say ma’am when responding to her. My friend is in her early sixties, so it seems to me that it’s a polite reply. She is a quilter and got me onto a batik strip pieced kick. I took all my odds and ends of batik strips and stitched them together, cut the pieces into squares, then triangles, then assembled the parts.

Yes Ma’am is one of my favorites! It is an original design.

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Here is a detail:

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Ode to Insanity was appropriately named so because I took 10 1/2″ squares of fabric, cut them into four 5 1/4″ squares then cut each of those squares into quarter square triangles. I then matched the quarter square batik with a quarter square of black fabric to make my half square triangles. I stitched, pressed and trimmed each square individually. I’m certain there was an easier way to make the quilt, but I tend to be a glutton for punishment when quilting, so I enjoyed the project. Ode is an original design.

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Here is a detail:

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and another:

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The quilt, Around the World My Way, was based on the book Circle Play by Reynola Pakuisch. The quilt is an original design. I made it to showcase my collection of Oriental fabrics. The quilt is 90 x 110 and adorns the bottom of my bed.

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A detail:

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and another:

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A Gaggle of Geese is an original design used for a block of the month program at Intown Quilters in 2006. It’s a bright, happy quilt that I am now using to teach my Tri, Tri, Tri-angles class at IQ.

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Here’s a detail of the quilting:

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Bohemian Purse Girl is an original design and the quilt was featured in the February 2007 issue of Quick Quilts magazine. The quilt was made using fat quarters from Anna Maria Horner’s line of fabric, Bohemian Line.

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Shine on little shoes, shine on

My best friend has four year old twins. One of twins is a purse girl. She loves shoes, clothes, purses, you name it. Recently she found some bejeweled Converse shoes that were outrageously priced. Best friend called me to see if I could reproduce the shoes.

Of course I’ll do anything for her and her children, so few Swarowski crystals, ribbon and glue did the trick. I took the shoes to best friend on Sunday. The twins’ birthday party was a blast and little miss chose her outfit based on what would go with the shoes. Is that cute or what?!

The shoes are on top of some receiving blankets I made for my cousin. She’s having a baby girl in January. Cousin asked me what some of my favorite things were when I had a newborn. I had to say that one of my favorite gifts were some receiving blankets a quilter friend made for me. The blankets were larger than those you get at the baby superstore so swaddling was easier because I could wrap the daylights out of little mister. I called it making him a taco.

Cousin is decorating the nursery in bright pink, orange and green so I thought the flannel I chose would work nicely for her. Now if I can just get the darn blankets in the mail!

Busy, busy Bee

I’ve been working fast and furiously on gifts lately. Little mister has four birthday parties in the next few weeks, and Christmas is around the corner. Teacher gifts, play group gifts, family…the list gets long.

My best friend has twin girls. They turn four next month, so I made them each a little purse. Perfect gift for little girls!

Alex loves frogs, so her bag has a cute frog print as the lining.

Taylor is not as cutesy. Her favorite color is baby blue so her bag has a blue flower print. It’s more sophisticated and I think she’ll like it. At least I hope so!

Little mister’s play group now has seven kids in it. Motley crew to say the least. All the mothers are wonderful, and so are the kids. Little mister is one of three boys. I’m making all the kids in play group and the kids on our street pillowcases for Christmas. I’ve been really good and mostly used fabric from my stash. Here’s what I have so far.