Cozy Flannel Self Binding Receiving Blankets for Charity

“Charity is not an act but a way of life, a condition of the heart.”
Robert Millet

Hey there from Nannyland,

I recently hit a little bump in the road on my breast cancer journey and will be starting a more aggressive treatment plan in the next few weeks. I have faith that all will be well in the end, but in the meantime I will be spending more time at home, which translates to many blissful hours in the perfect place for distraction and healing... right here in Nannyland.  I am so blessed to have a peaceful retreat with so many wonderful cheery projects just waiting for me to dive in. 

Nothing can lift my spirits more than sewing projects for charity, especially those for children.  I still haven't settled on the perfect home for my baby quilts and receiving blankets, but I have found very appreciative recipients in women's shelters in the past.  I plan to make many of these fun blankets and I am researching several different organizations and hospitals to make sure I find good homes for them.     

I found tons of beautiful good quality quilting flannel in my stash to start my projects, along with this extremely helpful video tutorial on sewing self binding receiving blankets.  I made several appliqued ones like this one and this one to sell in my Etsy shop years ago, but I really learned some new things in this video that helps them to turn out perfect every time. 

I love using the best quilting flannel I can find for these because it is so soft and sturdy, and they will obviously be washed over and over again.  The cheaper fabric just doesn't hold up the same after washing. 

                                                                                        

The fabrics in my stash are pretty old but some of  the most adorable kids flannel still comes from Robert Kaufman, as seen in most of the fabrics above.  The darling owl fabric is from Riley Blake. I'm always thrilled when I find cute flannel at my quilt shop because it inspires me to get going and create more kid quilts for charity. I can never make too many!!!

These quilts are just the right size and weight to roll up and tie with a bow for a favorite charity or a fun shower for a precious little one. Fast, easy, fun, adorable, useful and they need no quilting.  What's not to love?

Thanks for visiting Nannyland.

I'll just be here blissfully creating until your next visit.

Nancy (aka Pink Panoply)

Eleanor Burns Patty Cake Pattern Quilt - Bonnie and Camille Sunday Stroll Layer Cake.

All the things of the universe are perfect miracles,
each as profound as any. 
Walt Whitman

Hey there from Nannyland,

My rainbow of scrappy quilts is piling up in my guest room and creating a vibrant mish-mash of quilty delight.  I like creating joyful vibes for my guests and the ones who left this morning seemed to sleep well in their cozy cocoon.   So now my focus is turning to the creation of this same sunshiny atmosphere in my master bedroom, but maybe with a little more modern flair.  My favorite colors (red and aqua) can be seen in every room in my house, with some added navies and grays in my master bedroom. Hmmm. What designers have all the colors I love with the addition of beautiful navies?   Bonnie and Camille, of course!  Their Sunday Stroll layer cake is popping aplenty with the perfect palette. Say that three times fast.  Such yummy candy for my quilter eyes. 😍

I've been anxiously waiting to use this beautiful layer-cake-friendly pattern by Eleanor Burns called Patty Cake. It was super fun and easy to sew.  My inner border measures two inches, my red border measures one inch and my outer border is four inches.  The outer border and backing are Bonnie and Camille fabric from the same collection.

As usual, I chose to bind it with striped fabric. This crisp navy one coordinates well with the navy in my blocks and the accessories in my room.  

The pattern came together quickly and I love the result. Scrappy and bright...my mantra.

My quilter did a fabulous job with the longarm quilting.  I'm getting braver with the more dense pantographs and I think this turned out lovely. The finished quilt measures about 50 x 72. 

This quilt lives happily on my blue chair for now, waiting for me to cuddle up with it while watching tv or reading in the seclusion of my peaceful bedroom.  

My next project for this room will be a wall hanging above my bed in the same navy/aqua/red palette as my quilt.  I think I'll try some solid grunge fabric to make it a little more contemporary. Now I just need to decide on a pattern. Yep, I think things are shaping up nicely. 😀

Thanks for visiting Nannyland.

I'll just be here blissfully creating until your next visit. 

Nancy (aka Pink Panoply)

Christmas Gift Basket - Accuquilt Go Bowl Cozy

It's not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving.   Mother Teresa

Hey there from Nannyland,

My Christmas gift baskets are all wrapped and ready to deliver and I'm breathing a huge sigh of relief.  I made eight of them for close friends and family and I'm all revved up to deliver them as soon as possible so I can put my feet up and enjoy the delights of the holiday.

This year I was excited to use my Accuquilt Go Big Bowl Cozy Die. I used THIS tutorial from Accuqult to sew my cozies and I found them fairly easy to make, with several opportunities to chain piece. I cut bright layer cake fabric and scraps to create coordinated top and bottom layers. All materials, including thread, must be 100% cotton to make them safe for the microwave so I used special batting by Pellon called Wrap and Zap. 

I love the way they turned out with all the bright colors.  I put sets of 2 and 4 together, depending on the number of people in my recipient families. I added THIS cute tag with care instructions.  

It was so much fun filling up a Dollar Tree plastic mixing bowl with soup related items. I put a microwave safe bowl on top of my cozies to hold a bag of bean soup mix, some small packages of crackers, a ladle and some cute snowman napkins.  A plastic basket bag and a large checked bow were all I needed to make a festive presentation.  

It's always a delight to put together unique and personal handmade gifts for Christmas. They give me plenty of time to reflect on how grateful I am to be surrounded by loving friends and family this time of year.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year full of crafting joy.

Thanks for visiting Nannyland.

I'll just be here blissfully creating until your next visit. 

Nancy (aka Pink Panoply)

Crazy Quilt in Not-So-Crazy Colors - Accuquilt Go BOB

 Strength doesn't come from what you can do.  
It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn't.

Hey there from Nannyland,

I'm still doing a little more quilting than card making these days because sewing seems to require less brain power and I gets me to my happy place quicker, without much artistic effort. And the repetitive motion is so calming. Quilts definitely use the creative side of my brain but I've been working with Accuquilt Block-on-Board dies so I can efficiently cut my fabric on my Accuquilt Go Big without all the measuring and math. Following the easy assembly directions is fun and there is plenty of opportunity for chain piecing in this block.  It's always so satisfying to put together a fabulous quilt that looks complicated and time consuming, but was done in a flash. 

I've always pictured crazy quilts in bright colors like this one I made a couple of years ago, but I decided to take a chance with a minimal color palette when I saw a similar quilt on Pinterest.  I knew I had tons of yellow, black and white prints in my stash that I had bought on sale several years ago and I was happy to bust them out for this quilt. 

Since yellow has long been one of my favorite colors and I like high contrast, I was delighted with the way this came together.  It has a crisp, modern feel, unlike many of the quilts I make with the bright floral thirties reproduction fabrics I love so much. 

I have a friend who I know would love this, but it has yellow in it...so it might have to live with me for a little while longer...or forever.  

Thanks for visiting Nannyland.

I'll just be here blissfully creating until your next visit. 

Nancy (aka Pink Panoply)

Fruity Quilt - Benartex Jelly Roll

There's a great satisfaction in seeing a thing take shape and form under one's hands, 
especially if they are made from oddments into something worth while.

Hey there from Nannyland,

Deciding what to do with my colossal jelly roll stash has always been a quilty conundrum for me   I know there are tons of fabulous patterns, but my dilemma is deciding which one to choose. My new Electric Quilt 8 has been a welcome solution to this quandary. I'm just learning to use it, but it's fairly user friendly and I'm having such fun playing and coming up with all sorts of quilt designs and ideas.  This quilt was easy to lay out and sew up in a jiffy with this cute Benartex fruit themed fabric.

 

I think it auditions well on my  queen-sized guest room bed but I'm saving it for a gift for a friend who likes to cuddle up and watch TV in the evening.

Striped binding is my go-to favorite because I love the crisp look stripes give to almost every pattern and theme. 

My husband is a sweetie and is always willing to help me photograph my quilts, even though it can be grueling on his arms.  This is what happened when I asked him to show me the back.  Gotta love em.

Thanks for visiting Nannyland.

I'll just be here blissfully creating until your next visit.  

Nancy (aka Pink Panoply)

Pandemic Crazy - Accuquilt Go Stash Buster Quilt

The bad news is time flies.  The good news is you're the pilot. 

Michael Altshuler

Hey there,

One of the best things about being a crafter is having tons of projects calling to me from my craft room for some long overdue attention. I've been feeling a lot of emotions during the quarantine, but none of them is boredom.  Time is what I have right now, so I'm determined to use it while it lasts to happily finish accumulated projects.  Quilting is at the top of my list.  And what better quilt to express my creative emotions during this wonky time than a "crazy" one.  I used the very large Accuquilt Go Crazy Quilt die to cut my blocks and, in the process, my Accuquilt Go Big electronic machine took its last breath.  I knew it had been feeling poorly lately, so I was excited to get a shiny new one. This time I proceeded with caution, as the large dies can be tricky. It took a little concentration to piece the blocks, but I was very pleased at how they turned out in the end.  I used white shashing and colorful corner stones to calm down the colorful craziness.

I have a fabulous long arm quilter who doesn't have a fancy computerized machine so she is very adept at hand guiding the machine to make fabulous designs. Since we needed to social distance while discussing my design choice, I told her I trusted her to choose the pattern she thought would look good.  She chose a beautiful template with flowers that match the whimsical ones in my fabric and quilted them using a warm orange/gold thread.  The results are beautiful!  (Marilla, my beloved sugar skull friend, says "hey.")

Each block measures 10 inches, so with the  2 inch sashing and binding the finished quilt measures    50 x 62, a good lap quilt size. I'm amazed at how a bunch of random fabrics can come together so scrappalisciously. 

I used my left over fabric to piece the back.  I've just started doing this and I think I'll stay with it.  It's a good use of my scraps and I like the back of my quilts to be as happy as the front.  Now if I could just get the labeling thing down.

So what have I been doing with my smaller scraps?  What most of my crafty friends have been doing, of course, making masks.  The ones on the left are made "in the hoop"  with my embroidery machine and the ones on the right are made with a fancy pattern I found on YouTube.  The fancy ones fit way better and are more comfortable, but both types work just fine.  I've made several for friends and family.  It's so nice to be able to use some crafty skills to join in the effort to combat Covid-19.

Hopefully, when we all get out of Pandemic prison, I will have a much smaller to-do list, and can support my neighborhood quilt shops in the way they have become accustomed.  Until then, I'm so blessed to have unlimited time and a boat load of supplies in my craft room to keep me busy for the duration.  

Thanks for visiting.

Go forth and use this temporary gift of time skillfully.

Nancy

Machine Appliqued Lion Bib and Giraffe Self Binding Receiving Blanket

My friend was blessed to receive a very special late Christmas gift this year.  Just two days after Christmas, her daughter gave birth to an adorable baby boy, who joins three very jubilant siblings. I always keep a few of my machine appliqued baby bibs and blankets on hand for these joyful events because they happen so often!  If riding in a one-horse open sleigh is fun, then making these bibs and blankets must be a close second.  There is a huge variety of darling digital embroidery patterns on the internet so personalizing is a snap. Immediate downloading is also a perk.  Etsy is my favorite place to shop for baby embroidery files because the many and varied sellers offer the cutest original digital files and so far they have all stitched up beautifully. The cute little lion on this handmade patchwork bib was very simple and fun to stitch. You can check out some others I have created and the directions for them  here and here.

I always add an absorbent terry cloth backing and easy to use snaps on my handmade bibs.

Also waiting in my stash for this sweet little guy to cuddle in was this colorful giraffe receiving blanket  

Here are some good instructions on how to create this flannel self binding blanket.

And, of course, a matching card.  

Can't wait to bundle my handmade love in a bright package and go visit this little cutey and his  happy, relieved mom.  

Happy New Year, Everyone.

Thanks for visiting.

Go forth and create something fabulous.

Nancy

For Rosie - Machine Embroidered Ballerina Quilt

   👉   I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us.   Charles Dickens  

Embroidery Library Ballerinas,  Accuquilt Go Big fabric cutter and dies, Riley Blake Fabric, Isacord  Thread, Embrilliance Embroidery Software

When one of my dear friends excitedly announced she was finally going to get her first girl grandchild, I joined in  her elation.  All of her grandchildren so far are boys, and this little sweetie has been greatly anticipated.  Then, when she announced the baby's name was going to be "Rosie," my head swam with delightful ideas on a gift I could make for her.   

I knew I had these adorable Ballerina embroidery files from Embroidery Library just waiting to dance on a darling little girl's quilt.  Their flower tutu's are perfect for a beautiful garden in which Rosie takes center stage in the middle block.  My Embrilliance Embroidery Software allowed me to resize my ballerinas to fit my six-inch blocks and curve Rosie's name around the rose tutu in the center block .My Accuquilt Go Big fabic cutter is always my favorite way  to cut perfectly accurate blocks and sashing.  Beautiful floral Riley Blake fabrics created a lovely palette for my quilty flower bed. I didn't photograph the backing before I sent the quilt, but the fabric matches one of the floral prints on the front.  I stitched in the ditch to quilt and handmade some of my favorite striped binding.  Now all this quilt needs is a little sweet  baby slobber to make it perfect!

I love making baby quilts so much because the recipients are definitely my favorite people!  

Thanks for visiting.

Go forth and create something fabulous.

Nancy

Scrappy Churn Dash Quilt - Lori Holt Fabrics and Accuquilt Go

👉  My soul is fed with needle and thread.

Hi everyone,

They say life is just of bowl of cherries...and that's especially true with  these sweet Lori Holt Sew Cherry fabrics that I stitched up into a happy, scrappy, traditional quilt.  Riley Blake fabrics are always my first pick for bright, colorful vintage style quilts.  The colors make me so happy and the prints remind me of my grandma's house dresses.  (Remember those?)

I call myself a "quilter wannabe" because I still have so much to learn about the finer techniques of quilting. I am self taught, and happily I find piecing fabrics  pretty forgiving if the block isn't too complicated   And I'd be hard pressed to find a friend or family member who doesn't love cuddling under a  warm, comfy handmade quilt, even if some of the stitches are a little random.

I made plenty of mistakes on this quilt and at first I was a little bit sad that I used my favorite fabrics with such an imperfect result. But then I realized that I have learned so much about what not to do and what I really should always do,  that I think this quilt will forever be one of my favorites.

Here are some of the things I learned:

1. The final machine quilting process is HARD with a larger size quilt.  I see why people quilt with their credit cards.  More time for the actual fun part. Maybe next time.
2. The fun part is piecing!  
3. The Binding Tool is easy once you get the hang of it.  
4. Lots of white in a quilt makes the colors pop.
5. Scrappy is my fave.
6. Striped binding is my other fave.
7. The Accuquilt Go Churn Dash BOB die makes cutting so much faster and piecing infinitely easier. (Scroll down and check out the video on this link.) 
8. Learning by doing is the best way to learn.  Just wade in and get wet. 

Can't wait to use what I've learned on my next quilt...and make some more useful mistakes.

Thanks for visiting.

Go forth and create something fabulous.

Nancy

Pieced Valentine Hearts Wall Hanging - Accuquilt Go Wonky Hearts

👉 "What the heart gives away is never gone ... It is kept in the hearts of others."

- Robin St. John

I had the most fun cutting this fun Wonky Heart pattern on my Accuquilt Go Electric Fabric Cutter.  The pieces are truly wonky and I had to hold my tongue in the right place to make sure everything came out perfectly but I love the results. This YouTube video  has excellent instructions.

I used a Valentine fabric layer cake to get this cute random pieced look. In this case, it was well worth a little extra expense to get to choose from so many darling fabrics.  I tried to pair lights with darks as much as possible, but I wasn't obsessive about it.  I really like the look of the sashing with corner stones and it sure helps keep all the blocks lined up.

I tied everything up with crisp striped binding, my absolute favorite choice for my quilts these days.  I got lots of good practice piecing these hearts and now I'm ready to make some baby and lap quilts for family and friends using some bright sunny fabrics.  Who wouldn't adore cuddling up in a fabulous quilt full of  so much love!

Thanks for visiting.
Go forth and create something beautiful.
Nancy





 

Patchwork Christmas Bibs - Machine Embroidered Applique

👉 Do something creative every day.

Hey there,

It's holiday gift-giving time and I just happen to have some of these fun festive bibs in my stash for the littles on my list. 

Check out these Easter bibs from my earlier post to see how I made them.   The holiday embroidery patterns all come from Etsy shops.

Having a fun and simple sewing project during the holidays is a delightful respite from all the hurried commotion going on this time of year.  Add a little Hallmark movie binge watching and a cup of hot chocolate and your holiday joy might just make it all the way through  New Years Eve.

Thanks for visiting.

Go forth and create something fabulous

Nancy.

Rockin' a Jelly Roll Quilt - Benartex Sunny Days Fabric

Hi everyone, 

Jelly rolls are so yummy and satisfying...both the edible and the fabric kind!  I made this fast and easy baby quilt, measuring 36" x 36", with a gorgeous Benartex  Jelly Roll.   

The roll contained 42 2 1/2" strips of  the Benartex "Sunny Days" collection. I downloaded a free easy-to-follow pattern after I watched  this Fat Quarter Shop YouTube  video.

I love the bright sunny patterns and colors in this collection.  But most of all, I love having so many different fabrics to sew into one happy scrappy quilt.  

Thanks for visiting.

Go forth and create something fabulous.

Nancy