Wabi Sabi Barn Star 🌟

Ask any Japanese what the phrase "wabi sabi" means and they will say, "That is very difficult!" Wabi sabi is a Japanese concept regarding traditional art. It's especially about appreciating things that are old and broken, but restored.

Finding beauty in the broken. The center square in this quilt is upcycled old indigo fabric from Japan. Maybe it was originally a pair of monpei, Japanese work pants. If you look closely, you can see where it was cleverly patched by a previous owner. This is wabi sabi:

Jack's Basket 👶

Jack's Basket, where babies with Down syndrome are celebrated, has welcomed 118 babies in 2019 into this world! That makes over 1,300 baskets given out since Carissa Caroll, founder and mother of Jack, who has Down syndrome, gave out the first basket on Jack's first birthday. Read to the end to see how you can help out.

We had the honor of delivering 31 baby quilts to Jack's Basket in February, "we" being my sister, niece, nephew, and I, pictured here along with a mother/daughter duo that work/volunteer at Jack's Basket. BTW, they are the aunt and grandmother of a young girl with Down syndrome.
These are nine quilts I had ready to bring in:

⾊ Color Makes Me Happy! 🌈

Our local quilt guild, Dakota County Star Quilters, has an annual quilt show, and unlike most shows, our show stays up for a month. Here's a view from the balcony on set-up day, last Saturday:

A Quilt On Noah's Ark 🚢

January was a roller coaster ride for our family, and it started out on New Year's Day at the Ark Encounter, a life-size Noah's Ark!

This awesome quilt was a birthday gift from my small group quilt friends and combines some of my favorite things: Tula Pink fabrics, Grunge Dots and plus blocks--they know me well! Here is the quilt on Noah's Ark:

Sayonara 2018! 🐶 Yōkoso 2019! 🐗

Welcome 2019! Here's a Grace and Peace Quilting review of 2018 and what's to come in 2019, the year of the wild boar in Japan. First, 2018:

Catching Up With December

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. Here are some projects I've been working on this month--photo-heavy post!

December Minikins Challenge ✅

This month I finished making the last of 12 Minikins. Sara at Sew Sweetness created these mini bag patterns as a bundle, and featured one pattern challenge per month in 2018. These are the Minikins I made this year:

The Minikins challenge for December is the Binary Pouch. Here's mine:  

Charity Quilts 48, 49, 50, 51, 52 & 53 💝

I've been making 52 quilts in 2018 for Jack's Basket, where babies with Down syndrome are celebrated. 🎉 Here's a sweet baby sleeping on one of my quilts, surrounded by all of his Jack's Basket goodies!

This is the last month of my 52 baby quilts challenge! I ended up with 53 quilts, as that's how many coordinated bundles DD2 and I had arranged--just can't stop the fun!!!

Here are all 53 quilts:

🎄 Christmas Sewing ✄

A layer cake of Holiday Homies by Tula Pink is what inspired me to sew this quilt for Christmas. I love how it turned out!

A big part of the fun of this quilt, besides the fun animals in sweaters, is the "Sherpa" backing--so soft and snuggly! I quilted it with large freehand ribbon candy:

🎉 Party Quilt 🎉

This quilt was named by my blogger friend, Wendy, when she commented on Instagram, that quilt "looks like a party!"

The pattern, Pixelated, came out in Issue 51 of Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine. It's also available now in the designer's store, Down Grapevine Lane.

This is a fun quilt to make from 2 1/2" strips! I made mine from a Tula Pink "True Colors" jelly roll. I took out several of the strips that didn't play nice, added other Tula Pink strips, and I inserted 4 more rows in random places to the pattern. That took a bit of graph papering!

I did matchstick quilting on this 60" X 85" quilt. I was totally inspired by @SheCanQuilt on Instagram, and the throw size quilt she was matchsticking.