15th Anniversary Whimzie Quiltz BOM ~ August

To celebrate 15 years in business, I’m making a quilt ~ and setting aside the 15th day of each month to work on the 15th Anniversary Whimzie Quiltz BOM commemorative project.

Another month, another block-of-the-month! August’s design ~ these classic orange scissors ~ was the most detailed and most difficult to date.

15Annniversary_AugBlock

Although I’m happy with how they turned out, overall, things are starting to get a bit hairy with this quilt. As I’ve mentioned, I’m changing up a few things from the original Sewology pattern, like adding my company name and logo. I’m also doing a scrappy gray background instead of the recommended single fabric. Finding gray fabrics that coordinate is so much harder than I expected!

Still, while it would be nice to not have to worry if I’m going to have the right shade of backgrounds or if I’m even going to have enough(!), I really wanted to do this as a scrappy quilt because it’s been something of a signature of mine these past 15 years. Fortunately, the San Diego Quilt Show is later this month and I’m hoping to find some grays that work at one or two of the vendors there. Keep your fingers crossed I’ll have something fitting to share in September!

I really hope you’re enjoying taking the 15th Anniversary Whimzie Quilt journey with me. And remember, there’s still plenty of days each month when I can be working on a super special quilt for you, too! What do you want to celebrate in 2019?

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Class of 2019 Graduation Pillows

Considering the new college semester is about to start (where has the summer gone?), it’s time to post a couple of graduation BIG pillows finished back in May ~

Congratulations Logan!

First up, a custom BIG pillow order for Stacy S. and her son, Logan, who is heading to the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) on a water polo scholarship.

UCSB

When you fill out the custom quilt order form over at Whimzie Quiltz, the last question reads “Anything else you’d like me to know for your custom quilt?” because the more someone is able to tell me about the person receiving the quilt, the better I can personalize their designs. Stacy did a GREAT job describing her son and his many and varied interests, so much so that I was able to design the perfect

  • lizard (his nickname)
  • in sunglasses (wears aviators constantly)
  • sporting a Hawaiian shirt (he’s very laidback)
  • on a water polo ball (his favorite activity)
  • wearing a gaucho hat (like the mascot of the school he’s been accepted to.)

Add in a navy background (school color) and a wave quilted background (for his love of the beach), and well, no one else is showing up to the UCSB dorm with a quilted pillow like this!

Congratulations Maggie!

My niece will be attending SUNY Fredonia this fall and will be taking with her two quilted FSU t-shirt pillows.

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Long time Whimzie Quiltz followers know each of  my nieces and nephews get a set of scrappy BIG pillows as part of their graduation gift (see here and here – I’ve actually had 7 nieces and nephews graduate, but apparently only posted about 2 others. I’m a bad aunt.) I particularly loved creating this set for Maggie because I know her favorite color is yellow (as is mine)!

I’m so happy for my niece, the newest Fred Blue Devil, Logan, the newest UCSB Gaucho, and all the Class of 2019 graduates now making their way off to college – it’s such an exciting time for them. Congratulations! Take the world by storm!

Got a graduate in the Class of 2020?

Custom BIG pillows from Whimzie Quiltz and More are a fantastic graduation gift ~ perfect for dorm living! Not only do they show off school pride, but they can be used them for extra seating when people visit, or to prop up text books while studying or just to scream into during finals 😀

Contact me today to have a custom quilted set made for your favorite graduate!

Don’t Get Caught Holding the (Same Old Wine) Bag This Halloween

I’ve decided to start a new feature in my blog called Looking for a Good Home which will show off some of the quilted items currently for sale in my Etsy shop. These posts are going to be purely sales and marketing, without any custom quilt-y tidbits, so feel free to skip on by if you’re more interested in stories behind the quilts I create. If you do stick around, favorites and purchases are always appreciated ~ use the coupon code GOODHOME in store and save 10%!

Are you just into Halloween for the boos ~ or the booze? If it’s the latter, check out these eerie-sistible quilted wine wrap sets looking for a good home, all available in the Whimzie Quiltz Etsy store now…

Grim Reaper Halloween Wine Bottle Cover & Snack Coasters

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Drink Up Witches Halloween Wine Wrap / Mug Rug Set

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Bone Appetite Halloween Wine Bottle Cover & Snack Coasters

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Just Here for the Boos Halloween Wine Wrap / Mug Rug Set

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It All Began… with a Text From My Brother

When you are a doctor, you get texts describing weird symptoms from family and friends. When you are a plumber, friends and family text you about overflowing toilets. You wouldn’t think this sort of thing would be an issue when you are quilter… yet, every so often, I get a text from my brother, often with a picture, asking, “Hey, do you think you can make something like this?”

Most recently, he asked if I could make a pillow sham celebrating the day and way they met for his and his wife’s anniversary –

Began2copy

Naturally, being the annoying little brother, he wanted just the appropriate embroidery on a simple sewn sham ( everyone thinks sewing and quilting are the same thing. 🙄 ) I said OK, but decided to use such an easy project as an opportunity to teach myself a new technique, the hidden zipper –

Began3copy

Not bad for my first zip-up pillow!

Like most siblings, we do snark on each other, so I’m ( mostly 😀 ) kidding about my brother and his requests being a pain. It’s actually means a lot to me that he appreciates my work enough to ask me to create things just for him and his family and I can’t wait to see what idea he comes up with next!

Hummingbird Blurple vs the Squirrels

My mother-in-law likes to sit out on her three-season porch and watch the birds. Last year, though, she was plagued by squirrels eating her birdseed. So when we saw this cheerful hummingbird fabric during the 2019 San Diego Quilt Run, it seemed like the perfect choice to make pillow shams for the chairs on her porch – she’ll always have birds to look at, no matter what the devious little squirrels get up to!

hummingbirds

Other than the hummingbird centers, I didn’t need to purchase any fabrics for these shams – those classic Whimzie Quiltz scrappy borders all came from my stash. Who knew I owned so many blurple fabrics? I know, I know, blurple’s not technically a color, but there’s definitely no better word for that particular shade of blue /slash/ purple. My MIL’s favorite color is pink, though, so I added that as the accent fabric; it really brings out the pink on the hummingbirds and the flowers.

I actually sent these to her back in April (yeah, I’m behind on posting finished projects…)  so she’s had them for most of the late spring and summer. Since it’s been a couple of months, we probably need to get an update on her squirrel situation – don’t know if she’s found a solution to keep them out of the feeders or if she just doesn’t care anymore now that she can enjoy her quilted birds instead!

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ETA – “Hummingbird Blurple vs the Squirrels” is the weirdest blog title I’ve ever written. It may be the weirdest blog title anyone’s ever written.

Celebrating the Quilt Holidays ~ Sewing Machine Day

Did you know that all year long there are special days set aside on the calendar to commemorate  quilts, quilting, quilters and quilt-related activities? The are known as the Quilt Holidays and here at Whimzie Quiltz we celebrate each one… Let’s party!

threadtheneedleday

Yeah, I have NO idea how one celebrates Thread the Needle Day exactly, so I’m dying to know if there’s something special you are doing to observe today… share your needle-threading commemorative activities in the comments!

A Wicked WINQ

A person cannot quilt 24/7/365. At the very least, I need to stop to eat and – briefly – sleep. And, I’ll admit it, I sometimes get a thrill out of cheating on my quilts with other crafts. I call them WINQ projects, or things to do When I‘m Not Quilting.

While Funko’s motto may be “Everyone is a fan of something,” if you aren’t a Marvel or a Stranger Things fan, your fandom has a large chance of being ignored by the vinyl doll maker (don’t get me started on their dearth of female athletes!) So, in addition to creating a Funko Me, I’ve started making custom Pops to fill in the blanks. 

I LOVE Gregory Maguire’s idea behind telling the “true” story of the Wicked Witch of the West, but I’ll tell you a secret – I’ve tried four times to read Wicked and have never made it past the first page. (My favorite author is Robert B. Parker. If you’ve read any the spare dialogue / minimal descriptions from his Spenser series, you’ll probably understand why I find Maguire’s prose just too dense.)

Like I said, though, I love the idea, so I wanted to try my hand at the very popular Elphaba Funko Pop, too…

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I chose an Elsa Pop as the base. Not the most original idea, as most of the other custom Elphaba versions I’ve seen online are Elsa Pops, too, but why reinvent the wheel?

Her hair, skin and clothing were all painted with watered-down craft paint (an innovation I read about over on I Like Comics Too that has literally changed my life! I can’t believe how much smoother the paint goes on.) I had to cut a large brush down to about 5 bristles to paint around her hands and feet – and to about 3 bristles for the details on her eyebrows and lashes!

This was my first attempt to create Funko accessories with modeling clay. I know the witch hat isn’t perfect; still, for using nothing but my hands (I didn’t want to purchase a lot of expensive tools) I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Since I’ve never read the book, I don’t know if Elphaba actually has a black cat, but I do. And while I thought about purchasing a Funko cat to customize as her familiar, there was modeling clay left over after I made the hat and, well, waste not, want not.

Can’t wait to add this Wicked new Funko to my collection. I’ve got more custom Pops in mind that I hope to get to soon, so keep your eye out here for upcoming When I‘m Not Quilting projects!