Elbisrever* Grinch Pillow (*It’s Reversible!)

In my continuing quest to Grinch-ify my house during the holidays as much as possible (see Grinch-y WINQs and “Slipping” Into Something a Bit More Grinch-y“Slipping” Into Something a Bit More Grinch-y and “Whos” Coming for Dinner? among other blog posts,) I’ve just added this pillow set.

The long pillow is based on text from Dr. Seuss’ book. I went for a reversible cover – for most of December I’ll have the first side showing, but come December 25th, I’ll flip it over for the second.

The Grinch character pillow is from Pottery Barn Kids, but I added new, fuller pom pom trim to the outside. Because one should never settle for store bought holiday decor when Whimzie Quiltz can make it better!

stopchristmas

 

SaveSave

Surprise!

One of the things I like to do here at Whimzie Quiltz is include with every custom quilt a gift-with-purchase – a little somethin’-somethin’ for you, the customer, to go along with your actual quilt. With a bed quilt, it’s often matching pillow shams, but with smaller quilts, it’s maybe something you wouldn’t normally expect.

Here’s the scoop on a couple of recent surprise somethings that Whimzie Quiltz customers have received…

Movie Night Right

blackwhitequiltWilliam M.’s Favorite Things quilt pattern was a mix of all of everything he loves – cats, Boy Scouts, England, music – done in a black and white palette.  That color scheme inspired his gift-with-purchase… a black and white checkerboard!  Knowing his affinity for old movies, too, I chose a vintage-looking film strip fabric for the border.  After all, I figured, what could be better than playing a few games while you wait for the DVD to start?

moviecheckers

Hitting the Right Note

Macpurplequilts

Originally, Katherine M. wanted a quilt that featured her love of music, but it had to be purple, too. The first fabric I purchased just wasn’t purple enough, which resulted in changing the whole design and creating an ombre purple Triple Braid quilt instead. I still wanted her to have something with the music theme, though, so I used the original fabric to create a fun quilted backpack that lets her “carry a tune” 😀 wherever she goes.

musicbackpack

Triple Tail Plaits

When you request a custom quilt through my website, I take the information you provide and use it to craft personalized quilt designs. Depending on what you are looking for in a quilt, there’s usually a couple of ways I can go with those personalized designs – either literally or figuratively.

When Beth M. contacted me about a quilt for her daughter who loved the color purple and was very into horses, I could have sent a design with a purple horse face or purple horse blocks. Very cute, but very literal.

But she wanted something that would grow with her daughter.  So I started looking into some figurative designs. While I don’t know a lot about horses, I have, of course, heard of competitive horse shows. And I’ve seen some amazing images of horses that have braided manes and tails when showing competitively. That’s how this lovely figurative design was born.

Macpurplequilts

Using plaited horse tails as inspiration, I created three ombre braids that span the quilt from top to bottom and added a nice, wide border.  Where the pieced braids meet in the center, I monogrammed young Katherine’s initials using machine appliqué. There’s specialty quilting on the braids and an all over meander in the border, but it’s the gradation of color that makes this quilt just glow.

This ability that quilt designs have to be literal or figurative is one of the aspects of quilting that I love the most. A quilt pattern that actually looks like a horse is just as warm and whimzical as a quilt with three braids symbolizing a plaited horse tail. A custom quilt from Whimzie Quiltz can be anything – it just depends on what you want.

SaveSave

Pink Tardis Quilt ~ It’s About Time… and Space

Order today and your pink Tardis quilt will ship in time for the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas special.

PinkTardisQuilt

I heard this morning, but it wasn’t until I was sitting in a restaurant at lunch that it really hit me.  And I started crying tears of happiness. Which made a more than a few people at Rubio’s wonder what was going on 😀

I didn’t care because I’m so freaking excited for a female Doctor!

I’ve actually seen Jodie Whittaker in Broadchurch. She’s really good.

(I am a little worried about Chris Chibnall as show runner.  Broadchurch is so slow-paced that I’m worried his style won’t translate well to Doctor Who.  On the other hand, he picked a fantastic new Doctor, so he must be doing something right!)

There’s 163 days until the Christmas special when the new Doctor will make her debut.  That’s plenty of time to have a custom pink Tardis quilt – or traditional blue Tardis quilt – made by Whimzie Quiltz.

Contact me at deidre [at] whimziequiltz.com to get yours started today!

There’s a New Hokie in Town

Our nephew graduates high school today! BIG congratulations to him and all 2017 graduates.

He’s been accepted at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, better known as Virginia Tech.  We’re sending him these fun, quilted dorm pillows so he can start college life off right…

vtechpillows

I love making these BIG pillows for recent graduates.  At 24″ x 24″, they are a great size for extra seating in a dorm, for holding a book while studying or for a friendly pillow fight.  And since they use college t-shirts, they always fit in with any dorm decor scheme.

If you know a young adult heading off to college this fall and are looking for the perfect gift, contact me for your custom set today!

SaveSave

Black and White and Warm All Over

One of my favorite things about custom quilts is when someone asks for a quilt of their favorite things.  The more, the better!

So when customer Beth M. told me her son like Boy Scouts, old movies, their beautiful tuxedo cat, English history and music – well, I knew it’d be a challenge, but I also figured we could have some fun with it.

blackwhitequilt

I was initially struck by how many of his favorite things were black and white, so I decided to make make the quilt using only those two colors. Although the overall look is high contrast, I actually chose a variety of tone-on-tone small prints or marbled fabrics in these two shades to give the quilt depth and dimension.

As for the symbolism, this quilt features

  • a Tower of London (with the six crows that legend says must live there or the monarchy will fall,)
  • a piano keyboard representing music,
  • a tuxedo cat, in between two halves of the Union Jack,
  • a strip of film, and
  • a fleur de lis from the Cub Scout logo

I filled in the remaining spots with a traditional PINWHEEL block to make the pattern feel more old fashioned and quilt-like – something Beth had mentioned she really wanted. Two thin borders, one white and one black, pull everything together.

Although the majority of the quilting is stippled, I added in some texture in spots – like the birds and the cat’s white accents – to make those areas pop even more.

Influenced by this quilt, I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about how individuals are rarely defined by just one characteristic. Different likes and loves, hobbies and habits… they all come together in one person.

Like how lots of different blocks come together in one custom quilt!  Whoa! That’s some deep stuff 😀

All kidding aside, it’s made me think about a lifetime of my favorite things, and how they’ve come to make the person that is me. I think that’s a quilt I want to make, too (another for my bucket list!)

What makes you, you?  What would be in your favorite things quilt?