Outlander Quilt

Long before Starz began airing Outlander I had been a fan of the series of books by Diana Gabaldon.  I picked up my original copy at the Glasgow airport in 1993.  So, when Andover Fabrics announced an Outlander Collection, I was overjoyed.

Still have my original copy - falling apart, taped together, yellowing pages.

Andover also had free quilt patterns available for the collection, but I wasn't enamored with any of them, so I began searching for a pattern to use.  I found my pick at Fons & Pons:  Love of Quilting - "Blue Willow" by Janice Averill.  The instructions were included online.  The one major alteration I made to the pattern was that I only did 6 of the 16" blocks, making the quilt shorter than shown.

I used the following Outlander collection fabrics:

• Backing, Inner Border and block 2 border - A-8323-B (Blue Toile)
• Center Tile of Blocks - A-8342-R (Red Flowers)
• Outer Border and large block edges - A-8326-B (Blue Crest)
• Binding - A-8326-R (Red Crest)
• Unit #1 block border - A-8324-B (Blue Textured Plaid) 
• Large block edges - A-8326-G (Green Crest)
• Large block background - A-8323-L (Grey Toile)

I was quite happy with the way it turned out AND this is something for ME!

Quiet Books, Part 4

Triple Play - Girls

One thing that is important to me is that each quiet book is personalized in some way for the recipient.  Each of my books has the child's name appliqued on the cover.  The "Dress-up" Page suitcases all had luggage tags with the child's name and travel stickers with places related to their families.  If I know one of the children likes a certain thing, I try to incorporate it into his or her book in some way.

Now for the girls of 2015.

Again, the instructions for the size and layout of the books came from the Sew Baby pattern.  All the finger puppets were purchased from EMCreationsSewandEmb. on Etsy.  Eleven of the sixteen pages were exactly alike.  The other five pages had the same activity, but a different theme.  I'll start with the duplicate pages.

An Artist's palette for matching colors and ballerina slippers for tying a bow.  I found numerous examples of the artist's palette online.  I used a coloring book page for the template.  The ballerina slippers came from All the Quiet Things. 

Analog and Digital Clock for telling time is the same pattern I used for the boy's book.  Instead of  solid colored felt, I used different fabrics for the matching shapes page.

Again, I found lots of examples of using beads to learn counting.  I used letter beads to spell out their name.  Again, I used the old stand-by mitten from the Sew Baby pattern.

The Cherry Pie for weaving came from Riley Blake Designs.  For my Tic-tac-toe page I used "girly" print fabric and ribbon.

 The "Flip-Flops" matching page and a beach bag full of goodies is from Imagine Our Life.

Inside the bag:  iPhone, sun glasses, watermelon slice and flip-flops.  I opted to buy a pair of sunglasses instead of making them as described in pattern.

Flower pot with buttons page came from the Piece and Quiet pattern by "The Quilted Fish"

And now for the other pages.  Same activity; different theme.

Zipper Page

I created a very simplified "Elsa's Castle" from Frozen and added a purchased Elsa finger puppet.

My Princess Castle came from "Mommy Imaginings."  Instructions and pattern are available. I added a purchased Princess Sofia finger puppet.

Dress-Up Doll and Suitcase

Princess Doll with Disney-inspired costumes in the suitcase.  The suitcase was inspired by Empty Bobbin.  I got the template for the doll and clothing from Disney's Cheapskate Princess by Cory Jensen.  I have costumes for Belle, Snow White, Cinderella, and Merida.

"Hello Kitty" doll with a suitcase full of outfits.  I created Hello Kitty based on a coloring book page.  The outfits were inspired by pictures found online of Hello Kitty.  Each was made to fit.

Finger Puppet Page

Frozen sleigh.  I'm quite pleased with this page.  Totally designed by me.  I used coloring book pages to design the sleigh and Sven, the reindeer.  Finger puppets were purchased through Etsy.

Circus Train from Imagine Our Life, but this time with more "girly" colors.  Finger puppets from Restoration Hardware.

It was quite a task making three quiet books in one year.  Happily, I won't have to make another one until 2018, BUT again I will need to make three!