Sleeping Family Quilts

On February 5, 2025 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Applique, Pets, Quilting, Scrap QuiltLeave a comment

Okay, these were really fun to make!

A while ago, I saw an image of a pillow that looked like a family of dogs sleeping under a quilt. Using this image as inspiration, I put together a couple quilt ideas.

The main part of the quilt is a pieced design with a border to make 72″ square. The top part of the quilt is 16-18″ tall with a “family” appliqued on so that they look like they are sleeping under a quilt. For the applique pieces, I used clipart images found on-line. These images were drawn out onto fusible medium, ironed onto fabric and then stitched in place.

Dog Family

For this quilt, I used several pieces of scrap fabric that had dogs or dog-related themes (bones, etc), cut into 4″ squares randomly sewn together.

Teddy Bear Family

For this quilt, I used scraps of hand-dyed fabrics, paired with various black print fabric scraps. These 6″ Half Square Triangles randomly sewn together.

Cat Family

For this quilt, I used scrap fabric left over from making a bed runner for my bed (see Millefiori Garden), cut into 4″ squares randomly sewn together. Of these five quilts, this one is my favorite – I do like cats and the colors just pop!

Owl Family

When sorting through my fabric scraps, I had lots of fall colors in the mix. So, I thought a leaf block quilt would be nice. For the animal family, I had considered turkeys. However, I really dislike the ones that hang out in my yard and make a mess of my sidewalks and lawn. So, I settled on owls, and they turned out really cute.

Snowman Family

In my collection of quilt ideas, I had an image of a snowflake design that I had been wanting to make. But, I kept putting it off because I couldn’t settle on a way to make the design fit the rectangular shape of a twin sized quilt. The sleeping family quilt idea gave me an opportunity to make this quilt. Adding snow people sleeping makes this a really fun quilt as well.

These five quilts were really fun to make and will be donated to Sleep In Heavenly Peace. Hopefully a few kids will enjoy sleeping under these quilts

Furry Family Friends

On November 27, 2022 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Pets, Quilting1 Comment

One year ago today, I had to say goodbye to the best quilting buddy I could have ever wanted. My cat, Onyx, had been my constant companion for over thirteen years and I have missed having her around.

When the weather was warm, her favorite place to sit was looking at my flower garden through the screen of our front door. Unfortunately, I never thought to take a picture of her sitting there while she was alive. So, this summer, I decided to make a wall quilt that depicted the scene.

After sketching out my idea, I hand painted fabric dye onto a piece of white fabric. The gold color on the fabric below is a dye blocker to keep some areas from dyeing.

Next, I quilted the fabric, stitching out the sun, clouds, tree, flowers and brick garden edging.

Using Inktense Dye pencils, I then colored in the leaves, tree trunk, flowers and bricks.

I then secured some nylon mesh over the “door” section of the scene using MistyFuse Ultraviolet. I selected this type of fusible web because it is very sheer and is treated to prevent discoloration and aging when exposed to UV light. I used a strip of shiny organza to create the “sidelights” of the scene, cutting out the diamonds where our sidelights have clear glass.

The leading of the sidelights was created using a tight zigzag stitch.

To replicate the umbrella basket next to the door, I used 1/8″ leather strips woven into the shape of a basket and hand stitched onto the quilt. The umbrellas were hand dyed silk fabrics stitched onto wires that were attached to a heavy wire. The heavy wire was bent and the end covered with polymer clay to create handles. These umbrellas actually open like real umbrellas.

To replicate the ceramic vase near our front door, I embroidered a design onto another piece of hand dyed silk fabric, shaped it into a vase form and hand stitched the vase onto the quilt. The Eucalyptus branches were made by hand painting fabric dye onto Lutrador Mixed Media Fabric. The painted fabric was folded over, glued to copper wire, cut into small circles and twisted into branches to go inside the vase.

I used more polymer clay to make the hinges and knob for the door.

Onyx was made from hand dyed heavy wool fabric, washed to cause felting and stitched onto the quilt. Her eyes were made using fused glass.

I am very happy with the result. I may not have Onyx to keep me company when sewing, but I do have a reminder of her on my wall.

And, while we are now a pet-free home, we have had several other furry friends in our household. So, this fall I decided to add them to the wall as well. Using some photos taken of these pets, I created paper pieced 6″ x 6″ tiles of Striker (German Shorthair Pointer), Squigglez (Orange Tabby), Comet (Orange Tabby) and Duke (Yorkshire Terrier).

Mounted above and below the Onyx quilt, the pets finish off the décor of one wall in my sewing room very nicely.

Thanksgiving Family Joy

On November 30, 2021October 12, 2023 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Family, Holidays, Pets1 Comment

(and a little sorrow).

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at our house. It had been nearly two years since everyone was home together. So, this year was extra special because all four boys were able to visit for a few days. Coming from Madison, Brooklyn(NY), Denver and Robbinsdale, they all arrived in time to join us for dinner.

After a wonderful dinner, we spent some time playing games and catching up on life. Throughout the weekend, the boys were able to visit friends, do some shopping and some cookie baking. Tim even updated our household WiFi. There were also lots of games of chess, Othello, and Xbox.

As of yesterday, they have all returned to their own residences, so our house is very quiet again.

Actually, its quieter than normal.

Thanksgiving evening, I called my mother to wish her a Happy Thanksgiving. While on the phone, my cat Onyx had a seizure, so, I quickly hung up to try to calm my cat.

Onyx had been having small seizures occasionally for over a year. Usually these episodes would last about a minute or so, with her being disoriented and unable to walk for a few minutes afterwards. But then she would return to her normal affectionate self.

This time, however, she did not recover. Over the next day, she was unable to move her hind legs and would not eat or drink anything . Then, the next evening she had another episode, this time losing the ability to move her front legs. In the morning she was no better and looked frightened and disoriented. Unfortunately, after thirteen years, she was unable to bounce back this time.

For many of us, myself included, our pets are as close as family, if not even closer. Pets are there for you twenty-four hours a day. They don’t care about laundry, housecleaning or making meals. They don’t care about things going on in the world. They just care about their “person”.

This was very true of Onyx. Earlier this year, I was treated for a synovial cyst that caused me severe back pain for over two months. During that time and since then, Onyx was my constant companion, always following me around the house and wanting to snuggle with me. She will definitely be missed.

In her memory, here are a few photos.

My Cat loves my new Jelly Roll Rug

On August 18, 2020October 14, 2023 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Batik, PetsLeave a comment

I love fabric, and so does my cat. She will crawl under, lie on top of, and occupy any surface that has fabric on it.

Whether it’s a pile of quilts…

A quilt on my sewing room sofa… img_2256-1

My footstool…

A drawer of fabric that I am trying to find something in…

A quilt on my sewing frame…

Or just a basket of scraps.

She pretty much spends her entire day in my sewing room, sleeping on one soft surface or another. This weekend was no exception. She was my constant companion (for good and bad).

Having ended a long week at work, this weekend I really wanted a “mindless” project that didn’t require much thought but would make me feel like I had accomplished something. A Jelly Roll Rug seemed like the perfect project to work on. For a nice tutorial on making a rug, see Erica Arndt’s video. I had never made one before and surprisingly, it was a rather quick project and perfect for my weekend.

I’ve seen Jelly Roll Rugs in the past and have thought that I would like to make one. In fact, nearly two years ago, I sorted through some of my scrap batik fabrics thinking that they would make a lovely rug for my sewing room. The fabrics were stacked in my closet, and promptly ignored because of other projects that I wanted to make.

Taking this pile of fabric out of the closet and placing it on my sewing desk was “heaven” to my cat. She kept wanting to lay down on top of the fabrics. To make the rug, instead of using a Jelly Roll, I sorted my fabrics into a rainbow gradient and cut my own 2.5″ strips. I used a total of 22 different fabrics. Rather than doing a standard jelly roll rug pattern, I wanted each fabric to make one complete circle around the quilt. This meant I needed to complete each round before added the fabric for the next round to the project. I also pieced my fabric with straight seams rather than cutting at an angle (I hate to waste fabric).

Starting with one strip of the first fabric, each round increased in size. The last round used 3 strips of the darkest fabric. Thus, I used anywhere from 2.5 inches to a maximum of a quarter yard of fabric.

For the batting, I cut 2″ strips from scrap batting until all of my leftovers were used up (Yeah – I emptied an entire storage container of odd sized pieces of batting!). When I ran out of leftover batting, I decided to try using a precut batting spool. This was an easier and quicker way to work on the rug. To manage the roll, I clamped a wooden rod to my sewing desk. With the roll on the rod, the batting came off without twisting. This also kept the roll off the floor where my cat would try to play with it.

I found a handy folding tool that I used to make the project go faster.

All in all, this was a fun project that I was able to complete in one weekend. If I had used a precut jelly roll and precut batting, I could have easily completed it in a day.

I now have a colorful rug on my sewing room floor.

And, my cat seems to enjoy it as well. Luckily she has no claws!

The person behind the Mask

On April 6, 2020April 6, 2020 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Applique, Family, Life, PetsLeave a comment

Wash your hands, practice social distancing, stay home and, now, consider wearing a face mask when outside of your own home. These are the recommendations from federal and state governments during this current pandemic.

While following this advise, we can loose connection to the people around us. We all need to reach out to our family members – our older parents who have had their ability to interact with their friends severely limited, our children (even adult children) who are home schooling or working from home, our friends whom we can’t see but can certainly talk with over the phone and internet, and our neighbors.

Everyone has a story. And, while we are wearing our masks, we should consider their story and do what we can to help where needed.

With the current recommendation for mask wearing, my son asked if I could make a couple masks for his girlfriend who works part-time at Target. Her story is that she is a high school senior. Like so many students, she is now separated from her friends and doing on-line classes. And, she will be missing out on all the fun activities of her senior year – senior prom, senior project presentations, graduation, grad parties, etc. On top of that, two weeks ago I implemented a quarantine for our family. So she has not been able to spend time with my son. She is also working very hard at her part-time job. To help support her, the least I can do is make some masks.

Using the pattern described at North-Memorial-Health-homemade-healthcare-masks, I made some masks. My son wanted plain black. His girlfriend wanted a red one and a yellow one.

This pattern has an internal pocket to insert a piece of HEPA filter material to improve the effective filtration. I also modified the mask slightly to add a nose wire for improved contouring to the face. After topstitching around the entire mask, I stitched a channel 1/2″ from the top of the mask. A pipe cleaner folded in half and inserted it into the channel can be molded to the bridge of the nose.

When thinking about making masks, I thought it would be nice to try to make some fun animal faces. Using my Bernina DesignWorks software, I created a few patterns.

A couple cat faces:

Black cat, Rabbit, Bear and Dog:

I may try some other embroidery ideas soon.

The end of a decade

On January 1, 2020 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Family, Holidays, Life, PetsLeave a comment

It’s the last day of 2019 and the busy holiday season is nearly over. Since I am not someone who normally spends New Year’s Eve at a party, I am relaxing in my craft room and reflecting upon the last year.

The highlights of our year were put together into a short slideshow and interactive crossword puzzle that was sent to family and friends as an electronic Christmas card.

As seen in the video, it was a busy year filled with many happy days. There were, however, some sad days as well. As previously mentioned, my father passed away a few weeks ago. Earlier this year, we also said good-bye to cat, Squigglez, and then a few months later our little yorkie, Duke. These two pets had been in our home for many, many years.

Reflecting back on the year, I have had some fun family adventures, started a new hobby and completed many projects, some of which I have not written about.

It always seems a bit overwhelming to put into words what I have done. Recently, I mentioned this to a friend. Her comment was that I should do smaller, daily blogs – briefly writing about what I did each day. I said I thought this might be a good idea, but I worried about annoying everyone by overloading their inboxes. So, that idea will wait for some future date.

Looking ahead, this next year is expected to be an eventful year.

My prayer is that your year will be happy and healthy!

International Cat Day!

On August 8, 2019March 26, 2020 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Family, Life, PetsLeave a comment

In honor of the day, I thought I would post some photos of my feline friends.

Our first cat, Squigglez, enjoyed 14 years in our house. This was much longer than we expected to have him. Shortly after adopting him, he was diagnosed with the cat version of Ehlers-danlos syndrome. EDS a connective tissue disorder that is caused by a genetic defect in the production of collagen. This weakens the skin, gastrointestinal system and heart. The average lifespan of a cat with EDS is five years. Even the slightest scratch can damage and tear the skin of affected animals, leading to scarring. Heart failure is the usual cause of death. Amazingly, his heart remained strong, but sadly his GI system was too fragile and deteriorated with age. But, we had many more years with him than we expected.

About a year later, we adopted another cat. Comet was a really young kitten that was abandoned in the ditch near a friends farm.

My second son, Sam, adopted him as his own. Comet was incredibly playful and loved to run around – thus the name!

Comet also got along with everyone, human or pet. Both Squigglez and Duke (our Yorkie who past away a few months ago) would allow him to eat and sleep near them. That’s saying a lot because both of them were very independent and did not get along with any of our other pets.

Eleven years ago, Comet got out of the house one night. Now this wasn’t too unusual for him. Comet loved to roam the woods behind our house when it was dark outside. Usually around 5:30 am I would be awakened by him meowing as he walked through the front yard asking me to let him in. Unfortunately, one morning he never returned. We searched the neighborhood and contacted Eagan Animal Control, but he was not to be found. Every Monday and Friday I would go by the South Metro Humane Society to see if he may have been taken there. After six weeks, he was not to be found.

Each time I stopped at the Humane Society, I would spend some time in the cat room playing with the kittens. After six weeks, I had fallen for one of the kittens that was really affectionate. I decided I would adopt her. However, this was early October and I was told that the Humane Society policy was not to adopt out black cats the weeks before Halloween (apparently there are some people that have done evil and cruel things to black cats at that time of the year). Sadly, I left without her but I would return and visit her several times a week. My plan was to adopt her after Halloween to take her home. Luckily about a week before Halloween, the staff decided that I was not going to harm her and allowed me to adopt her earlier than I had anticipated.

Onyx has since become my constant companion. She is close by me almost all the time. In fact, as I write this posting, she is sitting right next to my computer! Of course, she is sitting on the computer case because it is the softest thing near me.

Hopefully we have several more years to enjoy her companionship!

“Childhood Memories” – finished quilt

On July 22, 2018 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Applique, Batik, Pets, Quilting, Scrap Quilt, Trees2 Comments

When designing a quilt, I like to plan the quilting at the same time as the piecing. This allows me to think about adding something unique to each quilt. My recent project for the two sided tree quilt was no exception.

The quilting of the tree, leaves and background would be fairly straightforward. Wanting to add something special to the quilt, I thought about what I could add to the tree. One idea was to place flowers or shrubs at the base of the tree. Another was to add some animals.

My final idea, and the one I actually used, came while reviewing some photos from my childhood. These photos brought back memories of things growing up. I decided to add theses memories to the quilt.

I needed to invoke the idea of a memory without overwhelming the quilt. To do that, I planned to used only thread to make the images appear very faint. After stitching, I realized that the images were there but extremely hard to see. Having recently purchase some textile medium (InFusion Textile Medium) that was very lightweight (did not stiffen the fabric) and shiny, I decided to use this to enhance the visual effect of the memories.

I am really happy how they turned out. If you look closely at the images, you will see a boy leaning against the tree reading a book, a girl on a tree swing, and their faithful dog laying on the ground near them.

Painting

Here are the full images of the quilt front and back:

Custom Footrest For My Craft Room

On July 7, 2018July 8, 2018 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Home Improvement, Life, Pets, Sewing Tools1 Comment

Lately, I have been doing a lot of hand stitching – applique, embroidery and quilt binding. When hand stitching, I like to have a place to rest my your feet higher than the floor in order to make myself more comfortable. Unfortunately this was something that I did not have in my new craft room.

Wanting to add one, I starting looking around the room to see where I could store the footrest when it was not being used. The size of a place to stash the footrest would be the limiting factor for the size of the footrest itself. With the room maximized for storage, I was not finding a good spot to keep one. So, I put off purchasing one.

WIN_20180707_18_07_34_Pro

This past week I have been working on binding a quilt. As a temporary measure, I pulled out one of my storage boxes from under my long arm table and used that to prop my feet on. It worked out fairly well, just the right size, but a bit too low. So, to get the height right, I put a folded flannel quilt on top of it.

Unfortunately the quilt I used was a favorite of my cat, Onyx. Most times, when I went into my room to sew, she was sleeping on the quilt. So, I needed to figure out a more permanent option.

A trip to Hobby Lobby to purchase a few items (2″foam, 5/8 yd print canvas fabric and elastic braid) and I was ready to make a slip cover to place on the storage box. First, I cut the foam to fit on top of the box lid (10.5″ x 14″). Then, I cut the fabric to 20.5″ x 24″. A few box seams in the corners, a hem with the elastic into and I was done.

Now I have a colorful and comfortable foot rest. When not in use it fits nicely into the original storage spot without taking up any space in my room.