Baby Shower Gift

I whipped up this yummy lap quilt as a baby shower gift for one of Hubby's oldest friends.  They know they are having a girl, but I couldn't get a good feeling for what their nursery decor was from a little online stalking.  I decided to keep it simple and everything came from my stash.  I puled out all my pink fabric and eventually winnowed down to just the monochromatic pink prints.  I cut 100 blocks that were 5 inches square and sewed them together into a random patchwork square.  I then added a 5 inch dark brown border all around to match the piece of dark brown minky I had for the backing.

 It's fun how all the different pinks blend so beautifully together when there aren't any competing secondary colors.  The dark brown really grounds the bright pinks.

 I used one of my favorite pink and brown stripes for the binding and pink embroidery floss ties to keep it nice and soft.

I like doing a lap sized quilt like this because it really a gift for mom, dad and baby.  It's big enough to cuddle up with baby and big enough to grow with baby.  I hope they enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Bat Costume

One of the things I love about sewing is being able to make things for my kids.  The Wee Monsieur had a musical program at school last week and he was supposed to dress as the woodland creature of his choosing.  We talked about a few different animals and finally, he had a great idea, a bat.  This was a great idea because I had already made bat wings for a Halloween costume 2 years ago.  Most of the costume could be black pants and a shirt, all that was needed was a hood with ears.

I used a hoodie that I knew fit well as a pattern for the bat hood.  I found a great fur textured fabric and a tutorial for making bat ears online.  30 minutes later, I had a bat hood.

Baby girl had to be in the picture too.  The funniest thing happened at the program.  The Wee Monsieur got hot in the middle of the program and took off the hood.  He held it for a while and then I think one of the teacher told him to put it back on, which he did, but upside down.  For the rest of the program, the ears pointed down and backward and he kept tugging at it as the neck was too tight and the face too deep.  It was so funny.  I restrained myself from running up on stage and fixing it.

FTLOS2

I participated in the flickr For the Love of Solids swap last quarter.  My secret partner turned out to be Liz from Goddess in Progress.  I had been hoping that she had my name, as her pictures were so awesome.  She made me a sewing machine cover and a pin cushion.

 I just love the transparency effect she did.  This makes me smile every time I see it.  I love pink!

If only my sewing table was as clean as my machine is now.

My partner was very active so it was easy to determine her preferences.  I ended up doing a plus design in muted blues and greens.  My favorite part was the quilting.  I did very heavy random lines in a few of the pluses which gave it a very cool texture.

I also made a needle book, but I forgot to get a picture of it, before I sent it off.  I'm making myself one just like it, so I'll post pictures of my own when I finish it.

Bucket List

It's been forever since I updated the bucket list.  Here goes.

Here is the bucket list.

Swoon- Top completed and dropped off to long arm quilter, will bind as soon as I get it back.

Postage Stamp Quilt-  I have all my strip sets sewn and cut, working on the blocks now.  I have almost half of the blocks sewn.  I'm trying to work out how to incorporate a layer cake of the same fabric that I found to make this bed sized for a friend.

HST-  so many options, so little time

Drunkards Path-  not yet

Improv stripes bed spread-  Must finish this before summer.

Interlocking wonky stars wall hanging-  So many stars  I've lost count of how many, debating one star from each fabric, or more than one.  I have enough for wall hanging but I'm debating if I should keep going.  These things are addictive.

Dutch windmills- have a stack of fabric put together, but am debating using it for On a Whim.  I don't think On a Whim looks like much fun, but I should try at least one block before I change my mind again.

Rainbow charm squares

Flying Geese

Perfect the zippered pouch

New Patterns- working on 2 different ideas, have prototypes, but need to work out the kinks.

Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild Pillow Swap

The DSMMQG had a pillow swap over the last few months.  We exchanged pillows at our meeting last week.  My partner had posted pictures of a grey and navy blue quilt she made for her guest room and asked for a pillow with an accent color to go with the quilt.  I chose a deep coral that I thought worked well with the navy and grey.  My partner also specified that she loved Dresden circles.  Done and Done!

I couldn't show any process pictures because I was afraid that my partner would be able to guess too easily.  The only picture I showed was the back, where I used a large scale floral.

 Now that my partner has her pillow I can show the front.

I just did a few rows of echo quilting in navy blue around the outside.  It is bound in Kona Salmon.  I couldn't even begin to tell you what all the fabrics are.

My partner followed my preferences to a T.  I'm so thrilled with my pillow.

 She used a dimensional technique for making the flying geese, which adds depth to the pillow.

When I was taking these photos, my husband looked over and said, "It matches that quilt exactly."  Indeed it is a perfect match.

 Here it is with its new friends on the couch.  Thank you Emma!!!

Liebster Award

My good friend Vicki, who blogs at Mommy Made It, gave me a Leibster Award.  This is an award for blogs with fewer than 200 followers.  Having received the Liebster Award, I should brag about having won it, thank Vicki for giving it to me and pass it on to 5 other small bloggers and make their day the way Vicki made mine.

So here goes... I GOT THE LIEBSTER!!!!  WOO HOO!!  

Thanks Vicki!

I nominate:
Doris at Made by a Brunnette-  She started the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild where I've gotten so much inspiration and appreciation.  I just wish I lived a bit closer so it wasn't such a long drive to the meetings.

Liz at Goddess in Progress-  I have no idea how many followers she has, but I find her fun to read.  She does a great job of mixing real life and quilting on her blog.  Plus, she made me the awesomest swap package, which I'm such a slacker that I haven't even blogged about it yet.  Soon, I promise.

Stephanie at Venus de Hilo-  Her use of color is totally fearless.  She puts color together in ways that would never occur to me.  She's working on some New York Beauty blocks right now that are amazing.

Nicole at Tradewind Tiaras-  Nicole is so much more than just tiaras.  We have been friends since the first day of freshman year of college.  Her creativity astounds me and I have learned so much from her.

Kate at Savour-Fare-  Kate is one of my oldest internet friends.  We've known each other online for ages and she went to law school with my husband, which we didn't discover until we'd known each other for a while.  Anyway, her food blog is amazing and all her recipes that I've tried have been great.

Just a disclaimer, I have no idea how many followers these folks actually have, so they may not be technically eligible.  Their blogs are ones I look forward to reading and I thought it would be nice to brighten their day the way mine was brightened.

How far have I come?

The answer is about 11,000 yards.

 I started quilting about 2 years ago, give or take.  I think I've kept almost all my empty spools.  There are quite a few used spools, that I haven't emptied yet, so the real number is bigger, but almost 11,000 yards of empty spools is pretty impressive.  I asked the Hubby how many yards of thread he thought I had used in 2 years.  He guessed 1,000 and was very impressed by the actual number.  I think I should let the empties go now, what do you think?

Swooning

It seems appropriate to pick up where I left off more than a month ago.  I finished the Swoon top and delivered it to my long arm quilter this morning.  I tried to get some decent pictures of the top, but it's so big that I had a lot of trouble.  I finally took it on a play date to get some help.  Here is my friend and her daughter trying to hold it still against the wind.  Have I mentioned how much I hate the near constant wind we have in Iowa?

That was the best picture I got.  Basically, I doubled the sashing, added corner squares and put a border og charm squares around the outside.  I got it up to 98 inches square, which should be a decent queen size.  I picked out a swirly loopy pantograph for the quilting.  I bought a dark grey king sized flat sheet for the backing.  I thought that would be easier and cheaper than my usual pieced backing, but my quilter said sheets shrink at different rates and they have such a higher thread count that it's harder for the needle to go through.  Sigh!  So much for using sheets as backing when sending things to the long arm quilter.

Now I just need to finish up 2 bee blocks and a few baby gifts and I can move on to the next big project. I have a stack for On a Whim, but I'm sort of feeling something a little simpler.  Maybe I'll knock out my postage stamp quilt before I tackle On a Whim.