Blogger's Choice bundle

Katy at I'm a Ginger Monkey (or is it Monkey Do?) and Brenda at Pink Castle Fabrics are having a contest. I wasted spent a good chunk of time today perusing all of the fabrics in Brenda's shop. I love the Maya collection by Leah Duncan for Anthology Fabrics. I picked a few of the prints and worked around those. Here's what I came up with:

Row 1: Free Spirit Designer Solids in Saffron, Maya Manana, Dazzle Basketweave in Sky Aqua Blue
Row 2: Modern Whimsy-Circles in Saffron, Heirloom Empire Weave in Dandelion, Maya Triangles,
Row 3: Moda Cross Weave Woven Fabric in Coral Crossweave, Maya Rivera, Hello Pilgrim-Butterfly Sky in Turquoise
Row 4: Pezzy Prints-Mono Pez in Yellow, Sketch Organic Crosshatch in Gray, Maya Dots

I am trying to come up with a name for my bundle. Stay tuned...
ETA: I'm going to call it South by Southwest.  It has a southwestern feel to it (to me), and I know that the Maya fabric was inspired by the rich Hispanic and Latino cultures in the U.S. southwest.

Blogger's Quilt Festival... my entry

Seeing as how I am a new blogger in Blogland, this is my first Blogger's Quilt Festival. Well, I just blogged about this quilt, but I'm following the rules. Also, I guess there's more to tell...

I made this quilt for my friend who is the mom of my daughter's best friend. After a couple of miscarriages, she had a "sticky" pregnancy, but suffered through a subchorionic hematoma and bedrest through week 24 or so. All the while, I was secretly working on this quilt. As I said in my earlier post, I got the idea from this quilt.

My daughter helped me pick out the kids to use in the log cabin blocks. I had the hardest time with the roofs of the houses. I couldn't seem to get the "sky" fabric oriented the right way and ended up doing several roofs two or three times. I quilted with diagonal straight lines. It was the first time I used blue painter's tape to mark my lines. So helpful!

This is my favorite of the quilts I have made. Before I gave it to my friend, I would look at it every day and think about that baby. Well, 3 months have passed since he was born (4 weeks early), and he is doing great. He's doing all the things infants are supposed to do. Some day I hope to get a picture of him on his quilt. :-)

Little Houses

I made this quilt for a baby who was born July 31, 2011. The quilt was inspired by this one. I couldn't find the fabric that Nettie used for her kids, but I did find a different fabric from the same line (Alexander Henry Good Earth, I think). Most of the fabric in the "houses" is Katie Jump Rope, with a few others thrown in. It was a lot of work but fun seeing it come together.

I used some solids I had for the back as well as some of the kids sewn together. I don't remember what the binding is--it was also something I had in my stash. I wasn't sure about it at first but I think I like it.

Dream Boxes

I'm going to show you my quilts that I have made, in random order. I made this with 10-12 fat quarters of Dream On by Urban Chiks.  It's based on Amanda Jean's Filmstrip quilt. I decided to offset the squares rather than have the solid centers in a row and the patterned centers in a row.  Well, my daughter decided that, actually.  It is for her, after all.  

I used an Ikea sheet (gasp!) for the back, along with some leftover squares. My actual quilting skills leave a lot to be desired, as evidenced by the crooked "straight" line quilting I did. The binding is Kona Blueberry.  This quilt is now one of 8 quilt she has on her bed. The quilt is almost twin-sized--the biggest of the quilts I've made. I don't think I could handle anything bigger. Not yet, at least

Rejoice!

We are back on our regular schedule! School, work, etc.  It was a long two weeks with both Kiddo and Husband at home for most of it. And with a lot of rain mixed in, I was going crazy by the end.  It was nice not having to get up and do the get-ready-for-school shuffle.  We didn't do much of what I had thought we might do--no trips to the City, no movie matinees, no craftiness. The best-laid plans...  Anyway... this is the first post in my blog, which i hope to keep up.  I plan to post a bit about my new-found hobby of quilt-making, as well as about life in general. So, stay tuned.