see ya later alligator

Every once in a while I get a custom order for something I never, ever would have come up with myself. But it's pretty fun to see things come together that wouldn't have otherwise. The only sad thing is that they leave much too soon without any time to marinate on my basement clothesline where the finished projects get to live.

This was 2 blankets, a stroller size and a crib quilt, that ended up costing me a fortune since I had to order the fabric from 3 different places and of course that meant filling up the flat rate envelopes...3 times...oh my.

this one's for you, Charlie

So I did find a back for ole' Charlie, right here in Burlington. The yellow plaid seems like a little tiny bit of a cop out, I was really branching out there for a minute, and pale yellow plaid is so...been there done that. BUT the bias plaid actually saved my tail on the quilting. I thought I was going to have to go through and actually mark lines but the quilting ended up mercifully aligning with the plaid so I could wing it (which is also very been there done that for me but I'm comfortable there).

And there's no real Charlie this quilt is dedicated too, it just reminds me so much of Charlie Brown, and maybe there's a little bit of wishful thinking there too....

Henry's quilt

Alright, everybody else is doing it, I'm jumping in!

When I got home with the fabric for this quilt I remember wondering if I was making a big, expensive mistake. It was pretty wild, which I love, but every once in a while I make something really atrocious. But I am so happy with how this turned out, and have used the "formula" several times since: the blocks are all fabrics that "go" together, lots of Amy Butler's Lotus and a few Japanese Echino prints. Then for the sashing I chose something that really didn't match at all but it ended up being the perfect frame because it didn't just blend in. And you can't lose with orange cornerstones...

I'm also glad that I was able to immortalize a yard and a half of this wonderful discontinued green Echino print on the back (there's a spider on it! how cool!), of which I once owned an entire bolt, and now this is the only surviving remnant.

Once again I'm apologizing for my lack of photography skills but I think it looks quite good with zebra sheets...

Here's (a really bad picture of) one I did for my nephew with the same formula:

Santa Claus is coming to town...

I've been binging a bit lately. The problem all stems from custom orders. I have to order a yard here or there and if I'm going to pay shipping charges anyway I might as well fill up the flat rate envelope...

Henry insisted on taking this picture of his crazy mama.

a new favorite

Almost every quilt I make is my favorite while I'm working on it and yet it's sometimes shocking to me how fickle I can be: as soon as the binding is on I fold it up and forget all about it in the excitement of the next project. Poor little guys. But THIS one has won a special place in my heart for reasons I can't pinpoint. It's also taught me a couple of things. First: the joy of solids. This may just be the beginning of a major affair with Kona solids. (For future reference, this one is Ash. There are approximately one million colors and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a hard time remembering them all.) I always thought I was a patterns only girl, the wilder the better, but I really really like this plain gray, especially the back, with that nice little racing stripe. Second: I've always quilted things just to get them stuck together, a mere means to an end. But THIS time, I LOVED quilting it! I've never done this before but have been wanting to try just quilting straight(-ish) lines unevenly spaced all through and it was quite fun and for the first time ever I feel like the quilting actually really complements the quilt and adds to the design a bit. This isn't the first or last time you will hear me complain about my camera but sorry you can't really see it.

my first string blocks

I've been seeing these string blocks around bloglandia and thinking I might need to give them a try. I've had this fabric for years and it's not anything I would choose now but I still like it enough to use and I think I've thought of the perfect home for it....(to be continued...) So as I was cutting blocks today I had these lovely long 1"-2" strips that I was going to decorate the inside of my trash can with and decided to give the string block thing a try and I think it may just be right up my alley. I have quite a lot of 1"-2" strips that probably should have decorated my garbage long ago, but I now foresee a lovely quilt in their future...(to be continued also...)

About those St. Louis quit shops...

I was hoping to come home from St. Louis with piles of exotic (Missourian?) fabrics but Ben and Henry proved to be less than ideal fabric shopping companions. Imagine that. But I didn't come home empty-handed after all: we stumbled upon a really fabulous paper store where I bought one really fabulous piece of paper...and several yards of japanese ribbon, oh my, there are so many ways ways I would like to use this but the fact that it is fully reversible (one of my favorite attributes in the world) has my hands tied until I can come up with some good ways to see both sides.

the tangible fruits of conference

Man I love sitting in front of the computer for hours on end listening to conference with a pile of beautiful fabric on my lap. There were also some substandard cinnamon rolls, copious note-taking, some changes of heart and lots of cuddling accomplished as well. But for now here are the tangible fruits of conference:

Look at those white on orange leaves on the bottom left. Erin McMorris, I may have seriously underdemeciated you.