What's Cookin Wednesday

I've made a quilt for my grandma, my mom, my boyfriend, my friend from home...now it's my dad's turn! 

I acquired some Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow and fell in love with some of the prints, especially the blues.  I decided this would be great fabric for my dad's quilt!  I bought a scrap pack of Modern Meadow on Etsy, which actually turned out to be several yards, to round out my collection.  There's a few other fabrics in the mix too. 

The pattern is Urban Cabin by Atkinson Designs.  I thought it seemed more manly than lots of HSTs or stars and such :)  I'm making a total of 25 blocks for his lap sized quilt and have 8 of them finished already.  The pattern goes together very quickly and the blocks are large so I should be done in no time!



Finished blocks




Color combos left to finish




Color combos left to finish



Bloggers' Quilt Festival 2012

Central Park has to be one of my favorite fabric lines of all time.  The vibrant colors, whimsical patterns, and the little squirrel with an acorn really spoke to me and I splurged and bought so much of it!  I chose to make a cracker box quilt for my first Central Park project.  I think this is the point in my short quilting career that I've identified where I begin to use much bolder colors and a neutral other than white.  Previously, I thought all quilts had to use a white background with pastel colors :)  I also experimented with echo quilting and am in love with how this one turned out! 



Full front view



Quitling detail



Back full view



My Precious QAL Round 2

For my next magic trick, aka installment of the My Precious QAL, I'll be turning this:

Into a bunch of these:

I've decided to use my Neptune charm packs.  I know the point is that you're supposed to be "cutting" into your stash, but I'd rather cut other less precious fabric to fit around my little gems :)  I hope this counts!  The inner border is Dear Stella Grey and the outer border is DS Quilts from the Picnic line I think.  I've been hoarding it ever since I decided it looked great with the Neptune.  Oo just had a thought - maybe I'll cut into my FMF grey seeds for the binding!

My Precious QAL Update

I finally finished up my entry for Round 1 of kelbysews My Precious QAL.  I chose to use my Tufted Tweets layer cake that's been lounging on my shelf for oh so long.  I had the plan to use Little Miss Shabby's Picture Frames pattern but didn't want to cut the 10" squares down, so I did some math (gasp!) and modified it a bit.  This is what I came up with!  I can't wait to get this one quilted and snuggle up on the couch with my boyfriend :)  Well, maybe I'll wait til winter since it's 80+ degrees around here...

Thrift Store Lamp Update

I needed a table lamp for my dim living room so obviously I started combing thrift stores for the perfect one.  Unfortunately I came home with this....

Brassy, 80's, doesn't play well with the other collected furnishings (West Elm zebra rug, estate sale cedar chest, & boring beige couch that is).  So I decided to spruce it up with spray paint and see what happens.  A couple coats of Rustoleum later plus a new modern shade from Target et voila!

Much better!  I'm still working on clearing the clutter.  I think I have too many different shades of blue here, no?  Don't worry, it will eventually be all fixed!

Misc Monday

Misc: my favorite thing to sift through at a garage sale.  Today I have some quilty misc for you to peruse. 

Have you heard about the My Precious Quilt Along hosted by Kelly at Kelby Sews?  She's challenging us to actually cut up and use our precious hoard of fabric that's been safely sitting on the shelf.  You know, your Neptune, Arcadia, Heather Ross, Flea Market Fancy, etc.  She gently encourages us to take a breath, cut it up, and win a bunch of prizes in the meantime!  I can't help but to hear Smeagol say it in my head, or when I was excitedly describing this to my similarly nerdy boyfriend :)  I did have to Google how to spell it though, so I'm not that much of a scifi geek... Oh wait, I make pillows that have Mario characters on them.  I take that back! 

Back on track - I decided to finally make something with my Tufted Tweets.  I have a 10" square of all the prints and I wanted to do Little Miss Shabby's Picture Frames quilt but I didn't want to trim the squares down.  Since I'm terribly awful at math this project has taken a back burner until now.  Here are a couple of my first blocks.  I chose a grey sashing instead of the beige.  Each block is ~12" square.  I learned to starch well!

I'm trying to destash a bit.  Anyone interested in some Dear Stella for sale or swap?

Last bit of misc - LOOK what I found! And swapped in and bought!  The only one of :D :D  An Arcadia Honey Bun.  Boy do I have good plans for you :)

A Charm Swap...

Hi friends,


The charm swap I had participated in is looking for a few more people to fill spaces in their next charm swap.  We had been doing different colors and this round is featuring green and purple.  The ladies are sending in great fabrics!  Here's the link to the group.  Just send a request to join and tell them I sent you!


The Colorful Charm Square Swap