Juggling

I am working on two projects right now.  The wonky stars baby quilt and a picnic quilt based on Elizabeth Hartman's Crazy Nine Patch Lattice quilt pattern.  I have put down the Wonky Stars baby quilt because I really want to start using the picnic quilt ASAP.  We are using a twin bed sheet for picnics right now, and it's hard to "keep up with the Joneses" in the park when you are rockin' a nasty old green sheet.  Granted, when my wife sat on a blackberry (the fruit, not the phone), I was glad it wasn't the new quilt, but I'm still anxious to show off my skills to all of the neighborhood moms!

The pattern requires 23 9 patches, so you need to make 27 of them.  I am making 3 stacks of 9 using slight variations in the fabrics.  My wife wanted all orange patches and I wanted blues and greens, so we compromised and did a mix of the three.  The stripey fabric in the upper right corner of the block below is the anchor fabric, containing some brown, blue, green and orange.  It's from the line "Toomuchery" by Helen Dardik, and I love it!  I am including another fabric from that line in the third set of 9 (which I am cutting and sewing during baby's nap today).

Last night I received an order of fabrics I absolutely HAD to have in order to finish the picnic quilt.  Of course I had what I needed, but not the ideal mix of fabrics I wanted.  Fortunately, Fabric.com had a sale (don't they always?), and I got most of my fabrics for about $4/yd. 

You can see the other "Toomuchery" fabric in the middle, as well as "Castle Peeps" orange flags, which will be included in the 3rd nine patch along with the Toomuchery and the green bamboo fabric.  I think I'm gonna like this block the best :).  We'll see.

First completed star

Here's the first block in my Wonky Star baby quilt.  I am using the little tutorial from Victoria's Silly BooDilly Blog Wonky Star Tutorial, but since I am using two different sizes for my star centers, I had to alter dimensions to make each overall block the same size.  Though it's a girl's quilt, I am going with gender-neutral colors (blue and brown, but also pink, red, green and yellow), but settled on a theme of Flying Objects.  These objects mostly include birds, butterflies, dragonflies, and bees.  I have also thrown in a couple of  less obvious flying objects, like pigs and monkeys (as in "when pigs fly" or "when monkeys fly out of my butt"). 

It's nice to be sewing again, and I love being able to do quilt after quilt, and each one is so different!  Of course, even if I decided to do the same quilt pattern, size, and fabrics, it would be so unique- but I won't be doing a repeat quilt pattern for a while, I think, as there are just so many I am excited to try!

Back in the Saddle again

I am feeling especially "western" having just returned from a short trip to Reno, Nevada (hence, the title of my post).  Happy to return home to my cozy bed and my machine, which has been collecting dust for almost a month.  While in Syracuse a couple weeks back I was able to visit a LQS and pick up a couple cute fabrics, some quilting tips, and a hankerin' for a fancy, new-fangled machine.  Having resisted the temptation, I am gladly cutting fabrics for my next project, a baby quilt for a dear friend of ours, whose baby is 2 1/2.

The quilt will center around select charm squares I received thru two recent charm swaps.  I picked out the 16 fabrics, mostly birds and butterflies, along with accent fabric from my stash, and will likely do a wonky star design.  I will update you when I get a bit further along!