testing

I have to admit, when I first saw this quilt on someone's blog I was not that excited about it.  But, after seeing this  and this  and this  and probably a few others, I had a change of heart. My church does a youth auction every year to earn money for camp and other summer activities.  I have never donated anything, but this year I signed up to donate a quilt.  I thought that this pattern and these fabrics would be perfect because they are really beautiful without being crazy.  The fabrics are Aunt Edna and Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt and the solid is Essex linen in natural. My husband has been working crazy hours lately and I knew he wouldn't be home during daylight hours anytime soon, so the quilt went with us to his office this evening when we brought him dinner.  He was kind enough to hold it up for me. He was in a hurry to get the photo taken (in case any of his co-workers happened to walk by) so I had to take this quick one on my own. ...

So hypothetically . . . imagine that you are visiting your Mom in Utah when Aunt Edna (DS Quilt's new line) comes out and you know that. . . . a) your local Joann's won't get the whole collection b) you have birthday money to spend c) sales tax is much lower in Utah d) the fabric is currently 30% off and I have an extra 20% off coupon e) there is lots of room in my suitcase . . . you might go a little overboard.  And I did.  I will be using Aunt Edna in projects for a while.  I had intended to just get enough for my swoon quilt, but I knew I would be sad when it was gone. So you might notice that a lot of my Curves Class photos involve Aunt Edna.  Here is my latest project, the orange peel pillow:  When I first saw this pattern as a potential project I thought, "Wow, my sister would love that as a high school graduation quilt!"  But then I made the pillow and there is no way that is happening. Orange pillow with my earlier scallop pillow  I did enjoy m...

I have really been looking forward to this project and I already have an intended recipient (my good friend's baby shower next week) so I was excited to get this scallop quilt going.  The quilt came together really fast and I am very happy with how it turned out.  I didn't love piecing the curves (hated it), but there weren't very many and I the directions left plenty of room to trim them down to the correct size.  I was really confused about quilting; I actually initially started to echo the scallops but I wasn't happy with how that looked (or how annoying it was).  So I ripped out those stitches and went with straight lines.  They are a little under an inch apart. I am very happy with how the quilt turned out and am happy to pass it on next week.  The fabrics that I used are a Moda crossweave (so soft!), Children at Play by Sarah Jane, and a Kona light pink (can't remember the name of the shade).  I absolutely love the Children at Play line and have ...

swoon 1-9 layout , a photo by ericajackman on Flickr. I spent my evening last night finishing up my last three swoon blocks. I LOVE them and really enjoyed making them. They aren't difficult but they are very time consuming. The photo is my intended layout but that may change. I have another quilt to finish plus the rest of the Curves Class projects to get done before I sew these together and get to finish this quilt but I am really looking forward to it. The fabrics used are all by Denyse Schmidt. Mostly Aunt Edna with a lot of Hope Valley and one Sugar Creek print. The background fabric is Robert Kaufman's quilter's linen in taupe. I am really happy with the quilter's linen. It was easy to use, feels nice, and I think it will help keep this quilt looking nice since I am guessing my kids will be using it a lot. The only downside it is that it is more expensive than using a Kona solid.

I am not going to say that this is my favorite thing I have ever made (I think that it could have been awesome, I just wish I had made a few different choices. Here is what I would have done differently: My least favorite thing is the star.  I had trouble getting my teeny, tiny yellow triangles to square up.  I wish I had used bigger triangles to make my wonky points so that I didn't have such tiny little sun rays. I wish I had used lighter background colors.  That dark gray square was just sitting next to my sewing machine and so I threw it in.   I wish I had used all dark green fabrics for my tree.  I wish there was more contrast there. That being said, it is still pretty cute and I am glad I made it.  I am so looking forward to making the scallop quilt next week!  

 . . . is still in progress.  I have finished the first two projects and am working on the third.  I am hoping to do all of the projects; they have all been good practice and lots of fun :)   I made a couple of cards.  I wasn't able to super-ghetto-Santa-Monica-Michaels to get some blank 5x7 cards, so I used folded over card stock.  I think they turned out pretty cute. I loved the Rainbow Road project.  I used a Freebird charm pack and some scraps which was WAY MORE fabric than I needed.  Originally this thing was about 15 inches longer but I didn't need it to be that long so I chopped it up.    Since I have been working on these projects and a few other things, my house is a disaster and the only clean surface I could find was my kids' dresser.  Embarrassing.  But it is cute there and I think that worked out well.  My current WIPs . . . I am making a bow tie quilt to donate to a service auction at church.  The top is...

Week 1 of the Curves Class is over and I was able to pretty much complete all of the projects (I couldn't find a snap for my baby bib).  I am really happy with my pillow, flawed though it may be. I have been working on my Aunt Edna Swoon quilt and I had a few leftover squares that were just the right size so those prints were my starting point for picking fabrics.  I also wanted the colors to be more "husband friendly" since for some reason he doesn't share my love of pink, orange, and aqua.   I don't have a home for this bib yet so it will go into the future-baby-shower-gift box in my closet.   My Heirloom greek cross quilt found a home this week.  While I love the fabrics and I love all of the straight line quilting, this quilt didn't feel at home in my living room and I knew I should hold onto it and wait until the right person came to mind.  I ended up giving it to my visiting teacher who is completely wonderful.