Blogger's Quilt Festival

The quilt that I'm choosing to post for the Blogger's Quilt Festival is this one.

The pattern is Picture This from the Happy Hour book by Atkinson Designs.  I have seen so many variations of this pattern, and I just love them all.  (I've linked to some of those quilts in this blog post).   You can see where I messed up on the placement of the squares.  There are 3 that are facing the same way in the middle of the quilt, and they shouldn't be.

I didn't do a very good job on the quilting either, as you can see here. 

I was trying to channel Mrs. Schmenkman and her quilting abilities - but she wasn't coming through very clearly - so I gave up.  *sigh*  I just finished it up by stippling it.

And the back.  Yes, the back. 

No, it doesn't go all that well with the front.  But I had the fabric and decided to use it.  My girls gave me a hard time about using that backing fabric.

But the binding - ah, the binding.  Even though I don't have a good picture of it, the pieced binding is just wonderful.

Why did I choose this quilt?  I'm choosing it because I sleep under it every night. Now, keep in mind, even though I do share a bed with my husband, only I sleep under this quilt - because it's not big enough to fit over our whole king sized bed.  And at night when I'm laying in bed watching tv I tend to look at the quilt once in awhile, and when I do, I just love it every single time.  I think it's the colors.  They are so girly and so soothing.  All I know is that even with all of its faults, this is my favorite quilt (right now).


Thanks Amy for hosting another Blogger's Quilt Fesitval!

DQS7

I joined the DQS7 on Flickr. This was my first time and I was so thrilled that they let me join in on the fun. The partner that I got said, "I love modern, improv quilts with lots of bright colors and solids." Can I just say, "Eeeeek"! Well, I DID just say Eeeek! I can't say that is in the realm of what I usually do.



When I was still trying to figure out what I was going to do, I ran across this post by Cherry House Quilts. I was inspired to try to make those flowers and use those in my quilt.



I can't say they were easy! I know they should be, but I had a tough time getting them to look the way I wanted them to look. And I'm not really sure they come across as flowers, either. Which is okay.



I have to say, I can totally understand why people make two doll quilts - one to send and one to keep. You can become quite attached to these little babies.



Especially after we spent a few hours bonding while I ripped out about a million 6 or 7 rows of echo quilting that looked like crap.



I really enjoyed the different types of quilting. I've never done the water effect in the blue, or the pebble quilting, but they were really easy to fall into a quilting groove with. The pebble quilting was inspired by crazy mom quilts, specifically, these pillows.

Okay,two more pictures. The back.



And ready to be sent.



I certainly hope that my partner likes it. I already told her that if she hates it, she can return it - no questions asked! Heck, I'll even pay for return shipping.

Now, I can hardly wait to see what quilt I get to replace it!

What I Did During Summer Vacation, Part 2

Summer is officially over. School started on Wednesday. My son is a senior this year, so this is our last year with all the kids still in middle or high school. As much as the schools drive me crazy and I can hardly wait until the kids are out, it's also very bittersweet.

My son and husband went back to D.C. for a few days this summer. While my son was gone, the girls and I rearranged his room. Part of rearranging the room meant putting his bed in the corner of the room. However, he doesn't have a headboard. So, to make up for that a little, and to make his room look a little cozier, I decided that I needed to make some pillow covers. I wanted them to fit two standard pillows. This is what I came up with. (I had to take pictures outside since I couldn't get good light in his room.)

Front


Back


Front


Back


The lines and the log cabins were supposed to be wonky. *sigh* Not too much wonk going on there if you ask me.

I made the pillows to match this quilt (which looks really bad since it was wadded up in a big heap on his bed):




I think some of the solids that put in the pillows make it so much brighter than the actual quilt. Oh well. I still like it and it makes a very cozy looking bed.




Even if his bed never really looks like this.

What I Did During Summer Vacation, Part I

We have had a great summer vacation, so far. It keeps on going because the kids don't go back to school this year until September 9! It has been nice this summer, because the kids are older and have lots of activities, and I don't feel that I have to be taking them somewhere all the time. And, I even got some things accomplished this summer.

First off - remember the sneak peak? Oh, you don't? But it was only 4 months ago. *sigh* Yes, that baby blanket was on my design wall forEVer. But I finally finished it - and here it is.





I'm not sure if you can see it - but I stitched her name in the blanket. I hope that they see it one day.



For the back, I used one of Valori Wells Urban Flannels.



LOVE it.



And I got a little bit tricky with the signature block.



I think it looks cute. And I love the happy little heart that I accidentally stitched in. (You'll probably have to enlarge the pic the see that.)

Of course, there is one truly sad thing. We hand delivered this blanket to it's recipient - and I didn't get. one. picture. I don't even know what I was thinking. Well, I guess I wasn't thinking.

Okay, that's it for now. I'll be back soon with more summer vacation projects.

Placemat Swap

Both Marit and I received our placemats - so it's safe to post about them.

Here is the fabulous placemat that I received from Marit.


LOVE it! I admired that girl in one of Marit's other quilts, and I'm so glad that I got one of my own! I love everything about this placemat - the colors, the fabric, the girl. It's wonderful!

Here's the back.


I think that we can all agree that you can never go wrong with Katie Jump Rope fabric! Even her signature block is fabulous.

Here is the placemat that I sent to Marit.


She posted more about it here. She really said such sweet things. I think that she made me blush.



I really enjoyed making this placemat. I'm really not very good improv piecing. While some of this is improv, certainly most of the main blocks are traditional blocks. And I loved, LOVED working with the linen (the white part of the placemat is linen). I think I have a new addiction.

There have been lots of circle quilts floating around blogland. I used Elisa's Back Porch templates, that are mentioned by Rachel, for the circle block. LOVE those templates.

In other news, I mailed in my blocks for the Three by Three Swap. A day late. *sigh* Of course.


We're doing another month for July, and then I have a couple of private 9 patch swaps going on, too. One of those swappers has already finished her blocks. *double sigh* But let's face it, Emily is a huge overachiever. She does fabulously wonderful things, while travelling all over to more weddings in a year than I think I've been to in my whole life! The other private swapper, my namesake Michelle, lives fairly close to me, so I might make her meet me somewhere to get her blocks. Gotta love blackmail.

I received my Kaleidoscope book, which, as you can guess, is incredible! I can hardly wait to get started on it.

Okay, off to work on my ever growing to do list. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer.

Gloating and Finishing

Okay, first the gloat. Because really, this is such a good gloat.

I'm sure everyone's knows about Melly & Me (and if you don't, what are you waiting for? Go check them out!). And, if you're familiar with them, then you know that they came out with a new book.



Would you just look at all the fabulousness inside this book?



Go here to see bigger and better pictures.

Have you guessed yet? I won a copy of that book! Yes! Me! Can you believe it? Well, I couldn't. When I looked at the winning post and saw the name Michelle I was sure that it wasn't "me" Michelle, because we know there are so many Michelle's out there. But then I put my cursor on the name and guess which Michelle it was? Me Michelle. MichelleSews' Michelle. I seriously had to check 3 or 4 times just to make sure it was really me. Then I had to email Melly & Me just to make sure it was really me. Because really. I was the winner of such a fabulous book? Out of over 250 entries? And not just a book - oh no! A signed copy of the book. Ah, bliss.

Okay, I'll stop gloating. For now.

As for the finishing. I joined the Placemat Quilt Swap on Flickr. My partner is the wonderful Marit of Quilt It. She has done some fabulous things and I was so excited to get her as a partner. She asked for something summery, and I hope I succeeded in making her that. I can only post a sneak peak since I have to get it in the mail to her before I can show it. Here's the sneak peak.



The fabrics that I used in it are from Malka Dubrawsky of A Stitch in Dye. It was one of those serendipitous moments when I was on the computer at the right time, right after she had listed some scraps and fabric squares for sale on Etsy. Okay, okay. Maybe spending far too much time on the computer had a litle to do with it, too. HOWEVER, in this case all the computer time apent was totally worth it! The fabrics were really fun to work with.

Okay, off to try to get some more things finished. I hope summer is treating everyone well.

No Mojo May

Okay, I kind of didn't have much sewing mojo going on in May, so I didn't post. Also, the emotional roller coaster of teenagedom has been a bit much for me lately. Excuses, excuses. I'm full of them lately.

I have managed to get a few things done. I got my blocks done for the Three by Three Swap that Anina is hosting. I was lucky enough to get in (and didn't have to worry about an invite, thank goodness).


I was so happy that I got into this swap, since I just love the way my 9 patch quilt turned out (although I still need to quilt that baby), and would love to have another 9 patch quilt.

I also got some strips cut for the Quilt Along hosted by the Old Red Barn Co. I'm not going to officially "enter" the Old Red Barn contest, but I thought the quilt looked like a fun project.



These are Flirt by Robyn Pandolph fabrics. I fell in love with them and was lucky enough to get a lot of them at half off. Not everybody loved them as much as I did, apparently.

I've also been doing some knitting. I started a February Lady Sweater (Ravelry link), because Carrie suggested it. And she was right on. I'm loving it. I hope to get it finished soon.

I also met up with my girlfriend in early May and knit up this set for her.


I won the bag pattern from Marie at Permission to Unwind. It's such a cute pattern and knit up so fast. My girlfriend loved it.

And, because so many of you loved the alligator in my last post, I thought I'd post a picture that proves just how close we could get to them.


That's my baby in the picture. And no, I did not take this picture. I didn't even know about the picture until I was looking through the pictures on the camera and saw this one. Her older brother took the picture because he wanted to show how close you could get to the alligators. I just love my children.