In Like a Lamb...

I'm not entirely sure how tomorrow is March 1st, especially since we've had an extremely weak (if not non-existent) winter in these parts.  *sigh*  And I definitely did not get enough projects completed this winter!  *another sigh*  I probably say that every year, though.

Friends of mine are expecting their second boy on March 15th, so I've spent a couple of late nights after work madly sewing a baby quilt for them.  I'm using a fun pattern called Yellow Brick Road (Atkinson Designs) which I've had on my shelf for a while but never used.  Wow, this pattern works up quickly.  I've already got a completed top and pieced back, just waiting for a weekend to layer, baste and machine quilt!   Photo of the completed top below...

I don't think I've ever put this much red into a quilt in my whole life, and I was a little apprehensive at the start, but the folks I'm making this quilt for just aren't the pastel type.  So I used a lot of super cool fabrics with airplanes, trucks, dots and squiggly lines, and I'm pretty happy with the result.  I was lucky enough to have a little extra backing fabric to cut corner squares from, just to break up the red border a bit.

Close up of a couple of the blocks...

It's kind of hard to see where one block ends and another begins, but the pattern has you whip up a few different variations of a finished 9" square block.  Six fat quarters gets you the whole top sans borders, which for the baby size ends up about 36" x 45" and a pretty sizable quilt for a little guy.  The pattern called for 6 1/2" cut borders, which I thought was ridiculously wide for the overall size of the top, so I scaled back and cut them 5" and added the blue corner squares.  The back is a continuous cut of the dark blue truck fabric, which I had to sew a grey strip down the left side for extra width.

The vertical grey strip is not in the above shot, but pretty easy to imagine... I might use that space after the quilt is done to applique name letters, if I have time, of course!  The project is resting until the weekend when I have more time.  In the meantime, I need to marinate ideas about machine quilting.  I don't have time to send it out to a professional long-armer, so I'll be doing the machine quilting myself with a really cool red, blue and yellow variegated thread I picked up at my local quilt shop.  Happy Thursday, everyone!

Beginnings

The idea for this blog germinated a few weeks ago when, not surprisingly, I was hunting through a bookcase for something craft-related.  I came upon a small hardcover notebook that I probably purchased almost 20 years ago, and realized it was a quilter's journal.  Well, it was supposed to be.  Best laid plans, right?  Sadly, I have been sorely remiss in its upkeep.  There are a few projects detailed from my early college days and a few years following, and even some snapshots (yes, actual printed photographs) of finished projects.  And then there are blank pages.  LOTS of blank pages.  I thought about those blank pages, and about all the projects I've completed in the many years since... mostly quilts, many of them gifts for weddings or births, and all of them memorable.  Except that I did not do my "due diligence" in keeping track of them.  Sigh.  But then it hit me.  What if I had actually kept my journal faithfully?  What would I have now?  Sure, I'd have descriptions of all the beautiful and creative projects I've completed, maybe photographs as well, but who would see them besides me?  Much of the joy of creativity is sharing it with others, be they family, friends, or those in the world with similar interests.  I firmly believe that ideas and information should be accessible to anyone and everyone.  So the dusty book is hidden back on a crowded bookshelf.  And thus, my blog is born.  Stay tuned.