this is more like it

My second commissioned quilt, in progress:
This is for my brother's lady friend, Nicole. Her birthday is coming up, and she loves yellow. I used a cheater panel for the middle and I'm totally in love with this little quilt. I used some of my solid scraps to make a wide border around it, and went around 1 1/4 times (see the double wide border on the left-hand side?) That made it as wide as I wanted it to be, and also I liked that the panel was now a bit off-center. I ran out of yellow thread when I was about 80% done quilting the top (the part where Cassidy is standing) is unquilted.
Here's the pieced back, again, all from my stash:
There's a tiny strip of leftover Patchwork Promonade from the front on the back. The wrinkled part hasn't been quilted yet. Am I the only one who can't lay out a quilt without a dogfriend joining the party?
I've decided that I need to buy Dual Duty XP thread in color 7310 in bulk. It's the same thread I used (and ran out of) on Rebecca's quilt, and I did the same thing here. It's a pretty butter yellow color, and I've gone through no fewer than 5 spools of it in the past month. Yikes.
I'm unsure what colour I'll use for the binding. Maybe I'll make it scrappy, just to add to the whole thing. I totally adore this quilt-- I told Max that if he and Nicole ever break up, I want the quilt back (I kid, I kid... mostly.) Once the quilting is complete I'll post better and brighter pictures. I think this is just what I needed to go back to working on the Carolyn quilt.

yellow Friday

OK, I know you have to look really hard for the yellow, but I had to show off my new Orla Kiely serving tray. All kinds of blog friends were excited for the collection at Target, and obviously I am, too. I'm in love with this print-- and it matches my red kitchen and aqua dishes nicely. This will probably be an inspiration for a future quilt. Wouldn't this be great yardage? While circles and curves still scare me, the colours are delicious and the balance of this is really, rediculously pleasing to me.

yellow Thursday

I'm pretty impressed that I've been able to keep up with this picture-and-post-a-day thing. Here's an exciting picture for today:These are my yellow quilting gloves. I only use them when I'm actually quilting, not piecing, and they are wonderful. I'll admit that there is a tiny hole on the thumb of the left hand where I got a little too close to the needle and managed to sew them to a quilt once (or twice...). The grips are great, even if they look funny while I'm wearing them. For more yellow-y goodness, they're on top of a work-in-progress AND on top of my yellow cutting mat. You'll notice I cut into the Amy Butler Martini print and have some other goodies in there. I'll post more about that project later.

Meanwhile, I sent off my fat quarters for Darci's spring FQ swap, and for Sew Mama Sew's swap. I should've taken pictures before I sent them, and will definitely take pictures of what I receive.

yellow Wednesday

Here is a close-up of a wreath I made for my guest room door. I've had a lot of overnight guests in the past two years on Park Ave., and it's really been nice to say, "Your room is the one with the wreath". The sweatshop is very traditional in shape, and there are five doors, one window, and one linen closet on the second floor. The sunny yellow and orange brighten it considerably. This was a one-hour project; I made a matching one for my mother-in-law.

yellow Tuesday

I know this is a crafting blog, but when I'm not crafting or working, I'm typically exercising (or drinking wine). For the second day of yellow week, I'm posting a picture of my 10 pound weights, which were definitely used heavily (ha) tonight in my aerobics class. I'm thinking of going up to 12 pounds, but sometimes the hardest part of my workout is lugging them (and my 8s, and my 3s) from my car to the gym and back again. Maybe someday.