a lack of confidence

I spent 2.5 hours in a quilt shop yesterday.
Normally, I'm in and out in about 30 minutes-- I make decisions pretty quickly. But yesterday, I needed to pick out fabric for the Carolyn quilt. I decided on an easy pinwheel pattern from Material Obsession called Cowboy Baby. Since the quilt in the book was tiny, about 40" x 48", and I have limited time, I decided to make my blocks twice as large (you know how I love the big blocks).
But I had the hardest time picking out the fabric. My eyes always go immediately towards stripes, dots, brights, solids and contemporary prints. I knew that those wouldn't do for a lodge-inspired quilt living in the Adirondacks. This is probably the first time ever that I've been continuously second-guessing my choices. I had a lot of help from the women at the shop, which was great (though one thought I was nuts for not putting dark binding on every quilt I make, but that's another story).
Since the quilt is surrounded by a large border, I had help picking out the print used as the border in this pattern as my inspiration.


I haven't bought the border yet because I want to cut it parallel to the selvedge as opposed to the way it's shown in the picture, and I need to know the length first. It's actually pretty cute, with half moons and red flowers on a dark blue background. Most of the fabric I picked for the middle of the quilt is from the same line, American Primer:
I'm not in love with this, though I did like it much more next to the border. Maybe I just need to wait and see.

Mr. and Mrs. D

This is a wedding present, just about a month late, for my stepbrother and new stepsister-in-law:I went to my favorite nearly local quilt shop (an hour away) and bought the stripes for the binding, the pale aqua border, and I splurged for the good stuff for the back:That strip in the middle was going to be a fifth row on the front of the quilt, but I knew I wouldn't get around to ordering the 2.5" x 7" piece of fabric I needed, so I decided on a big border instead.
I also joined the Cult of Mettler yesterday-- that thread is amazing. I used nearly 3 spools (and nearly $10) of the silk-finish. I picked aqua, and it blends into the border and the flowers in the backing perfectly. Between using a ton of safety pins, superpremium thread and a new needle, this quilt came together really easily, despite all of the little pieces.

I quilted diagonal lines 2" apart. I always forget how much I love straight line quilting. Because this quilt is pretty busy, I thought that stippling would've been just a little too much.
Once I put the binding on, I'll be ready to send this to southern California. I know they aren't expecting this, so it'll be a nice surprise.

so excited!

I just got asked to create a quilt on commission! My stepmother has a sister, Carolyn, turning 60 next month and wants me to make a quilt for her. Of course I said yes!
The one thing (besides time) that's making me nervous is that my stepmother's sister (my step-aunt, I guess?) lives in a log cabin/lodge house on a lake in upstate New York. The quilt should evoke a lodge, and my stepmom wants me to also incorporate the theme of "sisters". There are four girls, all with first names that start with the letter C.
So, I think the quilt will be much more traditional than I typically lean. Which is fine-- good, maybe, to test my boundaries. Do you guys have any ideas?
My first thought was to make four patchwork girls, but I'm unsure what else I should do. Trees? Those houses that are so popular? My mind is really reeling, but the timing is great: my husband is going out of town for the weekend with his brother, so I have the whole weekend to sew. And the weather is really cooling down, so it should be a good time to quilt.

crayon roll

As I mentioned, my friend Rebecca has a daughter turning two in August. I don't know too many two-year-olds, but I remember seeing a lot of crayon rolls around the holidays here in Blogland. I looked at a few of them, and with my $0.25 box of Crayolas, went to work. Here's what I came up with:Rebecca carries a purse the size of a golfbag, so I know this will fit no problem. The surprise is how looooooong it is:That's a 24-box.
I tried my hardest to match all of the colours of crayons to scrap fabric, and I think I did an OK job. The red is some linen I had in my stash that is unfortunately not quilt-friendly, and the back is some of my favorite Alexander Henry. Amazingly, the crayons were the only thing purchased for this. I had fun arranging the crayons and finding little scraps. Each piece is about 2x6". I trimmed them down to about 2x5 after sewing all of the colours together.
I hope they both like it!

half square triangles

Inspired by this quilt, I decided to try it with my 12 Deer Valley fat quarters:Apologies for the sunset picture...
You can see there are 12 HSTs across, one of each fat quarter. They are trimmed down to 5.5" square. I decided to lay them out in diagonal rows, and am pleased with my original placement. Here's a close up:
This is for my good friend Rachel in Wisconsin, who just bought a house. Her style is a little more traditional than what I choose, and she said she's decorating in red and tan-- next to purple, those are the least popular colours in my collection.
I had a hard time deciding what solid to use. My original thought was white, but I wanted to make it a little more exciting. My second thought was dark brown, but I still wasn't happy. Then, I wanted a blue, but this blue is very tricky to match, and it made some of the prints look muddy. Luckily, with my fat quarters in hand (still fresh from the Fat Quarter Shop, in their great plastic bag), the woman at my local quilt shop was able to steer me towards this color, which I'm calling pumpkin.
Does it work? I've been staring at it for a few days now, unsure of what I'm going to do for the back. These Deer Valley colours are so specific, and while I absolutely adore them, they're nearly impossible to coordinate with other lines (or, ahem, cheaper JoAnn fabric for the back). I might actually have to spring for the good stuff. But which print?

lots and lots of sewing

I feel like it's been forever since I posted, but I guess it was just on Saturday.   A big problem with the Park Ave. Sweat Shop is that the physical sweat shop space seems to be about 15-20 degrees warmer than the rest of the house, despite two big open windows.  With an iron and a very bright lamp over my machine, it gets to be a little unbearable.   Regardless, I've been doing a ton of sewing. I don't have any pictures today, but here's a little teaser:

1) I made an orange dress completely out of my stash.  I even managed to cut into some of my Lightning Bugs fabric.

2) I added a border of 2.5" squares around the Mr. and Mrs. D quilt, and will probably add a larger outside border on (at least?) two sides. Color suggestions encouraged and welcome!

3) I've made a half-square triangle quilt top out of the persimmon colorway of Deer Valley.  I'm not a very good HST maker (even after trimming off those little dogears!)  The other half of the squares are a pumpkin-colored Marcus solid. 

4) I took a stab at making a crayon roll for Rebecca's daughter who is turning two next month.  This was an easy and fun project that cost all of $0.25 for a new box of Crayola Crayons.  

Pictures to come soon, I promise.  My memory card can be read by my camera but not by the computer for whatever reason.  Off to buy a new one today!

AQB2-- July

Anna sent out fabrics that coordinated with a fantastic vintage sheet she plans on using for the backing:She sent nice big pieces, and wanted a scrappy block. I used scissors instead of a rotary cutter which gave my pieces a satisfyingly almost-wonky-almost-straight look. I love the center of that Heather Bailey flower, and I'm curious who designed the pale pink fabric-- the birds and birdcages were fussy cut, and my very favorites for this block. I see lots of red and aqua quilts out there, and think I need to make one-- but with a healthy dose of ballet pink.