"family"

Your Parents Are Cool Part 2

We returned from a weekend in Edmonton.  As usual, it was crazy busy with lots of driving around to get visits in.  But my mother-in-law was great to me, babysitting so I could go to my niece's school concert and have dinner out with an old girlfriend.  On Saturday we threw a baby shaker for the recipient of Your Parents Are Cool, and his parents, of course.  In there I also got to spend the afternoon with my sister-in-law and little Lucca.  And take more pictures of his quilt.
This is my favourite block.  Just as I was putting blocks together I received my prize from Sew Mama Sew and this orange puppy fabric was in it.  Considering that Indy, the retired racing greyhound, is part of the family in Lucca's house I had to include some of this.  The top fabric is actually from another baby quilt that I made two years ago.  I love including fabric with a little bit of history.
It was really hard to capture the quilting on this.  I tried tonnes of different lighting options too.  Hopefully you get the gist of it.  I travelled vertically down the quilt, creating rectangular loops - for lack of a better term.  The next line would be offset so the rectangle was in the vertical space left between two rectangles in the adjacent line of quilting.  Does that make sense?  If it doesn't and you are really curious let me know and I'll scan my sketch. 

Yes, I did say sketch there.  Quite often I will sketch out my quilting pattern.  Rarely do I mark, but I find the repetition of sketching the pattern helps me work out kinks and get in the rhythm of the actual quilting.  If I've ever taken an extended break from the quilting I will often do another sketch to warm up.


Finally, it would be mean to share a baby quilt without sharing a picture of the little man.  Here is our nephew, Lucca, enjoying his quilt.  His mom was wondering last week just which of his half dozen homemade blankets would become his blankie.  I vote for mine.

The Monster is quite out of sorts with Daddy out of town. She is fighting a bit of a cold and a sister who wakes her up just a bit too early. On this particular morning there were no demands to paint, bake, or even watch videos of The Ting Tings on You Tube. Instead she made herself a bed on the living room floor with Hercules, her crocheted blankie, under her and requests to cover up with her quilts. All three quilts that are hers.

And when we left to run errands the dog made herself at home on the quilts to settle in for a nap. Comfort knows no bounds.

Surprisingly Productive

Gee, with Hubby away I am managing to get a lot of things done.  And the girls are even napping at the same time in the afternoon.  Today I actually found myself twiddling my thumbs. Okay, I was on-line with no purpose.  It's the modern day version of twiddling your thumbs.

In just 24 hours I managed to get the quilting done on the Key Lime Pie quilt and get the binding attached.  Even I'm impressed with myself.  Of course my floors are covered in dog hair and I haven't emptied the dishwasher in two days.  If I wasn't blogging during American Idol I would be handstitching that right now (and ignoring the filth).

One last thing to share, I have to tell you that when I ordered fabric the other night I caved on Etsy and ordered from A Stitch in Dye.  Seriously, aren't those the most saturated colours?  I have nothing in mind, we'll see what comes to mind when they arrive.  Now, to stay away from Etsy tonight.

Your Parents Are Cool


Because I can't get motivated to quilt this quilt, I thought I would share some overdue pictures of the surprise baby quilt I posted about months ago.  My nephew was born two months ago, but we were only able to share the quilt with the little guy last weekend.  And of course I forgot to charge the camera batteries to take pictures.  These ones come courtesy of my sister-in-law.  I'll post some more detailed shots next week.

Can you see where I got the inspiration?  My brother- and sister-law are very funky decorators.  Once I saw the pictures of this graphic I knew exactly what to do for the quilt.  Out went the circles and in came this improvisational piece.

Included in the fabrics are oranges I won from Sew Mama Sew, the sheets and bed skirt my mother-in-law made for the nursery, and a few from quilts both The Monster and Smilosaurus have.  A most excellent use of stash.

I struggled with the back for a while, I wasn't quite sure how to use the fabric I had.  Ultimately I went for another recreation of the graphic.  The label is simple and I left it unadorned so it didn't distract from the design.  Can you see it there on the right hand side?

There will be more pictures, I promise.  You should see the quilting pattern on this.  Very funky and it was so easy!

In the meantime, I'm just opening a beer and watching 24.  Hubby is out of town and I have no energy to quilt.  Maybe tomorrow.  Oh, and don't tell Hubby, but I also bought some fabric on-line.  Bad Cheryl.