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.

Project Improv Quilt

Man, this was a beast to finish!  I was stuck for a while and didn't want to touch this.  My brain couldn't figure out how to do those white triangles on the edges and how to get the top together without inset seams.  Finally, after quite a few naps I got the damn thing done.  And there are still inset seams.

This is my Project Improv quilt.  I wanted to try something new.  Honestly, this isn't that new. The blocks were made exactly as you would a wonky log cabin, only with three sides.  I used a template to trim each block to size. The layout is no different than a very traditional quilt called Thousand Pyramids.  Sometimes you don't need to throw out the old when you want something new.  

AmandaJean inspired this multi-coloured look with her Snippets quilt. The entire top was made from scraps/stash.  That being said, I realized that I have no white batting so I still need to go shopping!