Key Lime Pie

From this...

To this.

I delivered the Key Lime Pie quilt to my sister on Mother's Day.  And it was already well-loved. The Monster managed to get some chocolate on it while it awaited packing for the trip.  The dangers of quilting in the dining/living room.

When I finished the quilt top and showed Hubby he commented, "Well, it's not the most exciting quilt you've ever made."  Maybe not, but it is purely me and very much my sister.  The circles, of course, are me.  The colours are perfect for her.  Besides, I believe it is good to push yourself a little outside your comfort zone.  There is still a lot of contrast, but it is definitely softer than most of my work.

I started off with half-square triangles, but quickly realized that it wouldn't give me the look I wanted.  So I trimmed the squares I'd already cut to make the triangles and went for these right angle triangles instead.  They still didn't end up how I expected.  I'd actually wanted to piece them yellow to yellow, brown to brown in order to make it more like an equilateral triangle. I did not, however, think about the directionality of the fabric.  Sometimes, the third time is the charm.

After appliqueing the circles I free-motioned quilted the whole thing, with some extra circles here and there.  And I quilted around the circles to make them pop a bit more.  With everything so similar in colour value I needed to do something more to make them stand out.

On the back was a single piece of this Amy Butler.  No label yet because it was lost somewhere in transit.  I made it and thought I brought it with me to Edmonton, but I couldn't find it anywhere there nor at home when we returned.  Next time.

Speaking of next time, I'm making another quilt with this fabric.  I can't resist, especially after seeing them all laid out next to each other here.  It can be one to work on without thinking about it once I return to work next week. 

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.