Little Boy Blue: The Quilt So Nice I Made It Twice

Little boy blue,

Come blow your horn,

The sheep's in the meadow,

The cow's in the corn.

But where is the boy

Who looks after the sheep?

He's under a haystack,

Fast asleep.

–Mother Goose

Early last fall I made a really fun scrappy quilt, Pinkalicious for my sister's sweet new baby girl. It was so much fun to make and I thought it would be just as much fun to make one in blue. It was.

When I found out a dear friend of mine, who had married in her mid-thirties and had struggled with infertility, was expecting her first baby, I knew that's the quilt I wanted to make for her. She was due in late November, but he was born about six weeks early, which makes this quilt three months late. About my usual, lately .

I've had the top finished since the beginning of November and have had so much going on I haven't had a minute to quilt it. Also, I was kind of dreading working with the Ultra-Cuddle {fuzzy on both sides and stretchy} on the back. Getting the back to work with the Pinkalicious quilt was an adventure/learning process and even though I knew what I wanted to do {fuse the layer of flannel that I used instead of batting directly to the Ultra-Cuddle to help stabilize it}, I still lacked the momentum {motivation/desire/time} to do it. You know how you put off a task that you anticipate being unpleasant, right? The Ultra-Cuddle combined with the satin blanket binding, which is an absolute pain to work with, made a combination I was not looking forward to. But I just can't resist putting that oh-so-soft-and-silky edge on baby blankets. The texture is especially nice with fleece or Minky or Ultra-Cuddle, so it really wasn't optional for this quilt.

The quilting was really fun to do, once I finished the stitch-in-the-ditch to stabilize the whole thing. I found an image of a star I liked, sized it to fit in the 4" squares and the 1" setting squares and printed them out. Marking is not my favorite thing, so used some glue that is like a sticky note when it dries on the back of my paper templates and stuck them to my quilt, but the points kept coming up and they shifted. Lane mentioned he was going to use freezer paper to do the same thing, and I thought that might work better than the sticky note glue, but he reported back that he had corners popping up too, that he didn't like it much, and probably wouldn't try it again, so I bagged the idea, traced the stars onto a light-weight cardboard {think cereal box}, cut them out and then traced them onto the quilt top with the old blue marking pen standby. Again. {Sidebar: I'm looking for new, less expensive way to mark quilts. The cost of marking pens is ridiculous, even with a 50% off coupon. I know that the Frixion gel pens are fairly inexpensive, but after reading this review, I don't think I'll use it to mark my quilts. I thought Geta's suggestion of the Bic Kid's Couleur Washable Markers was an interesting one. They are not sold in the US, but you can find them on eBay. I wonder if Crayola's Washable markers would work as well? Perhaps I'll experiment.}. After I did the stars, I did loops in the sashing. This quilt goes in the mail tomorrow to it's new little owner, who I hope will cuddle and drag and love this quilt until it falls apart.

Today's post brought to you by:

Something New: Mission Impossible Style

Nothing is impossible. Some things are just less likely than others. –Jonathan Winters

A couple of years back, I made a section of Double Wedding Ring and framed it. It was a wedding gift for a girl in our ward {congregation}, who I didn't know very well at all. Another woman in the ward made the wedding dress and contacted me about making something keepsake-ish with the left-over wedding dress fabric. She had the scoop on the wedding colors and flowers. The planets aligned and the perfect line of fabric in those colors fell right in my lap and it worked out beautifully.

In a few weeks, another girl in our ward is getting married. She comes from a wonderful family and I know this girl a lot better. She was my favorite babysitter, when I could get her. You sometimes had to book two weeks out. When I heard she was getting married, a single thought fluttered around in my head for a few minutes about doing something special for her and then it fluttered on its way.

When I received her invitation in the mail, I started thinking seriously about making something special for her, realizing that I only had a month until the wedding. After all, I went to a lot of trouble for a girl I barely knew, at someone else's suggestion. I wanted to do something equally special for this sweet girl. I decided to recreate the Double Wedding Ring in a frame.

I started asking around about my young friend's wedding colors and flowers and if she was having her dress made. She bought her dress. No problem. I could just use white fabric for the background fabrics. Her flowers are white roses with a bunch of other random flowers. Again, no problem. I can do white roses and random. And her wedding colors are Eggplant and Lilac and Sage and Lime Green. And that's where things got sticky. Purple is the hardest color in the universe to match precisely and my ideas of lime green and sage green don't go together. I wanted to keep this a surprise from the girl and her mother, so there were a few days of debate in my head on what to do about choosing the right colors of fabric. I shopped on-line because it is convenient and I can do it after the Not-So-Little Bugs go to bed. But matching colors on line, especially when you're going in blind, is a crap shoot.

I started by searching "eggplant." I found a pretty Joel Dewberry floral and looked for fabrics to go with it, in shades of dark and light purple in the eggplant and lilac family.

I agonized for ages about which fabrics I'd picked and kept shopping carts open for three days in two on-line stores, taking things out of the carts and putting them back in. It took a week for all the fabric to get here and when it did, I started to worry about the colors all over again. I worried that I'd missed the mark, especially with the lilac I'd chosen. Then there was the fact that some of the fabrics didn't match at all. The dark solid fabric on the far left is more raisin than eggplant. And those polka dots are way too pink. Some of the greens were a little off too.

With no small amount of further internal debate, I decided to see if I could get color swatches without arousing too much suspicion. I called the mother of the bride-to-be and she was most obliging and didn't ask too many questions, presumably because they were right in the middle of dinner when I called. She sent one of her boys over with the swatches, and I was relieved to find that most of what I ordered will work.

I did a little stash diving to flesh out the color ranges {I'll show you later; it was too dark to get good pictures} and threw the new fabrics in the wash.

In the meantime, I've been doodling quilting designs. My pencil sketches kind of remind me of blue prints. When I quilted the first DWR, I did what I knew, which wasn't much; echo quilting ¼" away from all the seams. My quilting skills have improved since then, and I want to do something really special.

I'm pretty sure this needs a little more work. Perhaps just a single half-feather?

And I'm not really sure about this. I love how the curved lines converge in the corners, but I don't like the uneven gap it leaves in the center. Mr. Bug says it looks like a Crusaders' Cross and I can see what he means. He also said it looks too "plaid," but that I can't see, because what I see in my head is solid white fabric, quilted in white, with little crystals in each of the small squares that are created when the lines intersect. If only I could get rid of that gap and still keep the cool corners, but I might just have to quilt this in straight lines. Opinions?

I don't even have an idea of what to quilt in the rings. If you have ideas or have seen something spectacular quilted in a DWR, please point me in that direction.

The wedding is February 16^th. That gives me 19 18 days to get this finished. It will probably take a week to get it framed {remind me to call on that tomorrow, so I know for sure}, so that gives me about 9 days to cut, assemble, quilt and mount this little project. It will be cutting it close, but I think that will give the framers enough time to get it back to me so I can get it to the bride before the wedding.

Mr. Bug asked me if it was even possible for me to get this done, knowing that the last week and the first week of the month are my busiest times at work and I often work 40 hours during those weeks. I told him, probably not, but I'm going to try anyway.

A little theme music, please.

Sunday Sermons: Drops of Awesome

Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. –Alma 37:6

How many times do you do something good while beating yourself up for all the times you weren't perfect? I borrowed that question from Kathryn Thompson at Daring Young Mom. I know I do it all the time and her post, Drops of Awesome, really hit home for me. It's something I want to share with you. I've been thinking about this for a couple of weeks and would really just love to include her post, word-for-word, here. I've decided to include just half the post a couple of highlights to whet your appetite so that you'll want to click on over and read the whole post.

Do not rob yourself of this moment’s joy because of what you failed to do yesterday or what you fear you might not do tomorrow.

Every time you do something good, something kind, something productive, it’s a drop in your Bucket of Awesome. You don’t lose drops for every misstep. You can only build. You can only fill.

When I started thinking about my life in terms of adding these little Drops of Awesome for every tiny act of good, I found that I was doing more and more of them because it’s a lot more fun to do good when you’re rewarded with joy, rather than being guilted about every failure in your past.

As I added up these Drops of Awesome, I found that in those moments I actually became the person I had always wanted to be.

In the end, it’s really about allowing yourself to feel joy and allowing yourself to be proud of the small victories of life. This builds momentum and you want more drops in your bucket and when you don’t get as many, you pick yourself up and say, “What can I do next?”

When we are in a relationship with Christ, striving as God’s sons and daughters to do His will, He pours more into our buckets than we can ever hope to imagine. He can fill us to overflowing with peace, with joy, with perfection, with Awesome. And then what do we do if our bucket is overflowing like that? Where does the Awesome go then?

Our capacity for joy and light increases. And we just keep working, one tiny drop at a time. And we don’t compare today’s drops to yesterday’s or tomorrow’s. And we live and we love and we repent when we do wrong and we allow ourselves to be glorious, beautiful, and dare I say perfect in Christ, children of God.

I believe in a God who loves us and roots for us and cheers for every Drop of Awesome we can manage. Our victories are His victories and He wants us to feel joy. Not later, when we no longer make mistakes, but right now.

Small and simple. Tiny drops. Go forth. Be Awesome.

Thank you, Kathryn. I think your post is truly a Drop of Awesome!

Stitchy Kits: The First Finishes of 2013

It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do. –Moliere

I've had my two Stitchy Kits finished since Monday, but haven't had a chance to post pictures of the finished project. I'm really excited about how they turned out. I absolutely love all the rainbow-y-ness.

This little kit by Lori Holt is the cleverest little thing for keeping all your hand sewing supplies in one place {click here for pattern}. You can lay it over the arm of a chair or couch while you stitch at home or take it with you when you take a project somewhere to work on. There are two Stitchy Kits here, shown at the top left. The components of a single kit are show across the bottom and up the right side in the photos above. One is for me and the other was for my birthday/blog-a-versary giveaway earlier this month and is on it's way to Martina in Switzerland.

I used Indie by Pat Bravo for this fun project and love how the fabrics worked together. I've got another little project in mind for this great fabric line.

Today's post brought to you by:

The Big Four-Oh Giveaway: Winner's Roll-Call

Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity. –Edwin Hubbel Chapin

I would like to thank everyone who entered my giveaways this past week-and-a-half. Thank you for the birthday wishes as well. I spent the day simply and it was just what I needed; a quiet day at home spent with the people I love and doing what I love. For those of you who are dreading 40, you don't need to worry. I feel the same as I did at 39 and 33 and 27 and 18, except perhaps, I am a little wiser.

And now it is time to reveal the winners. This part always kills me because I only have four prizes to give to four winners and I'm rooting for all of you. I wish I had a little something for everyone, but that's not the way it goes. I had the No-So-Little Bugs help me with the random draw. Based on the number of entrants for each giveaway, I gave them a range of numbers and let them pick one. I didn't tell them which giveaway they were doing or coach them in any way to pick the winners. It was completely fair and absolutely random.

• Quilter's Care Package Winner:

Drawn by LadyBug

Congratulations to
Shay
at Quilting In My Pyjamas


who said: Happy Blogiversary E! I always enjoy reading your posts.

And as for your actual birthday...shouldn't we be giving you presents instead of vice-versa? I hope you have a wonderful birthday no matter how you decide to celebrate. My 40^th is a little hazy because it was a number of years ago.

My favourite sewing tool are my flower head extra long pins. Did you know you can usually sew right over those suckers with no side effects? Note I said “usually.”


• Chocolate Sundae Batiks Fat Quarter Bundle Winner:

Drawn by Grasshopper

Congratulations to
Hafza
at Hook 'n Needle Creations

who said: My favorite colors combination are red, pink, brown and yellow!

Special thanks to The Fat Quarter Shop for sponsoring this giveaway.

• Indie Fat Quarter Bundle Winner:

Drawn by LadyBug



Congratulations to
Richard
at Richard and Tanya Quilts


who said: My wife has bought the full Ticklish line and Twirl and Amelia all from the Me and My Sisters collection. I did not buy the full line but almost the full line of Architectural and Reunion. But mostly I just buy random fabrics that interest me. I am all over the place but I do love when I can make a quilt out of a full line of fabrics.


• Stitchy Kit Winner:

Drawn by Grasshopper



Congratulations to
Martina
at Sunshine Quilting

who said: How lovely! The kit looks just great! Happy birthday to you! Be very much blessed and enjoy your day.

I remember my birthday as a child. My favourite cake always was the Black Forest cake. It has a lot of whipping cream and cherries in it. So on my 10^th birthday we went on a little hike into to forest and had the birthday celebration there. And my mom just brought this cake in her backbag with it. Wow, I don't know how she managed to do this but this was such a sign of love for me which I never forget.

Thank you again to everyone who entered and to my sponsor, The Fat Quarter Shop. The winners have been notified by e-mail and prizes will be mailed out shortly.