I Do - Part 2

I wanted to do something very special for Matt to give him as a wedding gift. Of all of the things I could think of, the thing that stood out the most was a quilt. The only other person who has ever made him a quilt is his mom and quilts hold a special significance in his family. Ann makes quilts for her loved ones as gifts to honor their completion of major life events like confirmation, graduation, and of course marriage. I love this about Ann and I plan to do the same for our children some day. I came across a modern pattern called "I Do" by Cherry House Quilts. It really stood out to me as something that I would love to snuggle up in or hang from a wall while still having marriage significance.

The pattern calls for a mixture of vibrant florals and geometrics matched with classic solids. I liked the distribution of color and pattern in the sample quilt on pattern instructions so I tried selecting fabrics similar. I did make one change that I think really keeps the quilt in line with my style: I used vibrant floral and geometric batiks instead of prints.

I am a big fan of ordering fabric online but when I received my fabrics for this quilt I was a little disappointed. Everything was so much BRIGHTER and bolder than it looked on my computer screen and when arranged my solids and batiks together....well, no offense to rainbows but it looked like a rainbow. I kept the fabrics together for a bit and just let my brain get used to them. Eventually I decided that I would arrange the fabrics so that they weren't in order of the colors in the rainbow. It would still be bright, but not Rainbow Bright.

I sewed the "i"s together long ago but I am finally getting around to adding borders. Now that I am looking at it I realize that I originally intended to do things a little differently but it still looks ok. I think I originally wanted to add another black border between the blue border and the pink and purple border. The fabric is cut so there's not much I can do now...so here goes:

What do you think? Should I take the pink and purple border off and add a black on? I have just a little extra fabric so I could probably make it work. This is what it would look like with the additional black border and a black binding:

New Stuff!

My order from the Missouri Star Quilt Company came in today! I can't wait to show and tell! What project are you working on right now?

My Little Helper

I just wanted to share a quick picture I snapped minutes ago of Lucy "helping" me under my desk. She always wants to be wherever I am and especially loves being under the table I am working at. Here she is under my sewing table behind my computer desk.

I am currently working on adding a few items to my shop Lovie and Boo on Etsy. Check me out if you are interested in cover button jewelry. Have a great day and Happy Sewing!

Rainbow Around the Block Part 2

I have been using my time this weekend to write wedding thank you cards and catch up on some sewing projects I have been meaning to do. I mentioned in an earlier post that I want to donate some blocks for Ana Maria Horner's Rainbow Around the Block. I made 6 blocks to send to TN for this project. Here are some pictures!

I tried out the Missouri Star Quilt Company's pinwheel technique to make these triangles but I didn't like the way they looked as pinwheels since all of the fabrics are brown. I sewed them together so that all of the polka dot fabrics were going to same way and all of the prints were going the same way. For the second block I had a couple of leftover rows of triangles so I added a few strips of print fabric between the rows and around the edges:

I tried the Disappearing 9 Patch technique with some pink scraps I had laying around:

I tried The Joesph Block from Ana Maria Horner's blog with some orange scraps and fat quarters:

And finally I made a scrappy strip block with some strips leftover from the nursing cover I made my sister and the coasters I made my neighbor:

I'm also thinking about making a cover for my camera strap to make it pretty. I am not sure what colors I want to do yet...Purple is "my" color but I am not sure if I have any great purples lying around. I'm going go go dig around my stash and see if I can find something that will work. Happy sewing!

Charm Style

I placed my order at the Missouri Star Quilt Company and am looking forward to receiving my goodies in the mail. I ended up getting several charm packs, a Kona Solid jelly roll, some solid black fabric that I am going to cut into 2..5" strips for sashing, and the binding tool as well as a Dresden Plate ruler. I have never thought of doing anything that traditional but I think there might be a way to modernize the pattern with non-traditional fabric colors. I can't wait to try out this pinwheel technique from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. I wasn't able to find it directly through their website but I was able to find it on youtube.com



I have been re-organizing my sewing space, hence no new projects at the moment. I am only now realizing that I didn't take any before pictures to document how absolutely terrible my set-up was before but I will take some pictures of how things are set up now. I love having my sewing space in the basement of our townhouse because it's nice and cool!