Blogger's Quilt Festival: Clouds and Rainbow Baby Quilt

Thanks to Hurricane Sandy, I was able to finish this rainbow log cabin quilt recently.  They closed the Air Force base on Monday and Nick got to have a paid day off of work.  What's a girl to do in this situation?  Work like mad on a WIP and hope that the power stays on while your husband watches the kids.  It ended up working out pretty well:

The pattern for this quilt comes from the Better Homes and Gardens Quilts and More Spring 2009 magazine.  The inspiration for the quilt came from this rainbow Riley Blake fabric pictured below - I loved the use of the dark blue in the print and thought that adding an element of "gray clouds" to the whole thing would be fun. 

 Like a lot of quilters in blogland lately, I have been using Angela Walter's new book to try out some new free motion quilting designs.  I think I like the paisley and woodgrain the best so far.  I attempted a different design in each log cabin strip, some more successfully than others.

 I think my favorite is the pebbles within the light blue pearl bracelet fabric:

 I used some AH "Love American Style" fabric that had been in my stash for ages, I am pretty sure the selvedge said "2006."  I bound it in an Erin McMorris Urban Garden purple print.

I am entering this quilt into the 2012 Blogger's Quilt Festival. 

Finished quilt measures: 51.5" square

Quilted by: me

Best Category: Favorite Baby Quilt, Favorite Scrap Quilt, Favorite Home Machine Quilted Quilt

Sewing Costumes

Things have been a little crazy around here - nothing too concerning or out of the ordinary, I have just been feeling overwhelmed.  This is the main reason why I kept asking myself why I was trying to make Charlotte's costume when cute baby costumes really aren't expensive.  But I felt committed because I wanted to go along with Gregory's Toy Story obsession and create something space-invader-ish, instead of the typical girl-oriented "Jessie" option.  I could not buy a lime/neon green beanie to save my life - I checked TONS of stores!  So I finally had to concede and make one:

 I also did a quick and dirty planet applique on her shirt.  I couldn't believe that some people guessed that she was Kermit the Frog.  Really?  Three eyes?  What type of Muppet movies were they watching?

Next year, she will probably be a pumpkin - a favorite standby costume option that Gregory wore as a toddler.  Happy Halloween!

Crackle Top Finished

On Monday of this week, the stars aligned and both of my children took a 3.5+ hour nap at the same time.  I quickly got started on putting all of my Crackle blocks together to make this quilt top.  I love how it came out!  This is such a fun, easy pattern.  The only thing that bugs me is that I am just not a big fan of precuts- I much prefer the look of mixing collections together to create a quilt.  Next time, I think I might make my own layer cake from my stash.

 The pattern is "Crackle" by Aneela Hooey, available in her etsy shop.  The fabric line I used is called Lucy's Crab Shack.  It may be a little while before I finish this one because I don't think I have any stash options for backing.  If anyone knows of a great price on this fabric line - please let me know.

For the time being, this quilt top joins the other projects in my WIP pile.  I recently gathered all of my WIPs to take a picture for a post on the BMQG blog regarding the guild challenge to have members complete their WIPs (as well as start to use their "precious" hoarded fabrics that we are all afraid to cut into).  Turns out I have 10 WIPs (I found another one after I took this picture).  Some are more important to me to finish than others.... but it's certainly more of a priority for me to get going on these after seeing them all together in such a big pile.

Dreamweaver Quilt Top Completed

I completed the AMH Dreamweaver quilt top (pattern found in the book, Quilts from the House of Tula Pink) at the end of last week.  It took a while to be able to get a picture of it.  It's pretty big - measuring about 84 x 102.  My gracious husband kindly got on the roof to help me get a better picture of it- I swear, he does a lot to support me in this hobby. 

 This was a very easy pattern to do, the only alteration I included was adding an extra "bar" to each row.  I did this because of the color spectrum I was trying to create. 

 Playing with a bunch of Anna Maria Horner collections is so much fun - I am so glad I disregarded my original plan to keep the collections together and make individual quilts for each one.  Her colors and designs play very nicely together. 

I am entering this into the Tula Pink Sew-Along, check out the details here. 

My backing came in the mail yesterday from fabric.com.  It was so awesome to have a valid reason to buy nearly 8 yards of one of my favorite Loulouthi prints.  SO many of AMH's fabric designs were simply meant to back quilts, don't you think?

Dreamweaver Progress

I know it's been quiet on this blog but I have acutally finished a queen sized quilt that won't be revealed online until next summer.  But in the meantime, I am nearly done with the AMH Dreamweaver quilt top.  My search for a linen/cotton blend for sashing was finally resolved yesterday when I finally found some at the Cambridge Quilt Shop - the fourth local store I had tried!  I will post pictures as soon as it is completed. 

 After a long ordeal trying to use a gift card on Barnes and Noble.com, I finally have a copy of Aneela's first book: Little Stitches.  The book is just darling and I can't wait to get stitching! 

 I am doing a little destashing on my etsy shop - time to unload a few stacks of fabric that just aren't being used.

I decided to change my blog name after I attend this weekend's BMQG meeting - the topic we will be discussing is "blogging" and I am eager to get some advice/information that other members may have on the subject. 

Name Change Coming Soon

I am finally going to do it: I am going to change the name of this blog.  I figured out how to do it last night and it was surprisingly simple.  I chose "Dodging the Butterfly" ages ago and it was when I didn't really have a clear vision of what I wanted this space to be or represent.  The name is a reference to a silly private joke between my sister and I and it really wasn't even funny anyway :)  It's hard to choose a good name for a sewing blog - and I am not that creative - so keep that in mind when I reveal that the new name will be: Dresden Lane, http://www.dresdenlane.blogspot.com

I am pretty sure that my Google followers and Google reader subscribers will have to do nothing to keep my blog on their reading list, I will also be able to keep my old content.  I am sure there will be a few hiccups and old links posted elsewhere won't work.  But I can't let that stop me from moving forward with this change.  I have been wanting to do this for quite a while!

And because you should never have a blog post without some eye candy, check out the score from my first ever giveaway win: a full FQ pack of Riley Blake's Pieces of Hope collection:

Turns out that it was totally worth it to enter Creative Bug's Craft Book promotion.  Yay!

Projects and some sweet yard sale finds

I made this rainbow log cabin lap quilt last weekend.  I used a pattern from a quilting magazine - I will cite the source when it's all finished.  I am surprised this is the first rainbow-quilt I have made, as I definitely love lots and lots of color.  I am please with how it came out - the grey is symbolic of clouds and sky.

 I finally made a serious dent in my Anna Maria Horner stash to make a quilt for the Tula Pink Sew Along.  I am using a pattern from her book called Dream Weaver.

Occasionally, on this blog, I like to share thrifty finds from yard sales that relate to sewing.  Since Charlotte was born early this year I haven't been yard saling as often as I would like.  But there are still a few weekends left in the season and I plan to take advantage of them!  On Saturday, I bought this gorgeous handmade, never been used pillowcases for a dollar a piece!  You can't buy cheap, plain ones at the store for that price.
 I also couldn't resist this antique-looking toy crib to give to Charlotte someday.  (It was only $3, so I really doubt it was anything special).  Can you imagine the cuteness of placing a Wee Wonderfuls-like doll along with a sweet doll quilt in there!?  I am so happy I had a little girl!