Repurpose Finish

I finished the bride's maid dress-turned-baby quilt yesterday.  It's done just in time to mail to my sister for the baby shower next weekend. 

 The quilting is loopy lines with some free-hand flowers. 

 The back is a cuddly polka dot flannel.

Re-purposed Dress

My sister's best friend from high school is having a baby girl and she wanted a quilt for her.  Angie had the ingenious idea of taking her bride's maid dress from her friend's wedding and using it in the baby quilt.  I mean - even if you like your bride's maid dress, when are you going to wear it again?  It makes the quilt more personal and puts the dress to good use (It's the teal fabric).  I put some stabilizer behind it and it worked great.

I needed a design that wouldn't make me cut the dress into a million pieces.  I found Elizabeth Hartman's Charm Squares and thought it was perfect.  The wedding colors were pastel pink, white, and the teal, so I tried to incorporate the color palette into the quilt as well.

 

Seeing Double

A friend of mine is adopting twins.  I was her Visiting Teacher at Church for a long time, so I would get monthly updates on her struggles with fertility.  They had been trying for so long and then hope seemed to dwindle after a failed IVF.  I was absolutely thrilled when I found out they had matched for an adoption, and not only matched, but adopting identical twin girls!  They are expected to be born in December, and I couldn't be more excited!

I've been waiting to make her a baby quilt for years now, so imagine how fun it is to do two coordinating quilts.  She's the type of person who I knew would have a specific color palette and have the nursery completely planned and decorated, so I asked for her colors from another friend.  The friend sent me a picture of the pillow that the nursery is based on:

The sheets are in the hot pink and the comforters are in the peacock blue, so I decided to make the quilts in the other colors of the feather.  My only point of disappointment is that my blue in the quilts ended up a bit darker than I was going for, but it still looks alright.  "These things do happen."

I used the Steps to Glory block as the base of both quilts: (It's 16.5" unfinished, so it's a big block)

Quilt #1:

 

Rotate the blocks in the opposite direction and you get Quilt #2:

The backs were just fun fabrics I had that reminded me of the Mom-To-Be.  And let's be honest, who doesn't want a bit of argyle and chevron love in their life? 

Her twins may be identical, but I thought I'd be nice and not make the quilts exactly alike.  She's going to have a hard enough time keeping things straight as it is. 

Linking up to Blogger's Quilt Festival.

October Penny Patch

This month's do.Good Stitches block is the 4-Penny Patch (tutorial here by Rachel).  It's a small and simple block, so we're making four of them.  This quilt is being made for Kirsten's close friend who recently had a stroke, so the colors we used were with her friend's likes in mind. 

It's Windy Out There

The wind finally cooperated for 5 seconds.  I'll take it!

Playing with Options

I'm officially half way done with my Glory blocks, but instead of being productive and continuing on with piecing #5 of 8, I paused to have some fun arranging the blocks around in different layouts.

By itself it doesn't have a ton of impact.  It's pretty, but nothing pops out as a dominate design.

Putting the blocks in a cluster of 4 going the same direction doesn't necessarily create much of a pattern either:

BUT- if you play with the direction of the blocks, you can come up with a couple of really cool patterns:

1-

2-

 3-

Now I just have to decide which 2 designs I want.  I suppose I should finish piecing the other 4 blocks, so I actually get these quilts done on time.  The clock is ticking...

Meet the Mormons

Joel and I rarely go to the movie theater.  There are few movies I feel like paying full price for.  I'd rather spend that money on just about anything else.  I suppose it makes me odd, but I have no problem waiting for a movie to come to Redbox or Netflix.  However, once in a while there's something I really want to see on the big screen to get the full effect or something that I'm really excited to see.  This weekend "Meet the Mormons" came to theaters and I was really curious to see what all the hype was about.  I have to say that I loved it!  It's probably the best depiction I've seen of your "average" Mormon ever in the media.  If you've ever wanted to see what Mormons are like without having to worry about missionaries showing up at your door, this movie is for you! 

Here's the trailor:

For more info or to find a screening near you go here. 

Steps to Glory Block

I'm on to my next project.  This one is time sensitive and it's actually a double project.  My friend is adopting identical twin girls.  They are expected to be delivered in December, and her baby shower is next Saturday.  I don't honestly know if I can possibly get 2 quilts done by next weekend, but I'm going to try.  The base of both of these quilts is the Steps to Glory block. 

It's a 16" block, so the base of each quilt will be 4 blocks.  I'm going to play with the orientation of the blocks to change the look of the quilt, but still coordinate.  One block down - 7 more to go!