Pillows Galore

Ok, maybe "Galore" is a slight exaggeration since I only made 2 more, but it feels like I have a lot more to go.  At least the ones I need done for this week are completed.

Mel:  Requested hot pink and flowers

 Bri: "Requested" (by mom) purple and flowers

Something interesting I learned when searching for fabric is that it's actually pretty hard to find a decent floral fabric particularly when dealing with purple.  They either look like they're straight out of my Grandma's old decor or it has characters and other weird things on it.  It was actually a lot easier to find the boy fabrics.

Covering Pillows

Some Christmases I really like to make things for everyone and then others I can barely handle purchasing things.  For some reason I thought it would be a great idea to make something for all my nieces and nephews this year, but as usual time has flown by and Thanksgiving is already next week.  Since I will be seeing my family next week I wanted to bring their Christmas presents to them then, but I forgot that means I now have less than a week to get everything ready to go.  

Luckily, my projects this year aren't time intensive.  I decided to make a personalized pillowcase for the ones who actually use a pillow.  (Sorry Baby Kiersten, you've got another year before this would be remotely useful to you). 

The first pillowcase is for my nephew.  He loves dark blue and outerspace:

I have his 2 sister's pillowcases to do this weekend, and then some shopping to do for my mom, and then I actually think we're almost ready to wrap presents before we see family. 

FieldCrossing Blocks

This month for do.Good Stitches we were asked to make two FieldCrossing blocks.  This is the first time I had seen this quilt pattern and I like it a lot.  We were asked to use a white background with pink (fuchsia and pastel), mustard, peach, and/or rust.  This is what I came up with from my scrap stash:

Rainbow Belle Wave

I finally finished the June do.Good Stitches quilt yesterday.  I thought I had to have it done by the 15th, and it turns out I had until the 1st of December, but that's alright, because I needed a little extra push and I'm so glad I finished it.

It felt a bit surreal to be taking pictures of my June quilt while snow flakes were beginning to fall.  I didn't mentally prepare myself for winter very well this year.  It kind of snuck up on me while life was busily passing by.

I went for a fun rainbow batik backing, because I wanted something just as bright and happy on the back as on the front, but with a slight twist.

I typically like to stick with free motion quilting, but this time I decided to get out my walking foot and echo along each of the waves.  You can see it on the back if you look closely. 

Our Wish Circle typically donates every quilt to Project Linus which gives them to very ill children.  My husband works with these kids on a daily basis as a Pediatric Oncologist, so I thought it would make a little more sense for him to just directly give it to one of his patients this time around.  I'm excited to bring a little sunshine to one of his kiddos at the hospital.

Linkin' up to TGIFF and BOMs Away.

Lion King

I've wanted to see Lion King the Musical for a long time.  I realize I technically already know the story, but I had heard so many great things about the production itself, particularly the costumes that I really wanted to experience it on stage.

It came to Columbus and Joel and I finally got to go.  We were celebrating Joel's birthday a month late.  (Technically I got the tickets for him on his birthday, but it took this long to find an evening both of us were available).  We had nose bleed seats, but I didn't even care, because I was just excited to be there. 

The smiles are genuine even if we look a bit tired.  :)

 Waiting for it to start...

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The costumes did not disappoint!  The opening scene of Circle of Life is breathtaking.  The costumes are incredible and so innovative.  It's pretty clear that no other musical had any chance of winning a Tony for Best Costume the year Lion King debuted on Broadway - Holy Cow, they're amazing!

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The actors of Mufasa, Rafiki, and Scar all performed these roles on Broadway and were definitely the strongest of the cast.  Rafiki blew me away.  She was hands down the best part of the musical.  Even her comedic timing was fabulous.  Nala and Simba were probably the weakest links.  Nala didn't have much stage presence and had a hard time in her lower register.  Joel looked at me after the show and said, "We paid a lot of money for those seats, can I be nit picky?  Simba swallowed all the ends of his words when he was singing."  I just laughed because I had been thinking the same exact thing.  We're a bit on the nerdy side of music and theater and like to critique everything.  I have to say the ensemble was incredible though.  All of my favorite songs in the musical were the African tribal music that's added.  None of it is from Elton John and the movie.  The harmonies brought tears to my eyes a couple of times because they were so gorgeous.  I love exceptional music that is performed well!

On the whole it was an enjoyable night with my husband and I got to cross Lion King the Musical off my bucket list, so it was a win-win!

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.