Darwin gets a new friend and I get to rip out stitches.

My roomate Lauren (yeah, I know) just got a new dog to keep Darwin company, and he's so FLUFFY I'm gonna die!

Say hello to Charles :-) Or Char. Or Char-Char. Or CHARMANDER! lol.

You know you live in an anthropology and science nerd house when your dogs are named Charles and Darwin. Hehehe. I love it! We call him Charlie though. He's adorable and Darwin likes him so it's a win-win. Woo hoo! Now if only we could take them sailing on a pint sized Beagle...(if you're a super nerd like me you'll get the reference...the Beagle was the ship that Darwin sailed to the Galapagos on). Aaaanyway...

So we have a bus hailing all the way from Texas coming in about a week to go to the Sisters quilt show and to visit, and after a little mishap with one of my kits, I needed to hop to it and get crackin' on another on to replace the can't-use-it-now one. So I chose to do a Thimble Blossoms pattern:

Super cute, and super simple....IF you're paying attention. Well, I read the pattern no less than 5 times. Seriously. 5 times. Apparently my information retention the past few days has been something awful because not only did I sew the wrong pieces together once, I sewed the new ones on without cutting the focus blocks down, and then had to do it a third time. I forgot to cut 2 strips for the points too. Good grief! Talk about having a case of the dumb-dumbs...so I've been spending more time ripping out stitches and re-cutting things than I have actually piecing! Oh the joys of quilting ;)

It's going to be really adorable though, I'm using Alexander Henry's Sew Much Fun as the large blocks, and Robert Kaufman's Sew Happy for the block points, and then an assortment of other matching prints for the neutral blocks.

Poor lighting, blah blah blah, but I assure you it's adorable. Oh, and third time's a charm, right?

It calls for a Layer Cake, but I'll level with you: I don't like Layer Cakes much. I think they're a great idea, don't get me wrong, and I do use them from time to time. But I really enjoy the process of choosing the fabrics, and I feel very limited when it comes to Layer Cakes because all of the colors are chosen for you. They're wonderful when you need a project done yesterday or if you're not wanting to go to the trouble to pick out 30 fabrics and cut them all to size (which admittedly, can be a pain), but I enjoy the process so I'd rather do it myself.

Hopefully I'll have the top pieced today so I can send it to Carol to be quilted tomorrow, or at latest, on Friday. Whew, nothing like flying by the seat of your pants!



I feel like I should probably be doing something else...Oh wait...

Catching up on all of my older projects on here is a bit of a pain, I gotta admit. But I said I would do it...that and my persnickety ways want all this stuff in one place. So in one place it shall be :-)

So my friends (who don't know each other, by the way) Bethany and Christy had babies just weeks apart, and I promised them both baby quilts before they were due. Well...it wouldn't be me if a bunch of other stuff didn't get in the way (school, work...) so they got them late late late!

Christy had a little boy, but wanted unisex baby stuff. I have to admit, that's a real trick! So many kids' fabrics out there are really, REALLY gender specific. Sometimes I wish there were more gender neutral things out there. After a couple months of agonizing, I finally settled on some puppy fabric because, hey, what kid doesn't like puppies?

So that's what each block looks like. A star, variable in persuasion, I think. Anyway. They were THE DEVIL. I had to block each and every one because they were all stretched and horrible. Pieceing just isn't my forte...give me raw edge applique any day!

I was definitely happier with it once I got the blocks together. Still a little wobbly, but hey, I've done worse lol.

So here is the "finished" product. Really, it's just the quilt top. I think it turned out to be about 45" square. I love the doggies in the cars!

I did crosshatching quilting on it. Our manager at the shop, Debi, showed me an easier way to get the lines straight than what I would have done, lol. Line the painter's tape up where you want it, and put the left side of the foot along the right edge of the tape and sew. Fail-proof straight lines!

Christy and Ben were really happy with it. I got it to them just in the nick of time...a week and a half later or so they moved all the way over to Denmark.

Bethany had her little girl just after Christy had her boy. So that little cutie needed a quilt too! I ended up doing a twofer for her...she has a young son too so you can't give one something without the other! Understandable. So I made 2 quilts, one for baby sister and one for big brother.

The colors are a little skewed...they are much clearer and brighter. It's a mix of cottons and flannels. It's an open domain pattern from...some website...I can't remember...lol.

This is the Prairie Window pattern from the shop. Bethany said he likes, cars, guitars and blue....so this is what I came up with. lol. It's deceptively big. I forgot how large the lap size is! When a pattern says lap size, who knows what size it'll end up being ... it's either be like, elf sized (like Santa elf, not Lord of the Rings elf...yes, I know, I';m a nerd, haha) or Andre the Giant sized. 10 points to anyone who gets the latter reference!