Sample Size Blocks & Stripes

Last week I saw a great tutorial by Ashley at http://www.filminthefridge.com (If I were at all web savvy I would have just written Film in the Fridge in some magical way that would allow you to click on the link) for a quilt she calls Blocks & Stripes. At some point in the tutorial she laid out the fabric on white and I loved the way it looked. I want to make a quilt that way using some of my painfully and sometimes pointlessly acquired out of print Heather Ross/Munki prints. While waiting for more solid fabrics to arrive in my mail box, I made this little 20" x 30" quilt using some of my scraps. The proportions aren't exactly the same as they will be on the larger one, but it gives me some idea. My oldest daughter keeps calling the quilt hers, but I'm putting it on etsy instead. Those girls of mine would take everything I make if I let them. I would find it flattering if they didn't also hoard every little plastic crap toy they get in various "treasure boxes" and gumball machines.

Munki Alien Quilt

Okay, I'm just going to start throwing things up here. This is the most recent quilt I made. I kind of had the intention of giving it to a mere acquaintance who had a baby boy, but then I thought I'd throw it up on etsy and see what happens. I did manage to sell a mini quilt on etsy and I donated one to CraftHope, which sold in about a minute. So now I am apparently too big for my britches--thinking I can sell bigger, more expensive quilts!

Lovin' the ShakeIt Photo App

Since I can't seem to keep up with blogging--partly due to the laborious process of taking photos, uploading photos, editing photos, etc.--I'm just going to show you some lovely photos taken at Trail 5 (San Onofre) with my iphone. If you are unfamiliar with this part of Southern California, it straddles the beach area between Orange and San Diego counties. When people refer to San Onofre they usually mean the beach part of the state park that is just north of the nuclear power plant. Trails (1-6) is just south of the nuclear power plant. While that may sound horrifying if you haven't been there, it's actually pretty incredible. And then to the east and south there is Camp Pendleton, so it is a stretch of amazing coastline with native scrub and beautiful cliffs to the ocean. And no tract homes. Turns out Trail 5 has the most rugged hike down to the beach, but if you wear flip flops 10 months of the year, hiking it in your Rainbows is not a problem.

pictures might help...

Here are the photos of the Plain Spoken gone wild quilts...

An actual quilt

Okay, clearly I suck at this whole blogging thing. Apparently I'd rather read about what other people are doing. But I did finally make a quilt. Two of them, actually. I had it in my head that I was going to make the Plain Spoken quilt from the Modern Quilt Workshop by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr. And I did. Sort of. I had so many great fabric scraps from making things for the daughters that I ended up taking that beautiful, subtle quilt and making it crazy busy. And since they were twin size quilts, I gave them to someone else to actually quilt. I didn't get off all that easy. There were still 390 rectangles to be sewn together, and I did do the binding. And then I took my extra rectangles and made doll size quilts that I quilted myself. And now I want to make more quilts and more quilts.

Quilting for a Cause

Okay, so I've never actually made a quilt before. That being said, a much nicer, more talented person than I is making quilts for the fire victims in Australia and all she asks is that people make some quilt squares and then send them to her. She and her quilting guild will do all the hard parts, like the actual quilting and binding. http://campfollowerbags.blogspot.com/ She is an army wife doing good deeds. What could be better than that? So, this is my first attempt at a quilt square. I followed the directions for the wonky star posted on the site. Leave it to me to be too anal to have my star come out wonky looking. I'm going to try to do a few more now that the kids are in bed. Because if quilting for a cause while watching Lost isn't a good excuse for not cleaning the house, I don't know what is.

Oh, and my lovely, just-turned-six daughter decided to empty her piggy bank and send all her money to an animal shelter that cares for the koalas, joeys and other displaced animals.

Some Dinner Party

I'm apparently too lazy to keep up with my published ramblings. To make up for my laziness, I'm offering up this example of my daughter's awesomeness.