Throwback Halloween.

Thanks, Mama, for making me homemade Halloween costumes and frilly Easter dresses. Thanks for teaching me to sew. And thanks for teaching me how fun it is to create! Love you, lots.

(That's me on the left--I must've been about six or seven? That's my younger sister on the right.)

BQF: Baby Boo's Quilt

I've got a finish, and just in time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side, woo! This quilt is for my baby niece, who should be arriving the first week of November. It's also a finish from my Q4 2013 FAL list, woo!

Because this quilt is going to my niece (who will be the second girl out of six grandbabies--my parents are so excited) I needed to make sure it was extra special. I have an amazing niece and two nephews from my older sister, but this is my younger sister's first baby, so even more reason to make the quilt spectacular.

In January, I finished up a quilt for a cousin's wedding. My younger sister saw it, fell in love with the feathers, and told me if I ever made her a quilt, she wanted a feather. Well, I made her two.

Of all of the quilts I've made, I'd say this quilt is the most me, which is why I chose it for the BQF. The colors, the fabrics, the craziness of it all...me. In fact, it is really hard to part with it, but I'm going to because it's for such a special kidlet. (I did embroider her first initial into the top, just in case I got weak and tried to change my mind.)

It took a while to piece. Those AMH feathers take a bit of time, and paper piecing all of those geese did too. I also drafted my own arrow paper piecing pattern because I didn't find anything online that I was crazy about. Elizabeth Hartman has a quilt called "Kaleidoscope" that inspired the section right under the feathers. I had to end the quilt with a bit of classic and used friendship stars and churn dashes on the bottom row. I'd love it if my niece got into quilting one day, so she needs a bit of traditional too.

As for quilting, I used nine different threads in three different weights. I handquilted the patchwork squares in lines 1/4" apart. When I ran out of one color thread, I'd start another. It was my first time handquilting a larger piece and handquilting so densely, but I love love love how it turned out. I did some basic straight line and echo machine quilting on the feathers, the arrow, and the bottom row. And I did some wild lines on my kaleidoscope-y section. When I sewed the first line, I was pretty sure I was going to hate it, but when it all turned out, I really like it. I'm glad I tried it rather than going safe and echo quilting. I FMQ'd over the geese, including two feathers that sprout from the center.

My fabric selection was lucky ducky. I picked out all of the fabrics online and ordered, even though I hadn't seen any of them in person and had no idea if they'd match. I am so pleased with how they came together. The backing is the glasses from Geekly Chic, and the binding is Kona Charcoal with a pop of Kona Corn Yellow. On the front, I've used some Comma, some Glimma, some Flea Market Fancy, some Sew Mama Sew, and a couple of other prints from lines I can't remember.

Thanks for letting me share this quilt with you. Even though it's small, it's probably my favorite quilt finish to date. My younger sister doesn't read my blog, and I've given her absolutely no clues except for the general color palette, so here's hoping she likes it as much as I do!

I'm linking up today with BQF in the Baby Quilts Category, TGIFF hosted by Quilter in the Closet, and Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. 

A Raccoon Dress.

I'm not going to lie, this is probably the coolest dress I own. (At this very moment.) Made with Tula Pink's Acacia, and lovingly called the Raccoon Dress, I'm in love love love.

Love.

(Added bonus? I can cross this off my Q4 FAL 2013 list, woo!)

I used the Naomi pattern from Sew Serendipity. I don't have much pattern reading experience, but it was pretty clear. There were a couple of parts where I ran into some confusion, but I re-read the instructions multiple times, and then just gave it a go, and somehow it all worked out.

The dress has an elastic waist and no zipper or crazy darts or anything like that, so that made it simple to put together. The most complicated part was the keyhole in the back, which you could omit if you wanted to avoid that.

I've had my eye on Kay's Monique pattern, and she recently released Ramona which I'm also swooning over, but I thought Naomi would be a good starting point. I'm so excited about this dress. I do enjoy dressing up, but I have a serious love affair with my pajama pants. But Friends! This dress, paired with leggings, is just as comfortable as my pajamas. Seriously. I'm thinking of making one for every day of the week because then I will look like an adult and put together and stuff and that will be totally awesome, but I will still be ridiculously comfortable. Good plan, right? Right.

I'm thinking Ramona next, then Monique, or maybe Juliet Nouveau. Yes?

I'm linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts.

FF: Birthday Love.

Three small(er) finishes this week, all for birthdays!

I finished this sweet bag for my oldest niece's birthday, which includes a yellow FMQ flower on the front that you can't see in this photo, but you can trust me when I say it's the cool. Her birthday is in December, and I am so on top of it this year. (But now I'm thinking, should I make a matching coin purse to go with it?) The lining is a hot pink satin, which I thought would be super cool, but was a total pain in the you know what to work with.

And I finished this sweet pair of Toms-inspired baby shoes for my newest niece who will be arriving in about a month. Woo! My sister and brother-in-law are Toms addicts, so I thought their kidlet should have a pair too.

The bag was made following this tutorial from Plum and June, but I did modify a few things, which I'm sure you can tell right off the bat since mine isn't QAYG! I also used both a mid-weight interfacing and batting because I wanted this bag to be sturdy. The shoes were made following this pattern from Homemade Toast. There is a toddler version of the Toms, and they're pretty adorable too. Since I broke two needles sewing these, I'm not eager to push out another pair any time soon, but I am happy I powered through.

I also made a color book for my baby BFF who just celebrated her first birthday. I saw a flash of a color book when I was reading this post by Angela of Cut to Pieces, and I loved the idea. I pulled out my scrap drawer, dumped it, sorted strips by color and started sewing it up. Then I pieced my book in rainbow color scheme since apparently I can't get enough rainbow goodness lately. (The back page, of course, is hot pink because my baby BFF will be a hot pink lover if I can at all help it.)

I'm linking up today with TGIFF, hosted by M-R at Quilt Matters, and Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. 

WIP: October.

Hi Y'all! I've been brainstorming and sketching and plotting and planning, and I think I have my basket plans for the Fabric Basket Swap. Eep! And at this point, I just need to sit down and do a ton of quilty math, which sounds tedious and boring, so might as well kick a few other things off my to-do list first, right? Right.

I finished the quilting on my niece's quilt. I just need to piece the binding and get 'er done. I handquilted part of this, did some backstitch embroidery, and also machine quilted it using both straight line quilting and FMQ. This totaled nine different types of thread in three different weights. Yikes! But I like the way it turned out.

More feathers! Hooray! I wanted to keep this bad boy for me, but my niece won out, and I will be sending it to her. I made sure to embroider her first initial, just in case I tried to change my mind again. Oh! And I've talked with a few of you about getting my paper pieced pattern for the arrow. I'm still working on it, I promise! I lost part of the pattern that I used, so I have to re-draw it, and then scan it in and email it. But I didn't forget you.

I finished the quilting on Lito's quilt, and I've started handstitching the binding.

I've cut fabric and started piecing Baby Kenna's quilt. I've also made a couple of small finishes, which I'll share with you on Friday, and I'm working on small goodies to include with my fabric basket, as well as a pillow to match my Rainbow Northern Lights. Yikes! That's a lot of stuff in the works! But it's a good kind of busy feeling, and I'm happy with my progress, so that's the most important thing.

What are you working on this week? I'm going to go peruse the lovelies at Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday party and get myself linked up. See you there?

FF: Rainbow Northern Lights.

Yeah, yeah. I know I was supposed to post this last week. But last week, I was road tripping to a fun modern fabric store, and I shared my haul last week on Sunday Stash, so you'll forgive me for being a week late, right? Right. Because you're good like that! (Or have no idea that I was planning to post last week, but you're still cool too.)

Doesn't it just look so happy and cheerful? This is my Rainbow Northern Lights quilt. It will be headed to a special baby set to arrive next month, and I'm really excited to have it finished. The pattern is by Jaybird Quilts, and I'm happy I finally had an occasion to use it.

I echo quilted the seams lines, and while it's not the FMQ that makes Julie Herman's version sing, I still really like it! Of course, it meant changing my thread six times, and I hate changing my thread, but I suppose *grumble grumble* it was worth it. 

The back is this super fun batik print, and I found the binding a few weeks ago and fell in love with the stars. Of course, none of it is super matchy, but that's totally not my style, so it works. Note to self--never back a quilt in a batik EVER AGAIN. (Unless I'm machine quilting the binding, then, by all means.) I forgot how evil it is to handsew the binding on to a batik. Evil. But it's done, and that's a lesson learned!

I'm off to check out everyone else's lovely finishes with TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday, hosted by M-R at Quilt Matters and Crazy Mom Quilts respectively. 

FAL Q4 Goals.

Hi Friends. It's October. The holiday season is practically here, and then the end of year, and *gasp!* It will be 2014. But before I completely freak out over here, I've still got a ton of work to do before this year is out! In a perfect world, I will finish everything on this list. With the exception of my dress, these all need to be done by Christmas! And a couple of them by November. *Eep!* Let's get to work!

Sisters' 10 BOM Quilt--In Progress

Need to Piece, Quilt, Bind

Baby Boo's Quilt--DONE

Need to Quilt and Bind

Sewing for my new niece--DONE
Booties, Bibs, Skirts, and Shoes

Lito's Quilt--DONE

Need to Quilt and Bind

My Dress--DONE
Need to Finish the Waistband and Skirt

Baby Kenna's Quilt--DONE
Need to Piece, Baste, Quilt, and Bind

I'm linking up with the Q4 Finish-a-Long at She Can Quilt. Let's rock this last quarter of 2013!

SS: Crimson Tate Edition.

On Friday, I had the amazing opportunity to drive to Indianapolis with my quilting sensei, K and visit Crimson Tate. Oh, Friends. It was glorious. Ready for lots of pictures?

Upon stepping into the shop, it took me about two seconds to confirm that the drive to Indy was totally worth it, and I will do it again the minute my wallet allows it.

Do you see those glorious walls of fabric? O.M.G. (Also, the Crimson Tate team is beyond sweet. They didn't just tolerate my shrieks and squeals and need to touch the fabric, they practically encouraged it.)

And do you see this? It's like they knew I was coming and hung up pink goodness just to say, "Welcome, Audrey."

And this. Oh, Friends. That's Acacia. Like, in person. Not just a bolt or two from the collection, but all of them. I practically wept. To see Tula in all of that glory? It was amazing.

And now, for my favorite part of this post: the goods.

Melody Miller, Lizzy House, Lotta Jansdotter, Anna Maria Horner. Yum.

AMH and Tula? Yes, please.

Teagan White? Mmmhmmmm.

And some mirror balls, Heather Ross, and a blue shot cotton, just for good measure. I may have purchased a couple of other things as well, but they're a secret for now. Shhhhhhh!

As if this haul wasn't enough, I returned home to more fabric. But that's another post. Thanks Heather and David for taking such good care of us at your store! I'll definitely be back! Today, I'm linking up with Sew E.T. for Sunday Stash! 

WIP: Plugging Along Edition.

So this week, I feel very old school. Homemade bread. Making chicken stock from scratch. Making 8+ batches of Chicken Tortilla Soup. Starting a dress. Lots and lots of handsewing.

But speaking of that dress...

I know this is pretty unexciting for everyone else on the planet, but that's a keyhole, and it took me forever to understand what the instructions were trying to get me to do. I'm pretty proud of this.

I'm more proud of my cap sleeves! So now, my bodice is almost complete, and I can start work on the waistband and raccoon skirt. I'm using Tula Pink's Acacia (surprise, surprise) for the dress, and I've been calling it my raccoon dress, which I've learned makes people stare at you because they have no idea what that means. Then, I show them the fabric, and they're relieved. Now, I've taken to doing it on purpose!

I have a fun birthday gift finish to show you on Friday...

But until then, I have more handsewing to do and two more batches of chicken tortilla soup to make! I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday.