Lito's Quilt.

My middle son has finished his first quilt! We used fabric from the collection Little Kukla by Suzy Ultman, backed it with an Alison Glass print and used a gray Kona solid (steel, maybe?) for the binding.

I bought these fabrics early in my quilting tenure, when I used very little self-control when it came to fun novelty prints. I'm proud to say I have a bit more self-control now and occasionally even buy blenders and solids! But I had a half yard of each print hanging around in stash, and Lito liked them, so we cut 6" strips and sewed them together, easy peasy.

We had a ball working on this! It was so much fun, and to see my kidlet so excited about quilting made my heart super happy. I don't think quilting will surpass his love of Legos, at least for now, but I'm thrilled I got to share one of my favorite things with one of my favorite people!

We debated gifting this to his younger sister, but since she's not exactly lacking in the quilt department, we ultimately decided that this lovely will be headed for Project Linus.

And hopefully Banzo and I will finish up his quilt soon, and you'll get to see that one as well! Spoiler alert: it has monkeys! 

2018 Q1 FAL list.

Dudes, I cannot even remember the last time I did this. (It was probably only a quarter or two ago, haha, but it feels like ages!) And I'm up for another round, so here is my list in all of its AWESOME glory.

1. Wayward Transparency Quilt - needs to be quilted and bound
DONE!

2. Magnolia Mystery Quilt - needs to be quilted and bound

3. Midnight Mystery Quilt -
I'm hopeful this is the quarter that this goes to the longarmer--
I have no idea how to have them quilt it!!!

4. Patina Quilt - I'm a third of the way done with the quilting
DONE

5. C2C Quilt - need to baste, quilt, bind

6. Triceratops Moneta Dress - 

I made a purple Moneta dress as a muslin, now I'm ready to make more!

7. Octopus Moneta Dress for ME--have pattern and fabric

AND

8. A Matching Octopus Geranium Dress for my daughter--have pattern and fabric

Let's cap it at eight. That's more than enough for right now! I'm linking up with the 2018 FAL Q1 linky party! Woo!

Coast to Coast 2 Quilt Top Start

Last year, I helped start a traveling quilt bee called the #coasttocoasttravelingbee. Along with five other super awesome quilters, we stretched our skillz to the max and produced six super awesome quilt tops. (Here's mine!) I had such an amazing time, and it was pretty obvious that C2C had to happen again!

My 2017 quilt top was inspired by a mountain range, and it was fun to create based on a place. (I had never made a quilt like that before!) I had thought at first that I would use water (particularly in the form of rain) as the base for this year's quilt, but my initial work following that pursuit was...um...bleh. And not me at all! And you know how sometimes it's good to do things you're uncomfortable with and push yourself to try new color schemes/techniques/things? Well, this wasn't any of those things. It was just bleh.

At this point, I had a couple of weeks to produce something worthy of this year's C2C group. After spending MONTHS laboring over the water/rain idea, I searched through my folder of quilt ideas/patterns/inspiration, desperate for something.

And then I saw these awesome Butterfly Charm Blocks from lillyella. And they'd looked pretty fun, and what if I did a rainbow? So I did.

At first I'd planned to make 9 and then do a nine-patch grouping, but after talking with K, she suggested maybe a ring of butterflies would be awesome.

And I was like, I have this nine-patch idea cemented into my brain! I can't betray that! And besides, it's going to look fierce! And then I laid out a ring of butterflies as K suggested, and it looked AWESOME (and meant less paper piecing) and how could I say NO?

This is what I've sent to the always fab Alison, along with some rainbow goodness. Yes, please, butterfly charm blocks. YES, PLEASE.

Who wants to guess what will get added? I'm SO excited to see where this group of awesome quilters will go!

Tula Pink Patina Quilt Top

Friend, last time we chatted about this Patina Quilt project from the book Quilt with Tula and Angela, I had just begun piecing all of the strips. There was piecing, then more piecing, then more piecing! All.The.Piecing. By the time I finished piecing, I was thoroughly OVER IT, but then I sat back and looked at it and ooohed at the prettiness of it all.

I took this photo back in SEPTEMBER. I basted it in October. I started quilting it in November. And then I'd work on it between holiday gift-making and holiday prep, and then, just when I thought I could start working on it again with some serious dedication, I wrenched my shoulder somehow, and wrestling with this lovely and my sewing machine, Stella, seemed like a terrible idea. (And I found out it was because I'm stubborn and didn't want to be inconvenienced by hurt shoulders so I sewed anyway, and after ten inches, my shoulders were a world of pain, so I stopped and crashed on my couch with a heat pad.)

My shoulders are feeling (mostly) better now, though I'll admit that I'm hesitant to pick this quilt up again just yet as I don't want to re-injure them! But hopefully I'll be able to get er' done soon. As of right now, I'd say I'm about 1/3 done with the quilting, which I'm calling a MAJOR success.

This bomb cyclone thing and its terrible weather rendered us housebound for a few days, and while that was super lame, I *did* manage to get another quilt not only basted, but quilted! The binding is even picked out--though not prepared--so hopefully I'll be sharing that with you soon.