Big News!!

Whew! It's been busy. And I haven't even been sewing or knitting!

Chris and I went on a lovely trip to Portland. I love the city. We didn't see very much of it, but just walking around was pretty fantastic. We ate a lot, walked a lot.. and probably most exciting...

We're engaged! We got engaged at the Japanese Gardens and it was all pretty fabulous. We've been dating for 8 years now, and everyone who I called responded with something like "FINALLY". Here are attempts of taking photos after we got engaged... We were in a rush and I had the wrong lens on... whoops!

And here is a better photo of the two of us.. after dinner and on the Burnside Bridge..

Portland, you're great! Thanks for the fantastic weather while we were there!!

Tr-9 Needle's Point

This triangle was interesting to make. Most of the block was hand appliqued, with a little bit of machine applique to make the tip of the needle. The fabric is Amy Butler's Peony in Lime from her Lotus line, also from my cousin's stash.

This block reminded me of Maui and the 'Iao Needle. It's a natural rock pinnacle in the West Maui Mountains. The green of the fabric seemed to be a perfect match to the green needle.

88-18-0-2004

M-2 Duff's Bluff

Hmm, looking at my scan of this block, I am not sure what those gross marks are. Hopefully they'll wash out! Looks suspiciously like pizza sauce. In any case, this block was freezer paper pieced, and the fabric was stolen from my cousin's stash in LA. Chances are you recognize it, it's Denyse Schmidt's Ribbon Flowers in Azure from her Katie Jump Rope line.

While making this block, I was trying to decide if Duff has either a seaside cliff house with a bluff, or made a big lie to someone. I'm going to say he has an awesome view, and chose the blue fabric as a result.

88-17-0-1995

C-10 Patriot's Latern

I love this fabric too. Something about polka dots make me so happy! This came from my foraging through my cousin's stash on my trip down to LA. The block was freezer paper pieced.

This block makes me think of the Paul Revere poem. "One if by land, two if by sea..." I used to have the whole thing memorized, but now I can only remember one or two lines. I remember being VERY excited when we went to Boston and walked the Liberty Trail and we walked by the bell tower where the lanterns were hung. History is so fascinating!!

87-17-0-1974

RS-12 Linda's Church in the Valley

Ah. It's nice to get back to sewing. This block was made with Valorie Well's Little Rose in Teal from her Olive Rose line. I love this line of fabric! It was freezer paper pieced and went together surprisingly well.

This block does remind me a bit of a church steeple...

86-17-0-1937

2009 Blogger's Quilt Festival

Alright, here is my entry for the Quilt Festival! It's an old quilt, but still my favorite:

It's my Half Moon Bay quilt. Previous post here. It's been almost 2 years since I made this quilt, and I still love it because of the colors. Many of the quilts I've made since then tend to go along the lines of my wardrobe... max 3 colors at a time. Yes, it's BORING.

So thanks to this quilt, it's obvious I like patterns and colors. Probably something I should keep in mind for future quilts!

Spring to Finish!

So Jacquie, my fellow Common Threads Quilting Bee member, has come up with a fantastic idea.

I don't know how she does it. She started Project Improv, keeps up with multiple quilting bees and still comes up with new ideas! She is starting to put together her blocks she received from Common Threads, and it looks great!

So back to Spring to Finish. Basically, Jacquie has a lot of UFOs, and using the rest of April to finish at least some of them. She invited us to join along, with prizes too! What a fantastic idea, as I just counted my UFOs and I think I have 24 or something like that.

Here are the two things I am definitely going to finish:

My Christmas-y Mystery Quilt. This one I ran out of steam on. Or more correctly, I ran out of thread. I only have 1/4 of the quilt left to quilt, and then bind it, then it's done!


Alright, this one was a Yellow Brick Road gone wrong. I cut some pieces incorrectly, so it's a lot more patchy than the original pattern, but it's still ok. My original idea was to make the blanket seem like grass (hence the shades of green) and then machine applique some minky sheep on there using Oh Fransson's method (link to tutorial here). I'm not really liking the greens, but I need to finish the quilt anyway. The sheep idea came after I saw this quilt on flickr. This quilt is a UFO from September of 2006, so it will be a relief to get it done. I have the minky, the top, and even the backing fabric. I just need a kick in the butt.

Ok, here goes! Hopefully in 3 weeks I will have at least these two things done!