Blogger's Quilt Festival - Doll Quilt

Here we are, almost to the end of May!  The last couple of weeks have just slipped through my fingers!

There has been lots of busy-ness, but not much in the creative department, so I decided to join in the Blogger's Quilt Festival for the first time.  I have enjoyed past festivals (hosted by Amy's Creative Side), but always as a spectator. Since I don't have anything new to talk about, I decided to show you a little quilt that I made about this time last year.

I wish I had a better photo - this was snapped with the phone just before they arrived!

I made two of these little doll quilts to take to some great nieces last summer when I visited them.  I am never sure how hand made gifts will be received, or any gifts for that matter,  as I don't see them often enough to be in-tune with their current interests/development.

I needn't have worried.  They were a hit!  Throughout the visit, requests to play "blanket" were repeated often!

The pattern is by Aneela Hoey  from  "Pretty in Patchwork - Doll Quilts". I used Aneela's Little Apples fabric, mostly.  The solid is a Kona and the doll and bunny are from a Suzy Ultman panel.  I embroidered the clouds with glow-in-the-dark floss, instead of applique.

The dimensions are 12" x 14" (the dolly quilt is three inches by three and a half and the bunny's quilt is two inches square!)

Check out the other gorgeous quilts entered in the festival!  It's not too late to enter!

Absence

This week, I feel like I have been absent from my real life. Or, maybe real life has interrupted my self centered world of doing (mostly) what I please.

I made a quick trip West to help my cousin manage some of my aunt's affairs. I had not been to see her for several months and it was an overdue visit. I stayed at my cousin's farm and saw the new spring calves and the ones that were born since my visit last fall. He has been developing a small herd of Scottish Highland cattle over the last couple of years. I always
like to go with him to take them some treats. I pretend they are glad to see me, even though after they figure out I don't have any goodies in my pocket they lose interest in my conversation!

We accomplished a lot, although not all at needs to be done, so I will make another trip at the end of the month.

No stash update this week, but there was no change. It is very doubtful that I will have any change this week,either, as the only day available for sewing has a dentist visit scheduled. I may do a bit of shopping at guild, since we have a meeting sponsor, but maybe I will just buy thread! The Fat Quarter Shop had Mod Century by Jenn Ski 50% off, this week and it took every ounce of discipline not to order a bundle or jelly roll. It is a line that has appealed to me since I saw it, but I remind myself that there will be another!

At any rate, I have not done much of anything in the creative department, except for the embroideries that I started a couple of weeks ago. I finished three more and have a couple in progress. I have been thinking about how I want to use them when they are complete, but I have not settled on a plan. For now, I am just enjoying the feeling of accomplishment!

'G' is for Giraffe

'H' is for Hedgehog

'A' is for Alligator

WIP Wednesday - Embroidered Blocks

My quilting mojo has taken a dip, lately. The Mister and I took a weekend road trip to rural North East Kansas, last weekend, to attend a memorial for my BIL's dad who passed away last winter. It was in a very small burg (pop 650), but the town maintains a tiny RV park (4 spaces) so we took the camper and stayed three nights (why not when the rate is $10 a night!)

The service was very nice and we enjoyed visiting with DearSis and her guy. She brought me new slippers to swap for an estate sale dress form I found for her. I brought the fabric and embroidered blocks for our next quilt collaboration and we swapped some books to read.

There were a couple of small towns near-by that had antique stores so we explored those and hiked up a very tall overlook to see wagon train swales (wheel ruts) made by pioneers crossing the Big Blue River.

I gained an new appreciation of the hardships of westward expansion, 5 feed sacks and two aprons.

While we were away, I traced and stamped ten embroidery designs from Penguin & Fish for a travel project. They are so much fun to stitch, I have been working on them since we got home, as well.

The good news-they stitch up pretty quickly. The downside- I have another WIP...

'J' is for Jellyfish!

Stash update week 17

This week I added three yards of almost solid fabric that I bought for a 10" square swap. It is a 'rainbow' swap and my assigned colors were red and red-orange. I didn't have anything suitable in the stash so I ordered some sale fabric from Fabric.com.

And, since there is free shipping if you spend $35, I filled out the order with some Suzy Ultman dolls and some coordinates for a story book /dollhouse panel that I got last summer. The order totaled 5.5 yards.


Finishes this week:
I used 1.5 yards for the Baby Animal Blocks.

Not much progress, and still going the wrong direction. I thought I would have the Punctuation quilt done, but the embroidery took priority.

Fingers crossed that I will get some projects wrapped up this week!


Fabric added this week - 5.5 yards
Fabric added YTD - 63.58 yards
Fabric used this week -1.5 yards
Fabric used YTD - 55.68 yards
Net Stash change -+7.9 yards

WIP Wednesday - Embroidered Baby Animals

 It is almost not Wednesday, but I have just finished the last of these blocks!

Good thing, too, as I need to hand them off to Dear Sis this weekend (along with the feedsack fabric I set aside for the quilt for her Grandbebe Girl Five).

The designs are Aunt Martha transfers, "#3738 - Baby Animals".  Like many Aunt Martha designs, there were 7 in the set - the seventh was a baby elephant which I didn't feel quite fit in with the rest.  I needed 12 blocks, so I left out the ellie, and did two of the remaining six.

This is the first time I have done duplicates of the same designs in the same set of blocks.  I think I will try not to do that again.  The last few were kind of a grind to finish up.  I do think they are very cute, though!

Here is a closer view of a couple of my favorites:

The rest are in my Flikr stream here.

Fingers crossed that spring will come for good this weekend! I am excited for a mini road trip to hook up with Dear Sis and her Guy and hand off this project!