Hey! It's my birthday!

To celebrate, I'm taking the day off work, meeting up with some friends for dinner, and having a little giveaway! (Oh, and going to DMV to renew my driver's license. How's that for waiting 'til the last minute?)

For the giveaway.... how about this sweet little stack of 10 fat quarters from Sandi Henderson's latest collection Secret Garden? To enter, leave a comment (by Sept 1 at noon) wishing me happy birthday, of course, and sharing a silly birthday story of your own.

Here's mine:
A few years back, my good friend Kristina, who was going to Grad School in Iowa at the time, called to wish me a happy birthday. (It was early morning, but not THAT early.) I quickly interrupted her to say that it wasn't my birthday, my birthday wasn't until the next day. She replied that it was indeed my birthday - her phone had told her so, and after thinking about it for a minute, I realized she was right! And it wasn't just that I had the day's date confused, I actually had my birthday wrong. Unbelievable! I guess that's what happens when my standard reply to "when's your birthday?" was "at the end of August." for so long. Never again, though.

Today's the day!

feeding frenzy.

Not long ago, I went on a bit of a favorite-ing binge on Flickr. The results were both predictable and surprising. 
 I like Pinwheels and Improv Log Cabins (predictable). But also zig-zags and wonky stars. Wonky Stars. Who knew? There were also quite a few string quilts that made the cut and some ticker-tapes.
I seem to prefer either very busy and bold quilts or ones that are quite minimal with a lot of blank space. (Quilt backs were sometimes favored over fronts). 
For whatever reason, quilts that used exclusively prints from one fabric collection didn't seem to find their way into my favorites very often.  The exception was Heather Ross's Far Far Away. A surprise.  I had never been particularly compelled to purchase the fabrics and didn't have any in my stash. (Which was quickly remedied, I should add.)
Favorite color combos - when not totally random - orange and green, and aqua and yellow.
All in all, quite the feast!

Image from left to right, top to bottom:
1. charbronico 2. {brooke} april two eighty 3. Ann StewArt 4. Annamal Quilts 5. Blue Elephant Stitches 6. CampFollowerBagLady 7. dspaz_12 8. Elsie'sGirl 9. filminthefridge 10.flossyblossy 11. Handpicked 12. Insung from NAMOO 13. modernquiltrelish 14. oh-cherry-so 15.One Green Apple  16. Pikku-Kettu  17. r0ssie  18. s.o.t.a.k handmade  19.  Spotted Stone Studio   20. SunaStudio  21. susan weinroth 22. Sweet Baby Jamie 23. syko Kajsa 24. teaginny   25. verykerryberry

5

6

I managed to get these blocks done this morning after a two week break from sewing (and pretty much everything else) due to a problem shoulder. Both used paper piecing and went fairly quickly, thankfully, as I'm still a little achy. I'm finding that I have very little yellow in my stash and resorted to using some light orange/aqua prints from Joel Dewberry's new Heirloom collection. I think they make a nice addition to the mix.

Block 4. Phew.

My dad has a saying: "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades." I think it should be revised to add "and quilting". My seam ripper got some serious action on this one. I finally had to say "close enough" or it would have never gotten finished.

I need one more project like I need, well, more fabric. (Which, by the way, is both not at all and definitely!) But after successfully resisting the temptation to join the Farmer's Wife Quilt-along, I succumbed to the Summer Sampler Quilt Along.  12 blocks in 4 weeks.  Seems reasonable, right?  I thought so.  (Although Block 4 might just do me in - I'm still working on it.)  I was also hoping the law of inertia might kick in and once at my sewing machine, I'd tend to stay at my sewing machine.  Thus far, it's held and I've managed to make significant progress on my remaining solid log cabin blocks!

As for the Summer Sampler Blocks, I'm using all fabrics from my stash, including some of my most coveted scraps - like the aqua turtle print.  I have no idea who the manufacturer or designer of this print was, but I do love it so!  I've also raided a bin of aqua and red prints that I've been collecting for a pinwheel quilt.  I don't think they'll be too terribly missed and I'm just not feeling the aqua/red love right now.  My plan is to keep the predominant colors aqua and light green with splashes of color here and there.

So far, so good, I think.  It's looking very summer-ish!

I will say that the precise patchwork is testing my patience a bit, and my seam ripper had to make an appearance on Block 3, but overall I'm having fun, and learning a few new skills.

And now, to finish up block 4!

Block 3

Block 1

Nine down. Six to go. I started these blocks this spring with the intent of donating them to the Quilts for Quake Survivors fundraiser - unfortunately I think I've missed every deadline - but hope to finish up this quilt for another charity focused effort.
It's not so much that I sew slowly, but rather finding one-on-one time with the sewing machine can be challenging. I did manage to sort through the rest of my solids and pick out fabrics for the remaining six blocks though. That should count for something!

I have a tendency to start projects without having them fully planned out (which is probably part of the problem, but I can't believe I'm the only one!) I get a general idea and then just dive in. For these blocks, I cut a whole lotta strips and started sewing, choosing colors as I went. After about five or six blocks, a color scheme for the entire quilt emerged, and I went back to my stash to pull together the fabrics for the remaining blocks. There were two blocks that didn't make the final cut, and I wish I had stuck with either off-white or white, not both, but in the end I think it will work out just fine.

If ever there was a fabric that made my heart go pitter-pat, this is it.
Wildfield in Cherry from Valori Well's new Wrenly collection. You wouldn't believe all the things I want to make with this fabric.
(Available in the shop - for now that is - I might just decide to keep it all for myself!)