June | 2007 | I knew that!

Florian frog

June 18, 2007 at 12:30 pm | Posted in plush, Sewing/Crafts | 10 Comments

I just love the Purl Bee’s tutorials. They posted another winner yesterday, and I just had to drop everything and make one: the purl frog.

Meet Florian. He’s a mellow, happy sort of fellow, made from April Cornell’s Sonnet fabric.

If you like him, you should make your own and post him at the purl frog groupon flickr.

I did stray from the instructions when making him.

Print the template, and cut along the dashed SEWING line rather than the solid cutting line.
Trace the sewing line on the wrong side of a rectangle of fabric. Make sure you have at least 1/4″ of fabric all the way around the template.
Pin another rectangle to the first, right sides together.
Sew on the marked line.
Cut out 1/4″ from the stitched line after sewing.

It just saves you from having to cut twice and match up the pieces.

Happy discovery:

June 15, 2007 at 11:03 am | Posted in Doll Quilt Swap, Quilting, Sewing/Crafts | 15 Comments

…a flannel-backed table pad for your dining room table makes a perfect “design wall” for a doll quilt.

This is my work in progress for my Denyse-Schmidt-loving Doll Quilt Swap II partner. A group of us received our partner info early so that we could send quilts out early, too. I’ll border these blocks with white and they’ll finish up to about 4-3/4″.

a lazy day

June 13, 2007 at 2:11 am | Posted in shopping | 6 Comments

It was a perfect, sunny, breezy day. I’d been putting in a whole lot of time on the swap and wedding maps, so I gave myself permission to do some running around today. Theme for the day? Free!

First, I met up with a friend of mine, who gave us more beautiful free bedding, to go with the beautiful free BED she and her hubby gave us last weekend. (Thanks, Erin & Jim!)

I’m not really a mall person, but I had a return, so I took the opportunity to swing by Anthropologie for the first time.

Wow.

What a great place. I love their displays. One of my favorite things was an old gumball machine they’d dropped a square of Astroturf into, and added a miniature picnic table set. These were a close second:

The owl’s breast is lined with rows of rickrack, and the bunnies tail is a spiral of the same. I totally want to make that owl! His eyes were a little stuffed, too.

I might have to go back for the Lotta Jansdotter sticky notes.

Visited the new Swoozie’s (in Oak Brook, local people!) to spend a gift certificate they’d given to everyone in a club I belong to. [soooo many prepositions, including that one at the end.] That place is a riot of papergoods, giftware, toys and tableware. Oh, and snacks. They also personalize invitations. Oh, darn. I should have plugged my map business. Now I’ll have to go back, heheh. Anyway I found a black and white polka dot canvas slipcover for the folding chair in my craftspace. It didn’t fit the chair :o/ But it’s such a perfect fit for my color scheme that I’m much more inclined to find a new chair than I am to return the slipcover! That’s what craigslist and garage sales are for.

Where next? Over the weekend, a local quilt shop sent me a “we miss you, so here’s a coupon for $25 in free merchandise.” Um, I was there 2 of the last three weeks, but okay, I’ll take your coupon! I bought fabric 6 half-yards of fabric and ended up shelling out a whopping $2.65. Guess their nefarious scheme to trick me into buying more didn’t work! Here are the print fabrics. Left to right, Mary Rose Mod (Kaufman), Mary Rose Mod again, Picadilly (Free Spirit), Freshcut (Free spirit).

I also picked up an aqua solid (Sandy’s Solids, Moda) and an olive-y green (Bella Solids, Moda). I think some of these will make it into my doll quilt for the swap.

Finally, I purchased a few treats for my husband, whose birthday is tomorrow! I made him a strawberry-rhubarb upside-down cake from his late grandmother’s recipe. He’s lucky that rhubarb is invariably in season around his birthday, for the cake, and there are always Father’s Day sales, for the gifts. Or maybe I’m the lucky one. For all of the above, and for having landed such a wonderful man.

All Doll Quilts, All the time

June 11, 2007 at 1:48 pm | Posted in Doll Quilt Swap, Quilting, Sewing/Crafts, swaps | 11 Comments

I just posted an announcement over at the Doll Quilt Swap blog that we are ending the registrations early. At 100 swappers! I hate for anyone to be disappointed at missing the signups, but I had noooo idea that the swap would become so popular. I’d hate more if the swap experience was lessened or compromised by us not being able to keep up with questions and stay on top of the swappers’ progress, so it had to be done. Boo! Please help spread the word on change if you happened to post about the deadline on your blog.

In much, much happier news, I received my swap quilt from Michelle last week.

Isn’t it pretty? It was showcased on Whipup for their May miniature quilt challenge, and rightly so. All the stitching: the piecing as well as the quilting, was done by Michelle’s own two talented hands.

The binding is stitched and mitered so beautifully, it’s ridiculous, and I mean it in the nicest possible way.

It took a while for me to recognize that the rows progressed in rainbow order. I was just so agog at all the fabrics and handwork. The quilt includes batiks and calicos, a mix of new and vintage cottons. This is one of my favorite sections.