Oh my!

August was Julie's month in my scrap busting quilting bee.  She sent each of us a monochromatic selection of scraps along with some brown background fabric and asked for a geese in a circle block.  Sweet- I love how these blocks look.

Although I had never done paper piecing before, I knew the general concept and decided to naively jump into the project.  I had saw this block, thought it was awesome, so I decided that was what I was going to make.  I mean, it can't be that hard, right?  Wrong!  I did not know what I was getting myself into!

All in all, despite all of the newbie difficulties I had, I love how the block turned out!  I just can't say that I'm going to make another one any time soon.  :) 

Beautiful

I left my fancy camera at my sister-in-law's when we went to visit for her baby shower. So sad. Fortunately, I still have our point and shoot at home. This evening I was downloading some photos and I discovered this photo my husband took on the canoe trip he took earlier this month.

It's breathtakingly beautiful! Scenes like this remind me why I live in Michigan.

The irony...

My birthday was August 1.  Shortly before my birthday I registered a Starbucks gift card so I could receive a free drink on my birthday. 

On the morning of my birthday I arrived at Starbucks eager to spend a morning reading in the coffee shop sipping my free soy cinnamon dolce latte.   Unfortunately, when I announced it was my birthday and presented my gift card I was informed that to receive my free birthday beverage I would need a coupon I should have received.  I had never received a coupon.

Today, August 30, I was surprised when I checked the mail.  I finally received that coupon for my free birthday beverage!  A free latte at last! 

While I think the free drink is exciting, I think the best part is what the coupon had written across the back.

"You know us.  We'd never miss a birthday."

Oh really?

The Real Deal

This past weekend was my sister-in-law's baby shower.  She's expecting a little girl in mid-September.   She asked me to make the bedding for her purple and yellow themed nursery- specifically the quilt and the bumper.

I found a couple fat quarter bundles of this fabric at JoAnn's and supplemented with some yardage from a local quilt shop.  I sat for awhile trying to determine a good pattern for a two-color quilt.  It was much more difficult than I expected.  So, I threw a couple green accent prints in and after making a trial quilt top, I made the quilt.

I made the squares a little larger so I could make it more of an oversized baby quilt.  I wanted it to be able to usable for longer than the itty bitty baby stage.  I also decided to back the quilt in super soft minky and do minimal quilting.  This kept the quilt really snuggly and cozy. 

I'm pretty happy with the finished product.

For the bumper, I used the pattern in Little Stitches for Little Ones by Amy Butler.  I have actually not had a lot of luck with Amy Butler sewing patterns in the past, so I was surprised that this came together pretty well.  My only issue was that it told me to see page 172 to make the ties, but I had not photocopied that page before I returned the book from to library.  Who would have thought my pattern instructions on pages 36 and 37 would send me to 172?  I'm pretty sure I didn't make the ties as the pattern would have instructed because they ended up being a lot of work.  I think they look pretty nice though, so no complaints here.

I liked the pattern because it had you make pockets on the inside of the bumper panels.  The pattern is written to have pockets on both of the long sides of the crib, however, I decided to only have them on one side.  It would have been an extra yard of fabric and I didn't think it the pockets on both sides would be used at the same time anyway.

All in all, I'm happy with how the bedding turned out.  I can't wait for my niece to arrive so I can see it in action!