One of my two Works In Progress

 

Well I've been working on this one for a very long time - in my head. I found these sweet little reproduction fabrics with dogs on them a little over a year ago and thought they would make a nice little quilt. Since then I've been trying to collect other prints to coordinate with these dogs. I' was kind of going for a more contemporary feeling to bring these little guys more up to date and I wanted to stay in the same color families using tone-on-tone prints just for stability. You wouldn't think blue fabrics would be so hard to find but this weekend I finally gave in and settled on my last three fabrics. I still don't really care for these last three but I've put it off long enough and need to get something done. I won't tell which ones they are but you can probably figure it out if you look close enough.
I cut and sewed for most of the day and then tonight when I was trying to figure out my layout, decided that I didn't like what I was going toward and ended up ripping it all out and starting over. So here's my first block and I think I'll be happy with this. I still don't have an overall picture of what this quilt is going to look like but it's a start. If you haven't figured out by now, I don't really like to use patterns because most of the time I buy my fabric before I know whant I'm going to do with it and when I find fabrics I like, I'd rather just put them down how I see them in my head. When I find a pattern I like, I'll find fabric to go with it afterwards.

 

My original plan was to make this quilt and donate it to the Ozarks Berry Festival Quilt Auction this summer but I'm not sure if it will be done in time so it may have to wait another year.

 

Just for fun, here's a cute pic of Char as we were getting ready to start dyeing some Easter eggs.

Another blanket, a new technique

So this is a blanket that I made for one of my friend's new baby boy. Technically it's called a "Rag Quilt" and the ragged edges are supposed to get softer with each wash. It's made up of three layers: cotton on the front, flannel in the middle, and minky/ chenille on the back - makes for a pretty heavy blanket.
My mom made Charlotte one when she was born and I'd seen a simpler pattern similar to this online. I thought it looked easy enough to figure out with out any instructions so I went for it. It took much longer than I expected and was much harder than I expected, with much re-working, but I think it turned out really well. Since I had so much trouble with it, I vowed not to do another one for a very long time and definately not until I had some better instruction on how to join the corners - but we all say things we don't mean. I haven't looked at these pictures since I put the blanket in the mail and now looking back at them, it makes me want to do another. At least next time, I'll know better what NOT to do!

Just a close up of the ragged edges on the front.

Here's a close up of the back side: the light blue is the minky dot and the brown is just a soft chenille.