Bon Voyage Doll Quilt

Do you ever wake up some mornings and just know it's going to be a good day? I woke up this morning and didn't feel tired at all. Usually I hit the snooze at least 5 times and my husband practically has to bang on pans to get me up. But not only did I feel refreshed and happy about the day this morning, but I actually woke up before my husband and walked the dog. I came back in and played on the internet before getting dressed...and joy of all joys!...saw that Anna Maria Horner, my favorite designer in the universe, posted pictures of her new fabric line Innocent Crush!!! Can you believe how gorgeous and versatile it is?!

But then, best of all, I realized my doll quilt would be delivered to my secret partner today! I just knew it was going to be a good day ;)

I finished my doll quilt a little over a week ago, but waited to mail it off until I could finish getting the rest of my "extras" together. I sent it Priority on Monday, so it should arrive on her doorstep sometime this afternoon. I'm 100% sure she doesn't read my blog and it's arriving today anyway, so I feel safe posting pictures of "the goods".

This is everything that went into her package:

And here's a closeup of all the little goodies:

I made her one of my little box pouches out of Modern Meadow because she listed that as one of her favorite fabric lines (and I have tons of it...obviously!). I figured I couldn't go wrong with a zipper pouch because she's a mom and mom's can never have enough storage bags! All the little items you see out to the side were lovingly zipped inside before I packed up her box. I found those adorable little needle threaders at Joann's, and then I thought it would be cute to get some strawberry buttons to match the little red strawberry needle threader...and the butterfly straight pins don't really fit in with anything else, but I thought they were cute and tossed them in my cart.

The book is one that I picked up at Barnes & Noble, and I highly recommend it! It's called the Directory of Quilting Techniques by Caroline Rodrigues and I bought about a million of them to use as stocking stuffers when it was marked down online to $5 a couple weeks ago. It's a reference book for quilters and includes just about every common pattern, stitch, and applique technique known to man. It's not incredibly detailed, but it's nice to use as a quick reference when you're sewing and either a) forget how to do something and need a refresher or b) don't know how to do something at all and don't quite feel like trolling the web looking for a tutorial.

Silly rabbit that I am, I almost forgot to make a label for my quilt. Honestly. I didn't remember until Sunday night around 9 pm! So I whipped out some printable fabric and put this little guy together. Don't judge my stitches because it was late and I was in a hurry (...at least that's the excuse I'm giving myself as I sit here - horrified - looking at this giant, closeup picture of my mangled Tim Burton-esque stitches)!


And now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever fully explained my DQS9 quilt title. Obviously part of the name comes from the fact that the little girl decides to stop caring whether she gets wet or not and "embraces the horror" by jumping into a giant puddle like an Amazon woman. But I actually got the phrase from my mother-in-law because she says it to me all the time! Whenever something crazy and uncontrollable happens, my MIL will look at me, laugh, throw her hands out, and say "embrace the horror Kaelin". Like when the whole family is together and my scottie, their chihuahua, and my brother-in-law's Jack Russell puppy are running around the house like a fur tornado...Ray and Terry are playing Halo at a volume of 73...and my father-in-law is in the background yelling because he spilled Diet Coke all over the floor...my mother-in-law will look over at me, chuckle, and calmly say "just embrace the horror Kaelin...just embrace it".


Lastly, here's my quilt all snuggled in it's box and ready to go. I wrote her a long note (the entire back side is covered as well) explaining where I got the idea, plus a few other little things I wanted to tell her. It was a little sad mailing it off, but the thought of it maybe hanging in her little girl's room someday made me happy again. Hopefully her family enjoys it :)

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I Nearly Shredded the Box with my Teeth

Guess what came in the mail today? Lemme break it down for you like a fraction.

I walk in the door. Ray is already home, and there is a package lying here (see red arrow).

• Note: Everyone like my husband's dirty work pants and the Star Wars sheet in the background? Good. On we go.

Figure 1.1
Box Spotted Here

I stared at it for a while, because I was like #1...I'm not expecting any packages and #2...it's definitely not one of my orders, because it's packaged in a gift box and usually my mom sends me packages wrapped in old department store gift boxes. I walk over, see foreign handwriting, and the light bulb goes on. I promptly shred box (that's why you get nothing but the red arrow above, because the box was dead and gone by the time I decided to take pictures).

Figure 1.2
Box Carcass

Quilt was unceremoniously clawed from the box, and blood contents were spilled. It was lovingly petted for a while, and then the pictures below were taken.

• Note: Susan even included two poles so I could hang it either direction...one for the short side, one for the long side! Isn't she awesome. I'm thinking she must be a teacher because she thinks of everything.

Figure 1.3
Quilt Front

Figure 1.4
Quilt Back (with pole demonstration)

Figure 1.5
Quilt Label
(looks like your secret identity is not so secret anymore...SUSAN!)

Figure 1.6
World's Most Adorable Draw String Pouch
(Scientific Fact)

• Note: She even put my initials on the drawstring! I'm now officially convinced she's a teacher. Probably elementary school.

Figure 1.7
Contents of World's Most Adorable Draw String Pouch

• Note: Dog also tried to enjoy contents of World's Most Adorable Pouch (see Exhibit A) while my back was turned writing this blog entry. Dog's evil plan was foiled.

Exhibit A.

And to top it all off, she even made the card, envelope and all. I'm borderline sickened by the talent she possesses...thinking of starting an angry DQS9 mob with torches to go steal her crafty powers.

Figure 1.8
Handmade Card

I will be able to justify said mob to the police afterward, because I'm pretty sure she drove down from Virginia and broke into my house, because how else could she have made a quilt that almost exactly matches a photo collage my husband made?

Figure 1.9
EvidenceHope everyone enjoys the reflection of me in the glass. Yes I'm still wearing my work dress and pearls. I hope that makes the image of me clawing open a box like a wolverine that much more entertaining in your head.

THANK YOU SUSAN!
You made the sun shine brighter and the birds sing happier today!

Heart,
Kaelin

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The Big Reveal!

I finished my quilt for the Doll Quilt Swap 9 on Saturday morning, but I waited until now to reveal it just to be a tease! ;)

For a while there, I was a little disappointed in how this quilt was turning out... but now that I have it quilted and bound, I'm really happy with the final product! I had so much fun making this quilt and I love how much creative freedom a mini quilt gives you. You don't have to worry about getting too detailed, because it's not like you have to repeat the design over and over like you would for a regular quilt. I think the small size lends itself perfectly for a "scene" quilt that tells a story, which is what I tried to do.

When the Riley Blake Rainy Days fabric made it's debut, my first thought was that it would make the perfect backdrop for a wall quilt of some sort (but I hadn't come up with any kind of plan at that point). But then the perfect opportunity to explore that idea fell into my lap when I got into the 9th round of the Doll Quilt Swap. I'd seen gorgeous pictures from this group on Flickr for about a year, but always forgot to check back to see when the next round would be starting up. This time I was in the right place at the right time, and wandered back into their group right as sign ups were about to happen. I already had a bunch of ideas floating around even before I knew if I'd been chosen to participate or not! Once I finally got my swap partner info, I decided to do a scene of a little girl walking home from school on a rainy spring day. She tried to stay dry at first, but after a mischievous gust of wind blew her umbrella and hat away, she quit caring about staying dry and decided to "embrace the horror" by stomping (with gusto!) in a giant puddle. I was always the token puddle stomper in the family that struck fear in the hearts of nearby adults, so naturally I had to put some part of myself in the little girl by giving her red hair :)

I finished the quilt top last week, but as I mentioned above, I didn't actually quilt the layers together and add the binding until Saturday morning. Why? Because I'm indecisive and couldn't figure out how I wanted to quilt the top half. The bottom part was easy because I knew for a long time that I was going to closely quilt the "grass" to give it texture. But the top was trickier:

• I didn't want to do vertical lines all over the top because I thought it would be too busy (plus avoiding all the appliques would be a pain in the cartouche).
• I didn't want to leave the top completely unquilted, because I wanted something to physically hold the top together (besides the binding) and also give it a finished look.
• I thought about quilting raindrop shapes sporadically across the "sky", but again I thought that might be too much visually.

After consulting my husband on about 1,000 ideas (God bless him and his patient little heart), we both agreed that quilting subtle gray lines coming out of the bottom of each cloud would look best. It's hard to pick out when you look at the quilt as a whole, but I have a close-up shot below. Once that was done I bound it up in some Nicey Jane fabric and...voila!

So that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it. I hope I hit the mark with my partner and that she's proud to hang it on her wall :) My goal is to mail it out by next Monday (so it arrives before the long holiday weekend), so I hope to make some extra goodies for her this week and post them on here for your viewing pleasure!

So without further ado...

"Embrace the Horror"
for the Doll Quilt Swap 9

(FYI - the back looks a little weird because I had to quilt around all the appliques!)

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Finished Top and Backing for DQS9

I'm almost there! The quilt top and back are finished and ready to be assembled. I'm thinking about binding it with this. The back is just a strip of off-center hexies on some Kona Grass Green (the inspiration for the grass green came from emedoodle's quilt).

When I put it to a vote, it was pretty much a draw between the blue vs. gray wind gusts...so I decided to try something crazy. I layered the blue on top of the gray, and I think it gives the gusts a little more depth and sense of motion...or maybe it just looks like I'm a crazy bag lady that sews together mismatched pieces of fabric. Either way, I'm happy (and hopefully my swap partner will be happy!)


When I was putting everything away and smoothing my pieces down on the table, the quilt top was lying on the backing and it looked like there was green sashing around it (the back piece is a little larger than the front right now). I really liked how it looked, so I may add some thin green sashing to frame the quilt top. Other than that, I'm done and ready to start quilting it all together!

It's hard to see all the little details in the photos above, so below are a few close-up shots.

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DQS9 - almost finished with the top!

I machine quilted the umbrella & puddle, but decided to hand-stitch the little girl. It just felt right. I thought it would make her stand out a little bit, and I think the crude stitches somehow add to the childishness. Plus they kind of remind me of the dashed lines you have to practice handwriting on in elementary school (with a huge wooden pencil!) And I didn't notice this until afterward, but it mirrors the Flea Market Fancy Seed fabric because it has small white dashed lines in the background. Bonus!

I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the clouds. When I posted my last photos in the DQS9 group on Flickr, someone suggested light gray clouds. I like the idea, but I'm not wild about the fabric options I found. There wasn't a whole lot available, and I feel like the one I chose is a little too geometric and not "windy" enough. On the other hand, I'm not sure how well the swirly blue print fits in with the other colors. Plus I still have to add the leaf bits floating around in the wind gusts. Maybe that will pull things together a little bit *crosses fingers*

I did a mashup of the two versions (blue vs. gray) on Big Huge Labs for comparison purposes...any input would be appreciated!!!

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Little Miss Puddlestomper

I've finally started working on my Doll Quilt Swap project again. I fused the puddle and umbrella to the background, and I made a to-scale sketch of my little girl and translated that onto fabric. It was never a question that she'd be a redhead like me ;)

To finish the top, all I need to do is start the raw-edge stitching. With the exception of the umbrella and her hair, I'm going to use charcoal thread to outline/detail everything.



The only thing I'm uncertain about is the gust of wind. I didn't like how the hat laid on the ground, and I felt like I needed something in the middle to fill the "dead zone", so I thought a gust of wind whisking it away would be cute. I like the idea, but I'm not sure how I feel about the placement or the fabric. I looked everywhere, and it's the closest I could find to what I had in mind. I wanted a print that had a direction/flow to it that felt like wind, but I'm not crazy about how the color looks with the rest of the quilt. It's light and kind of see-through, which is what I want, but I just don't know. Would more (small) swirls balance it out and make it stick out less? I'm leaning toward taking it out...but if I keep it, I'm going to add a few tiny leaves and bits swirling around in there as well...and there will also be some darker blue swirly stitching to augment it.

I'd really love to hear what you have to say, dear readers (all 5 of you..hehe). Please comment if you have some advice or inspiration for me!!!

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I'm just a little black raincloud...

...hovering under a honey tree (this is the latest song that's been stuck in my head while I've been quilting).

I drew and posted a sketch of my Doll Quilt Swap 9 project about a month ago, and I finally started working on it this afternoon! Now that the beastly double wedding ring project is out of the way, I've actually had time to work on several different things (more on those later).

I like that the hexagons are so portable, but they're ridiculously time consuming! I still have 2 more clouds to go - the other two will be a little less symmetrical than the one pictured.

The Flea Market Fancy fabric makes for perfect grass...too bad I'm down to only 1/2 yard :( I think we need to start a Spoonflower campaign to get the Seedlings reprinted!

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Doll Quilt Swap 9 (aka DQS9)

I finally made it into the Doll Quilt Swap (as you can see from my proud little button on the side)!!! I've been trying to get in for a very long time, but I always managed to show up too late for the party and it was full.

I haven't even gotten my swap partner yet, but I already have a strong idea of what I want to do. Hopefully when I receive my person and Flickr-stalk them, their likes align with my mad quilter plan *twirls mustache*. Below are some fabric clues, which may seem like I'm giving too much away...but trust me, I'm going to do some atypical things with this quilt.

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