Artsy Mama is hosting an online party to celebrate the release of Tara Frey's book Blogging for Bliss.

This is timely for me in a couple of ways - lately, I have been feeling criticized for wanting to have a "quilting blog" - and this book it total justification for it. *w* And, I have been wanting to improve my blogging skills! (So there! *hee!*)




And anyway - who doesn't love a party!? The party's today - so go on over to Artsy Mama's blog (click the linky on her name above) and join in the party!

And pick up that book! I am! :)

So, you may remember I posted about the first of my Pay it Forward giveaways a couple/few weeks ago, and giftee number two received hers yesterday, so here is number two



When I was making the first Pay it Forward gift, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. There were a couple of things I had in mind for each person, and I'd planned to do a personalized variation for each winner.

But I was experimenting with mini-blocks for a block swap I'm part of, and I realized after I'd made the first one, that they were the colours that Kathryn had picked as her favourite colours. So, I decided to make three more (all my scraps in those colours would allow); but once done, I didn't know what to do with them. And then it came to me - make a tote bag.

Having made the tote bag for her, I then had to make another one for winner number two. She had listed teal, aqua, purple and orange as her favourite colours and I had some lovely teals in fabrics ranging from velvets to silk, some purple satin and an aqua/violet/teal print I had picked up at the Textile Museum sale, so I happily went to town.

Crystal's a young woman, so I wanted to make young woman's bag. It was hard, because I didn't know what her lifestyle is like or what kind of work she does, but I finally just decided to make one to my aesthetic, using her colours and hope that she liked it too. (It was extremely popular with my co-workers!)

I had to fiddle a lot with this one - again, I made it with no pattern, and I tried a different technique from Kathryn's which went so badly I had to essentially make the bag again, but I'm really pleased with it in the end, because it's the first time I tried the honeycomb quilting and it turned out really well!



That's a good look at the quilting on the inside of the bag (before I sewed on the binding strips to cover the seams). Neat, huh?

And I also tried making my first little pocket for a cellphone or Ipod



and it turned out well too. So, all in all, I was really happy with experiment number 2.

Thanks Crystal, for being my guinea pig, and thanks for joining in on Pay It Forward!

Look at this scrumpdillyicious quilt!



The colours! The quilting! The binding! (And you should see the back!)

Would you like to win this quilt? Of course you would!

If so, please go and see my friend Crystal at Sonnet of the Moon (click that link, you know you wanna!) and enter her giveaway.

I almost didn't want to tell you about it, because I sure hope I win! But you should go and have a look. And say hi! She's a lovely person with a lovely blog. You'll be glad to "meet" her.

on the boy's blankie. :)

I'm using fabrics that are purportedly "African cottons". I'm not sure whether they actually are or not, or what makes them "African"; however, they're masculine looking and in the colour pallette I'm looking for.



Black of course, along with black and gold and cream and gold. Some of the centre panels are pieced out of scraps of the cream/black fabric, but it's such a busy fabric, you can't tell.




I'm quite pleased with is so far. I'm going to continue working on it after I get home from my day job as I can for the rest of the week (knowing already that I won't be working on it tommorrow); and hope I can make some good progress on it. (Click to enlarge)



Beginning Monday though, I have to start working on another quilt that has to be completed by the 11th of August. I have the fabrics and my pattern idea already though, so that should help.

I'm doing Crazy Mom's nine patch quilt along (round two).

I really just wanted an excuse to use up some funny fabrics I've had hanging around for years. We're on day seven - and I originally thought I wanted to do 140 blocks instead of the 70 her pattern requires (so my quilt would be a "usable" size instead of a lap); but now I'm thinking I want to break up the blocks with one big nine patch block in the solids (that would be the size of the nine of the small nine patch blocks) or with single fabric squares that are the same size as the nine patch blocks.

Or maybe just sashing...

*hmmmm*

I've also got some blocks on the design wall. I'm making a quilt for my oldest son's birthday this September - it will live with him as he goes off to residence. There are two ideas I have,



I'm leaning more towards the first one, but I don't want it to look too "old fashioned" y'know? I want it to be a modern interpretation, fit for a stylin' young man. :)



My design wall is at the back of my sewing room where no light gets at night - so the pictures are kind of dark and don't accurately reflect the colours. However, this one, with the border layout, will give you a better idea of the true colours:



Whichever layout I go with, the first border will be those triangles. I find it really tough to make something for someone I love so dearly. You want it to be a perfect reflection of how much you love them, don't you? *le sigh* It's much different than when you're making something for a friend, a customer, or some "unknown" person.

Do any of you feel that pressure when making something for loved ones too?,

I work at a Ministry of the Government, and today we had a charity Fashion Show Fundraiser. Each division within the Ministry had to produce an item of clothing for the fashion show, made from recyclable office supplies.



My office knowing that I quilt and sew clothing, immediately came running to me for ideas, and because I had seen Sunny Fong on Project Runway Canada make a dress out of Post-it notes, I knew that I could make one too.

I first cut out the pattern pieces in fabric, and then sewed "feathered" post-it notes to the pieces, then I sewed the pieces of the dress together. Here it is on my 4'11" dynamo of a model. Surprisingly, it wasn't hard, just time consuming. The only part that was fidgety, was putting the zipper in. It kept wanting to get caught in the paper!

The end result was what I had imagined - a kind of go-go dress. I was very pleased with it!



The judges picked this dress as the winner:
And it is very well done, but I thought it was cheating - after all, since when are magazines office supplies?

Instead, we won "Fan Favourite". Which I think is really winning. As BSP says "Who cares what the judges think, anyway?" (BSP always unfailingly supports me. :) )


Stephanie (my model) added her own touches in the paper chain bracelet and post-it noted shoes (if you look closely, you can see that she even made a hair ornament out of more recyclable goods).




In the end though, I think what really counts is that I was pleased with it. I called it "Sunny Daze" as an homage to Sunny Fong's amazing dress - which was my inspiration.




(and, as always, pics are clickable to "embiggen").