Whitniffic Whatnots

I am so behind on sharing my projects! Let's hop back in time for a minute. The Moonlit Paths mystery quilt-along was in full swing and I was scrambling to complete some baby shower gifts for my husband's best friend and his wife, but I never shared the rest of the journey with you! Let's see... I think we left off around the middle of June, last year... yikes! I really liked the format of this quilt-along. It was a weekly pattern release, which kept me excited and engaged, yet wasn't too unrealistic to keep up with. I did the crib sized version, and while there were several sizes to choose from, I felt like this size gave me the perfect amount of work to do each week. Eventually, the final pattern revealed itself to me (Shelly Cavanna has a very distinct style), and I couldn't wait to get it sewn together. My estimation of the final assembly... which was pretty much spot on. It's so pretty! Mr. Helpful Cat on the assembled blocks....

Remember those beautiful antique wedding ring pieces I brought home last June? Yeah, I barely did either until I went through the heaps of UFOs in my craft room (I'm working on simplifying and finishing stuff... but it's not really going so great yet). Anyways, this quilt came together really quickly -until something new and shiny came along- and I just recently finished up the last bit of top stitching and binding. But let's go back to the beginning... I loved the vintage-y 1970's-vibe I was seeing in all the little prints, so I used the colors in the designs as my jumping off point. The orange and purple stood out most to me, in addition to yellow and teal. Look at that tiny hand-stitching! In keeping with the theme of old to new, I headed to my local St. Vinny's and picked out a bunch of solids that grabbed my attention. All in all, I spent about $14 on about 7 yards of fabric, give or take; some of them were irregularly sized. Par for the cou...

Running enthusiasts may recognize the name of the great Ed Whitlock, the masters' marathon World Record holder...   Well, this isn't THAT Ed Whitlock. But he might as well be! OUR Ed Whitlock holds many local race records for his age group, too. I met Fast Eddie and his wife Martha through the First Quilters group. He was looking for someone to make him a quilt with the abundance of race shirts that he had accumulated over the years and reached out to our group organizer, who in turn asked in the group if anyone would be willing to do it for him. Of course, being a runner myself, I was immediately interested. Ed isn't the most talkative guy. The first time I called him to chat about his project, he got about five minutes in and handed the phone to his wife. Martha is the opposite of Ed; she loves to talk. We discussed what he was looking for, (what they were doing that weekend, what they had for dinner...) and we agreed to meet up at their church after Sunday's...

Oh boy. What have I gotten myself into? I got home from the quilt show last weekend all excited about my Attic Treasures bag of pastel rainbow clamshells, so I dumped them all over the den floor. I have no idea what the original plan was for these, but it seemed like some of them were organized in little color gradations. Not anymore! I divided all the shells up and grouped them by color just to see what I was working with. There appear to be 800+ pieces here! Yikes! My conclusion- there's a LOT of peach. And quite a bit of purple. I guess  the majority of the quilt will be peach and purple! I may add a neutral grey in there too, depending on the design I come up with. I think I'm feeling a rainbow fish coming on... There are a few stacks of large gingham check pieces mixed in, and I'm not sure I like them. They'll be helpful for practicing sewing these shapes together though! Yikes! This is going to be interesting... It seems like maybe these p...