Quilt-o-rama 2011, part 1

Longtime no blogging! Well, I spent Sunday thru Thursday at my mom's house for Quilt-o-rama 2011. I brought four projects with me - my Block-a-Palooza fabrics, an Origins jelly roll, the grey/yellow solids and my jelly roll rug that needs a binding. I almost finished the Origins Avignon Picnic top and cut out block #12. Alas, I was easily distracted, so that was all I got done.

My stepdad felt we needed some serious lighting!

Just need to sew up three seams and tadah (I love the show Modern Family and I can only think about Jay saying "tadah!") - and it'll be finished:

I really love this pattern and it comes together quickly. The whole quilt is basically 256 two-rail blocks. You only need 29 strips for this quilt, so I have 11 left over for binding. I did have a couple SRMs - Seam Ripper Moments, but I suppose that's just a given. You really need to keep your S blocks and Z blocks clear.

Z blocks ready to be put together

I didn't lay out the blocks beforehand. I went for a random look. But, I still got two matches.

As luck would have it, the two matching pairs are in the same strip. It's one of those things that I notice but hopefully the recipient, whoever that will be, won't notice!

I also cut out my block #12 for Block-a-Palooza but I decided to piece it at home on my own machine. I think I have finally found the settings on my machine for a proper 1/4" seam and I didn't want to monkey around with half-square triangles on my mom's machine.

My mom was working on the American Jane pattern Popcicle Posies using pin dot fabric. The pattern seemed like a complicated one. She went over it with my aunt and laid out each of the fabrics on a card table.

I love the movement of it, even though there are no curved pieces. The pin dots read solid, but close up they have that great dotty texture.

My mom texted me today to tell me that she has all the rows sewn together and she's just looking for a border!

My aunt was sifting through the scraps of a quilt that she and my cousin had made to raffle off for Kaleidescope Place, a community childcare program in Minneapolis. And this is what she came up with:

Beautiful! Some lucky baby is going to get these blocks. They were pretty small, maybe 3" square.

What distracted me from my projects? Stay tuned!