Tuesday, April 24, 2012

All prepped and ready to go!

This is a high stress week at work.  We have our Accepted Students' event on Wednesday, and since there are many students we've admitted who can't afford to get here to see the school on their own, I've been playing travel agent to bring about 40 families from around the country to campus at our expense.  Which would be fine if the blasted kids wouldn't keep changing their minds and their plans!  Every time I think I have everything done, I get an email or a phone call that throws my best-laid-plans right out the window.

This kind of stress calls for therapy.  Sewing therapy.  Our quilt guild's annual retreat is coming up May 4 and 5, and we will be making quilts with the Lil Twister tool.  You know, this kind of quilt:
Photo borrowed from http://www.quilters-connection.com/classes.asp
My cousin will be having his first baby in July - this seems like a perfect way to knock out a quilt for the newest member of the family.

Is it true for you, too, that one of the hardest part of making a quilt is fabric selection?  I thought I'd make it easy by using some of the Good Fortune charms that I won from Linda a while back.  After all, Good Fortune is a great name for a baby quilt!  But I only really wanted the oranges and the greens and a touch of light blue.  Once I took out the purples and dark blues and pinks and grays from the Charm pack, I didn't have enough.  Into the stash I went, and found a darker orange and a darker green to sprinkle in there for POP.  And there was one orange piece from a City Weekend Charm Pack that seemed to go well, too, so I threw it in there.  And then, of course, I stalled out at border time.  It's pretty scrappy looking, which means I'll probably love the end result, but will my cousin?

Back to the drawing board.  I decided on a safer alternative for the baby - perhaps I'll make that other version for myself!  I alternated all of those purples and blues from the Good Fortune charm pack with a white.

There are some really fun fabrics in here.  Two of my favorites are:




Anyway, I am super impressed with myself that I am ready for the retreat nearly two weeks early!  Now, I just need to get ready to face the rest of this week at work.  If you don't hear from me, send survival thoughts my way.

6 comments:

Auntie Em said...

It's so much fun to take a simple checkerboard and turn it into a twister quilt. Can't wait to see the "after" pic.
Hope you have a great time at your retreat. You deserve it.

Char said...

I also have this fabric and I love it. I like both choices but I think the blue would be best. Enjoy the retreat, wish I could come along!

Anonymous said...

Both look awesome...being a blue and white girl myself..I love the blue especially!

Stray Stitches (Linda G) said...

I have the hardest time selecting fabrics for a quilt! I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one. It looks like you have two wonderful quilts in the making. Good wishes and thoughts being sent your way for your stressful week. ENJOY the retreat - you certainly deserve it!!

Julie Fukuda said...

I like that pattern and have done it a number of times but i think alternating those fabrics with white would be a lot less stressful and quite effective. Good luck with the student event. Good thing they aren't coming to a Scout event on a US base where you need a gate permit 60 days out!

Debbie said...

hope your weekend is going well.

this is the quilt i made with the twister ruler:

http://debaeremaeker.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-purple-heart.html

its fun after the finicky cutting!