To go with the quilt...

I've had this pattern for over a year, fully intending to make it for my youngest daughter (YD) because she loves elephants.  Then middle daughter (MD) decided to do elephants as the theme in the nursery.  How perfect is this?  She said she wanted something small so it would be easier for a baby to grab and this is about 4".  I had some of the blue fabric left and turned it in to this.  For obvious reasons, I left off the eyes.

MD's birthday was on Saturday so gave her both the quilt (last post) and the elephant with her other birthday gifts.  She loves them!

October quilt

I didn't make a Schnibble pattern this month even though we had two choices.  One was for a full sized quilt, which I don't need, and the other was for a star which has never been on my list of favorites.  And besides --- 

Middle daughter is expecting her baby soon and I need to get the baby quilt finished (and some other birthday and Christmas gifts) before I work on something for myself.

I call this quilt "Godot" (with thanks to Samuel Beckett) because they're waiting.  It's a pattern I've wanted to make for several years.  I put white in the same place on the stars in each block but other than that, it's random.  The bright blue with the white elephants is what she chose for the curtains.   

Also, I want to say a public thank you to my no-blog friend Synthia.  When I told her my daughter had an elephant theme for the nursery, she saw the same blue print in a shop and sent me a fat quarter of it.  I think of her every time I look at the quilt.

I'll be shopping for the backing tomorrow.  Daughter has requested flannel and Fabric Depot has a great section of children's flannel.

Bias binding question

I have a formula for figuring how much yardage I'll need to bind a quilt (see a Quilting Life here for the link to here for the formula) but does anyone have the formula that will tell me how much bias I can cut from a piece of fabric or where to find it?  I need help!

2012 Aurora Colony Quilt Show

This is always my favorite quilt show of the year.  The theme this year was "Seeing Red" but there were still many quilts that weren't "just" red and white.  I used a different lens on my camera this year and couldn't get back far enough to get pictures of the full quilts - lesson learned.  Next year, I'll take a shorter lens.

One of the curators told us that next year's show will be quilts from their collection.  I'm really looking forward to that!  The first quilt is from the collection.  I was helping to wrangle my grandchildren this year so didn't get as many pictures as last year and I also missed getting photos of the labels.  

Close up of above quilt

The upper right and lower left baskets were navy blue

Displayed in the children's room

 

Lower left block of above quilt

I love this cradle and look forward to seeing the quilt in it each year

 

This is truly a 'make-do' quilt

My 4-year-old granddaughter (The Princess) looked at the beautiful Hawaiian quilt with pineapples all around the center (which I didn't manage to get a picture of) and told me she thinks that is what God looks like.  The bottom pineapple (which is upside down) is His foot, she said, with His toes on the bottom.  I think she horrified an older woman standing next to her as the woman told her, VERY firmly and quickly, that it's NOT. 

Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photo Walk

The photo walk was on Saturday and, according to Scott's blog, there were about 32,000 of us all over the world taking pictures at some time during the day.  There were 11 of us in the group I joined in Oregon City - a perfect number for the size of our sidewalks.  I shot over 100 pictures and others took a lot more.  Here are a few of mine ---

This is just before the walk started.  I wanted to get the 'open' sign.  There's a street between the short wall and the buildings.

This is the neighborhood where we walked for the first of the two hours.

John McLoughlin was known as the Father of the Northwest Territories.  His grave is on the right, his wife's on the left.

This fountain is a few feet from the graves.  

This section of Oregon City is divided into two sections - on the bluffs and down by the Willamette River where Main St. is.  Oregon City is the oldest incorporated city west of the Missouri River so Main St is very old.  I wanted to show the difference in the two sections but didn't get any shots of Main St - just of the old industrial section.  Maybe next year.

There's a promenade along the bluffs.  You can see the Falls in the center of the picture.  Lewis and Clark stopped here because there was no way around the falls.  There are two paper mills, built on each side of the river.  The mill in this shot closed a couple of years ago.  There's just no way to get a picture of the beautiful falls from the promenade without the mill in the foreground.

Looking across the Willamette River at the other paper mill, still operating.  The hill leads up to the town of West Linn.

This is the Oregon City elevator, legally a vertical street.  We can take the elevator or stairs between the downtown, Main St, area and the bluffs above.

The Oregon City Arch Bridge has been closed for repairs for almost two years and reopened this morning.  It's one of two bridges connecting Oregon City with the other side of the Willamette.

This is from the other end of town, next to the marina.   If you click on the picture, you can see the Arch Bridge between the legs of this one, the Interstate bridge.  The Falls are under the Arch Bridge.  If it had been a sunny day and not misting, you'd be able to see them.

Anonymous comments

I've been having trouble with "Anonymous" emailing me spam disguised as blog comments.  The thing is, they've never shown up here under "comments" so they must be direct emails.  The last one began, "Nice article."  The thing is, it wasn't an article so I didn't even open it.  

I'm really tired of getting spammed this way so have changed my comments to registered users only, including Open ID.  Now, I have no idea what Open ID is but it sounds like you have to identify yourself in some way.  Since I receive very few legitimate comments from "Anonymous", I hope this won't make things harder on those of you who want to say something about the posts because I really love it when you do.  And thanks for understanding.

September Schnibble

The Schnibble for September is Speck although I prefer to call it John Mayer because I had his music on the entire time I was working on it. 

It looks nothing like John Mayer.  His music is soft and smooth while this quilt is bright and angled but it will forever be linked with his sound in my mind.  Have you heard Born and Raised?  It's awesome!

This is from Miss Rosie's new pattern line and calls for 2 1/2" pieces rather than charm squares.  I'm really happy with the smaller size.  It's great for a doll quilt or for putting on the wall with some of my other Littles.  I think I may reduce the size of the other Schnibbles I have planned and make them from the smaller squares, too.  This size is more useful for me - not fewer pieces or less work, just more useful.

I used the Carolers line by Mary Engelbreit for this one.  I had a charm pack so cut the squares into quarters - easy!  The setting posts and binding are from American Jane.