Bloggers Quilt Festival - I Spy Quilt!

Hi! It's time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival again over at Amy's Creative Side!  This is the 2nd time I'm participating, and only my 3rd finished quilt ever!  My first Blogger's Quilt Festival entry was my Max and Whisker's quilt that I made last spring for the hubby.

This quilt is the I Spy Quilt made from the charm pack and pattern from Amy Smart - her Etsy shop is here, and she blogs here.  

This idea came about this past summer because one of my husband's oldest friends was expecting his first child.  I thought that the quilt made so much sense for a baby.  As the baby grows, they will be able to identify so many colors and objects on the quilt.  Amy included a wonderful selection of motifs, animals and patterns!

Quilt Stats:
Name:  I Spy Quilt
Fabrics: Charm pack from Amy Smart
Pattern: I Spy Quilt pattern from Amy Smart
Size:  39 inches square

Block detail

I tried my first decorative machine stitch along the edge of the 1st border (the navy one).

White flower machine stitched edge along navy border

Back view of the loopy quilting on the floral border + the edge of the label

There's a hand-embroidered patch on the back that with the blue floral as the border that tells the name of the baby and our names.   I used a linen-y tan color for the alternate blocks.  I quilted straight lines on all the blocks, and tried my FIRST EVER free-motion quilting on the floral border.  It turned out better than I thought - between washing and the floral print, I covered a lot of sins! (although the stitching is quite visible on the back - don't look too close - yikes!)

Detail of the blocks - LOVE the toaster!

I also machine stitched the binding on the back using a zig zag stitch.  This worked really well, and I think it will be much stronger than a hand stitch for a quilt that will be washed A LOT.

On the back fence

Folded on the lawn

The entire quilt!

Vogue Knitting Live Los Angeles and my first photograpy class!

Dear knitting fans - Vogue Knitting Live was a couple weekends ago in Los Angeles, and it was a lot of fun.

I got to spend some time with the Soak ladies, Jacqueline and Chris.  All of my running buddies - check this out - you need some of this stuff to wash your running clothes and all your unmentionables!

Check out the really fun Soak booth!

 

Here's a shot of all three of us in their booth:

I also got to see Anna Hrachovec at the show.  She designs and writes patterns for tiny mochi mochis!  She signed my new book Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi!  Here is her display and a photo of her making more tiny amazing things!

 

You might remember this chicken/egg toy I made from Anna's pattern

I also got to see Deborah Newton - knitting finisher extraordinaire at the show.  She signed my new book Finishing School, a master class for knitters.  The poster next to her shows the signature piece from the book.  It's a fabulous study on finishing knitted sweaters and scarves - with the emphasis on starting well to finish well!  She's adorable and remembered my name from the class I took with her in January!

 
I took two classes: Designing men's knitwear, and Photography for knitters. The designing class was taught by Josh Bennett of Boymeetspurl. You may remember that he designed this sweater that I made for my son last Christmas:

Vogue Knitting-Winter 2009/2010 by Josh Bennett

My other class was "Photography for Knitters" taught by Amy Swenson.  She's a knitwear designer and photographer who taught us the basics about taking great photos of our work.  We practiced a lot during the class.  It was really about how best to showcase items we've made for blogging, posting on the internet, or publishing.  Here are some of the photos I took and some photos of my work my new friend Chinda took of me.  I met some nice ladies and we're going to meet every couple of months and take photos together!

Knitted Cowl by Cathy Carron, Photography by Chinda Wongngamnit (Ravelry ID: Chinda), Knitting by ME!

Sculptured Lace Scarf by Kenny Chua, Knitting by me for my husband, and Photo by Chinda

Star Crossed Slouchy Beret by Natalie Larson, Photo and knitting by Chinda

Sexy Vesty by CanarySanctuary on Ravelry, Knitted and modeled by Chinda, Photo by me

I Spy Baby Quilt - pieced and quilted and photographed by me - more later on this one :)

Are my photos getting better?  Please let me know!

Lily

Seattle and the 1st ever Starbucks!

Hi!  We spent last weekend in the northwest!  Our friend moved there to work for Microsoft, and we visited her last weekend.

Me being a goof as usual!

Our friend who works for Microsoft - bar with cheese shop nearby!

I got some knitting done - love the orange yarn!

And we saw a lot of great things, including Pike Place Market, the first ever Starbucks and the Wall of Gum (OMG)

Pike Place Market

Me in front of the 1st ever Starbucks

"Is that you Mom???"

Vegetables

Peppers

Flowers at the market

 

 

The wall of gum near Pike Place Market - WEIRD!!

Puget Sound quilt - hand painted fabric quilted

Enlarge this to see the detail - can you believe this is a quilt???

Love the gutters - photo taken by my husband

Seahawks fans waiting to exit the ferry to go to the game (they lost by 3 pts)