Gone Dotty!

I am lucky to be one of the blogs posting on the LAST day of Sew We Quilt's Dots on Dots blog hop. Thanks so much to the fearless leader of this blog hop and many others, Madame Samm, and the cheerleader/hostess, Corrie of QuiltTaffy--it's been so much fun following along and seeing everyone's dotted creations!

Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post to enter the giveaway!
The giveaway is now closed. Thank you for visiting!

My initial thought was to do bowtie blocks. It seemed a perfect fit for polka dot fabrics! I made this small quilt using dotted fabric from my stash and a white-on-white circle print. I quilted it 1/4" from each horizontal and vertical seam line. I love how this turned out, but since I'd wanted to do a quilt made of small blocks, I really wasn't following the rules about block size for the hop.

So I went back to my stash again and came up with this:

It is very bright and cheery. And hurts the eyes a little bit, I think! 

Log cabins (both wonky and traditional) are my go-to block. They're easy, they're fun, and pretty much any fabric looks great in the pattern. 

Every fabric in the quilt, except for the sashing, is from my stash. And I still have enough dotted fabric left to make two more quilts this size, easily. Scary! :) 

Here's a close-up of one my favorite blocks:

Here you can see my sashing audition. I wanted a black and white dot fabric and could only find this optical illusion print. I bought 1 yard and decided I'd make it work, because the blocks definitely needed something DARK to separate them. A place to rest the eyes between each bright block. 

I decided that I preferred the uniform smaller dot size for the sashing, so I fussy cut sashing rows and reserved the fussy-cut larger dot strips for the outer border. 

Here it is with the outer border, which provides a good frame. 

I won't even try to claim that the outer border offers an opportunity to rest the eyes! :)

After I machine quilt this, I'm going to send it off to Margaret's Hope Chest. I hope it will make someone in need happy and warm!

If you're not going dotty yet, here's one more dotted quilt, a top that I made earlier this summer. 

 Read more about it here.

Thanks so much for stopping by to see my dot-filled projects! Make sure to visit the other blogs showing off projects today:

Bejeweled Quilts by Barb 

Cate's Linens

From This to That

suemacseeds

Marcia's Crafty Sewing and Quilting

Color My World Color My World (you're here right now!)

 Rosemary B- that other blog

Bquiltin Studio

Nati's little things 

Madame Samm

*The full schedule for the dots on dots blog hop can be found by clicking here.

Oh yes, and the GIVEAWAY!!!

I am giving away my little bowtie mini quilt AND a charm pack of Amy Butler's Spots (seemed appropriate to the theme, right?)

To enter, simply leave me a comment telling me your favorite color. 
*Note: You must be a follower to win, so if you are not yet a follower, 
please join first and then leave a comment.* 

The giveaway is open through Monday, September 24th at 5 pm EST. 
The giveaway is now closed.

I will use random number generator to select a winner that evening 
and post the winner's name by Tuesday morning. Good luck!

p.s. Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addicts "Can I get a whoop whoop" and Quilt Story's "Fabric Tuesday" to share the dotted love! 

Friday: It's all about the mod baby!

My sister's baby shower was last night (yay!) so I'm finally able to share photos of what I made her. And, even better, because frankly a boppy cover and hooter hider are not that exciting, I have photos of the gorgeous quilt my mom made for her. This is going to be one stylish mama/baby pair!

p.s. Scroll to the bottom for a photo of the cutest pregnant girl ever!

My sister doesn't know if she's having a girl or a boy, so she wanted something fairly gender neutral, but not cutesy. I chose this great Lark print from Amy Butler for the boppy cover, and another Amy Butler print, Midwest Modern, for the hooter hider. (And if you're not familiar with the term "hooter hider," yes, it is exactly what it sounds like, for breastfeeding.) 

 I wanted prints that would go together without looking excessively matchy. I may be skirting the line a bit on the "matchy" part, but I loved both fabrics.

 Are you admiring my lovely invisible zipper? I admit that the only part to admire about it is how well it matches the fabric. Inserting it into the boppy was a disaster, and it's not terribly invisible, so it's good that it matches so well. This hole is one of four that I discovered after stitching the fabric's raw edge to the zipper. I learned my lesson though--bigger seam allowance next time!

And then I learned another lesson the hard way. Shortcuts are great. Self-created shortcuts, not so much. I couldn't be bothered to print a boppy pattern off the Internet and tape all those pieces together, so I decided I'd simply trace my own (recently retired) boppy cover. It didn't go so well. Extra fabric in, let's face it, all the curved parts created a not-so-snug fit.
So I tried another self-created shortcut to fix it. With the cover on the boppy form, I simply pinned how I wanted the boppy to fit on the inside of the "C" shape. There was no way I was redoing that #$#$*(#$)%# zipper! I removed the cover, turned it inside out, and stitched a basting stitch, roughly following those pins. Happily, this shortcut worked and I was able to resew the line with a regular stitch, trim the excess, and have a fairly snug boppy. Whew. The other good news--the shower was Thursday night. I was actually doing this Tuesday night, so I had an entire extra day/night of wiggle room!

And now, on to the quilt that my mom made. My sister requested a (gender neutral) non-baby quilt. I helped mom choose the fabrics--24 different ones, I think--and she created this quilt. Gorgeous, isn't it? I want one!

She even fancies up the back with a pieced section.

And seriously, how adorable is my sister and her preggo belly? Have you ever seen a cuter one? To repeat an overused expression, it's like she swallowed a basketball! She loved the quilt, and we can't wait to meet this little one in September!

Linking up to show off all the mod baby fun at Confessions of a Fabric Addict's Can I get a whoop whoop!

p.s. Do you want to join my Shades of Grey Charm Square Fabric Swap? Click here for more information!