Doll Quilt Swap 12 - Happy Sunshine Mini

I don't know why I've put this post off for so long. Anyway, here it is! My DQS 12 post! I've decided that I am going to share lots of process photos with you! Since I've had so many deadlines lately, I've been in a bit of a rut of hopping to one deadline to the next, and not a lot of time to just mull over things as I work on them. Fortunately that is coming to an end. I've made a few changes... but those are for another day. Today I woke up at 5 am. blah. So I might as well use the extra few hours before my day to get this finished. (It could be because I went to bed at 10 last night, or 9. I don't know. Does going to bed early ALWAYS mean I'll wake up early? I hope not... ;) ).

Anyway, this swap was super fun! There are so many beautiful quilts going around, and I'm still anxiously waiting to see which one will be mine!! This was another push out of my usual white background and simple patterns. Ok, I don't know if I use many simple patterns. I think I like to make things too complex most of the time. Anyway, part of the rules for this swap are: you can't use a white background. you have to use one of 5 block styles (flying geese, courthouse steps, log cabin, and two others... ?), and I always forgot this rule (glad I didn't break it) you have to have at least 6 blocks. 

While deciding on what to do, I saw this lovely progress shot by SewHappy45, and inspiration struck! Here's what I came up with!

Flying geese with flair!

Then came the fun part... turning it into fabric! Ok, well making it with fabric. I wish I were magic! But then that would take all the fun out of it wouldn't it?!

I ended up taking a few pictures along the way. I was really bad at sharing progress photos in the swap this round, so I will share them here. (did you ever notice that button on my sidebar "I took the process pledge"? Well, here's my attempt to share the process.) I played around with Instagram for a while (they released it for Android, and I mostly like it, love the filters, but it really messed up my phone killed my phone? I think. Yeah, I'm getting a new phone today. SO glad we got insurance for our phones. Mine is toast! (it was either Instagram or the fact that I found Jacks with it and the cover was swimming in drool (though the cover was not on my phone, so still unsure). Either way, my boy has turned into a dog. lol. Anyway, I don't use Instagram anymore. Kind of sad about that, but whatever. I found a different photo app - Vignette, and so far it's pretty cool.) Anyway, here are my photos:

Fabrics and colors picked!

Organizing the chaos, aka, which fabrics to put where

Coming together!

SO CLOSE! :)

ready to sew together!

I was basically beging my partner to hate it at this point! lol. It's funny how your perspective and thoughts on a project can contrast so strongly from the beginning to end of it. I was SO nervous about this when I started (as in picking fabrics and pre-cutting). I really doubted that it would turn into anything desirable, but went with it anyway since that's what I had to work with at the moment. Boy was I wrong. And boy am I glad I made it despite my initial thoughts on it. 

My least favorite part was connecting the weird triangle shapes. Reminded me too much of my Kaleidoscope quilt that I struggled with. ;) But it actually came together quite well!!! It was A LOT easier than I thought it would be. I think the things that really helped (in contrast to my Kaleidoscope quilt) were:

• my blocks were all squared up
• I pinned the pieces together at ever point that needed to match up.

lol. Ok, that was an awesome list. I'm so glad I used bullets. lol. Anyway, I think that's all that I did different and it worked great!

Here it is!!

The Back:

The quilt finishes at 18.5" x 18.5". I made up a variation of flying geese and paper pieced the entire front. The solids are all Konas, the prints are a mix, some Hope Valley, Amy Butler, Michael Miller... The back is a 9 patch of Amy Butler prints. The binding is a text print: Authentic by Sweetwater - a last minute addition to my cart on a recent fabric shopping trip. SO glad I bought it. I think it finishes it off perfectly. Definitely adds to the 70's retro feel of it. ;) LOVE that!

I did a simple double lined quilting just on the edges of the geese all the way around. The thread matches the corresponding fabric color.

As I finished it up I laid it on my bed to show the Mr. I realized how awesome it would be to make a lot of these and do a quilt for our bed!!!! That would be incredibly insane (do people really make whole large quilts out of paper pieced blocks???), and I would probably want to never get out of bed, but I would love it!!! I will have to think about that. Maybe when I have nothing else to do. lol. :)

I think this is the best shot of it. It really does look better in person!

Whitney received this over the weekend! I got her email this morning saying she loves it! She said she smiles every time she looks at it! Yay!! :) I'm glad it's loved. And I agree, I would smile every time I looked at it too. Thus the name, Happy Sunshine. The name really has nothing to do with the design or how it looks, but more to do with how it makes you feel. So happy, and so bright, like sunshine. I wish I had captured that better in the photos. 

I also sent off my usual, a postcard of Utah (I've read a few comments of people saying they like getting a little something from where the sender lives, and thought a postcard is easy enough to send to everyone.) I also sent off some chocolate covered cinnamon bears. I've heard that these can only be found in Utah (and maybe the surrounding states???) Anyway, these are our favorites!!! I picked up a box for us as well, and they were gone in a day or two. Three if we were lucky. ;) Whitney said they disappeared pretty fast too! Maybe something to look forward to for everyone coming to the Sewing Summit!! ;)

Thanks Whitney for being such a great swap partner!!! (she now has two of my minis. The other can be found here.) :)

p.s. linking up at Canoe Ridge Creations (maybe next week. There is a HST linky party going on over there if you're interested.)and Quiltstory Tuesday.