The pattern naming contest is still going.  I’m LOVING all the entries so far.  Woohoo!

So the contest is simple, name the pattern and win the pattern.

Simple rules…

1. No names having to do with the fabrics used.
2. No proper names (The Anna Quilt).
3. Silly names are ok (just not Love Potion #9).
4. Subtitles are ok (Off Your Rocker/Wacky Log Cabin Quilt).
5. If I like two and combine them into a title/subtitle both submitters will get a pattern.
6. Is this like the worst idea ever?  Should I just go delete this post?

Contest will close Monday (2/2) night.  The pattern is written, edited and tested — it’s just waiting for me to finish the quilt for the cover.

So the quilt?  This is the proof-of-concept quilt.  The final quilt will be in the same fabrics, just bigger (6×6 instead of 3×3).  This is just the quilt top – no quilting or binding yet.

And a little detail:

So that’s that!  Both quilts and the pattern will be in the shop next week.  There will be a couple days inbetween the contest closing and the pattern being ready to mail but I’ll mail it  out as soon as it’s ready!

Sorry about the silly Monty Python part.  In case you hadn’t guessed already, Sean and I are a little weird.  I remember watching the movie for the first time on a bus trip up to NYC in high school.  All I could think was, “O…M…G… People watch this stuff?”  And then of course several years later I married a man who can recite the entire  movie and quotes it whenever he can.

Ah, Vermont.  I love Vermont.  Perhaps not as much as New Hampshire.  Sean, can we move?

Hi Emily in VA!  We lived in VA forever.  We didn’t escape too far though!

Random comment… comments with links automatically go into moderation (darn spammers).  I approve them whenever I’m at the computer next.

Yes, I shop at Wish.  A lot.  I try not to go more than once a week.  At least once, I was there three times in a week.  Yikes.  I’ve been twice this week and now “need” something else from the new newsletter.  Must… not… go… tomorrow…  Cathy, stop selling cool fabrics that I “need”!  The kids love coming to the shop but bad news – Liam figured out how to get the thread out of the displays on Wednesday.  Not good…

I don’t usually do trades.  I don’t wear jewelry so that one is out I wish I wore it since there is so much beautiful stuff out there but I spend my day is tees and yoga pants so you know…  Sigh.

I want to learn to knit.  It sounds so relaxing.

Patterns… pdf or printed.  I obviously go with printed.  Even if I were a buyer I’d go with printed.  Dunno why, just do.  I haven’t done any research on sales for printed vs. pdf so it’s just what I like.

I *think* I answered everything.  If I missed one, let me know.

On other randomness news, the wall is almost done!  As soon as they finish that, we get to measure for a fence and talk about plants and all that.  Super cool.

And Jane is about 3/4 done.  Yay!  Is it bad that I’m thinking about attempting hand quilting it?  I looked a little bit at hoops.  Sean, please come smack some sense into me.

And hopefully I get the new contest up tonight.

1.  It does feel abso-freakin-loutely awesome to have the blocks done.

2.  It took about 9 months overall to make the blocks (I worked on blocks every Friday).  There were a couple breaks sprinkled in there.

3.  I cracked up at the labor of love comment… I think growing two kids was easier!

4.  What am I going to do with it?  Sean says I should put it in the shop with a price tag of $12,000.  Ha!  Yeah, not going to happen.  It’s going to live in my sewing room.  I’ll finally have a quilt for me!  (Seriously, it’s freezing in this room and I have no quilts to use. I want to finish it while it’s still cold! ).  I am slightly afraid to use it since it took forever to make and I don’t want to mess it up.

5.  This is my backing.  And phew, I have enough of it. It’s from Maypole as well.

6.  I have no idea what to bind it in.  I don’t want to use the purple that is going in the sashing because if I’m going to do the work for the scalloping, I want it to really stand out!  I don’t like either of the other purples next to the sashing/scallop color.  I don’t think red would pop.  So I’m left with yellow or light green I guess?  Opionions welcome!!

7.  Quilting.  I have no clue.  Please vote!  The options are:

a) a dense meander/stipple.  I do this on almost all my quilts.  I could get it done in 1-2 days and it would look good (from a technical standpoint).  It would also give that cool puckery look since the fabrics were not pre-washed.

b) stitch in the ditch along the sashing.  Kinda boring.  Huge chance for folds in the backing.  But would highlight the blocks some I guess.

c) stitch in the ditch AND special stitching on each block like Jane.  If I were a die-hard hand quilter I would so do this.  But I’m not.  I could do stitching on each block like Jane but on the machine.  That would be a b@*%& on a machine though.  Possible though, just not the most fun and would take FOREVER.

d) have a long-armer do it.  But then I’d have to wait for it and I’d have to let it out of my sight.  Cost issue with this one too.

This pic may be of help (that’s A1 through F-6):

I hate inside pictures.  The sun was hitting the left side and not the right and it’s just all messed up but lookie!  I’m in love. <3

Here’s a breakdown of the block counts:

And the first section assembled.  I really want to keep working on this this week but I really should do shop stuff.