You may be able to guess what these little wedges are for. 

Just think on a smaller scale.

Cherry Pickin' Baskets

I found a {new to me} blog a while back and fell in love with a basket quilt that Jolene from Blue Elephant Stitches had made.  Well, she actually made two.  This and this.  I was so inspired by the scrappy and whimsical nature of the two quilts, that I immediately started making my own basket quilt that night.  I have been wanting a "basket quilt" for quite some time and for some reason, hers just spoke to me.

I call my quilt, Cherry Pickin' Baskets because once I got going on the quilt I just knew I wanted to put this fabric on the back.  It's from the fabric line Cherry Fizz by Barb Jones for Henry Glass Co.

I was so sad though because I bought a couple yards of this backing before the quilt was finished and ended up being a little short of fabric.  When I went back to buy some more of it I found out that someone had bought the rest of the bolt that morning.  So I had to piece it.  I ended up using this herringbone fabric from my stash to supplement.

The basket pattern comes from Gwen Marstons Liberated Quiltmaking #2.

My quilt ended up being a little different than Jolene's.  I added a stop border and some of my baskets are more centered on the block.  Making the baskets was really fun, easy and super addicting though!  I had a lot of fun making it.

I did follow Jolene's idea to add a piano key border.

I have a thing for scrappy quilts and this one definitely fit the bill!



Natilie Thompson did the quilting.  I asked her to do a basic stipple so the focus would be on the baskets.  

Her contact info is: 801-787-2496 (South Jordan, UT).

Have a good day!

~Amber

Scrapbag & Gigi's Thimble Patterns Winner

Thanks to all of you for entering the giveaway.  I loved hearing about the fun things you've been doing this summer!  It sounds like you've all been spending lots of time with family, traveling and enjoying the lazy days of summer.

Today I went on a somewhat treacherous hike with my two kiddos, my brother and his family (my hubby was bringing home the bacon while we were all out having fun).  I'm glad we all made it back safely.  We had a few falls and I was thinking some not very nice words in my head as we were sliding down some very steep hills that turned sharply before some very high cliffs that had a very fast and cold river at the bottom.  Don't ask me why we didn't turn back.  Thankfully we all made it back safely though.  Then we came back to my house for Belgian waffles, buttermilk syrup (here's my recipe) and some R and R!

Now, onto business ~

The winner of my scrapbag giveaway is commenter #28!

AngieSue, who  said...

"Your polka dots have given me a great idea on how to finish a project! Thanks for the inspiration. The best thing I have done this summer ... ate ice cream with my kids all over Europe. "

Sounds wonderful AngieSue! 

Please email me your snail mail address along with the names of two of my patterns that you would like me to include.  Check here for details about all of my patterns.

Thanks everyone for playing!  Have a wonderful weekend.

~ Amber

Aniva's Arrows

I haven't had a chance to introduce my newest pattern,

Every Which Way.

Right after the Spring 2011 International Quilt Market, I took my Every Which Way quilt down from my booth walls and it went right into the arms of the ladies of a local quilt store!  It's been on display there ever since and I haven't been able to feature it here on my blog yet.  I'll be getting it back next week, but I couldn't wait to share with you another version of it.

  

My friend Aniva, made this version for her son.  She added a stop border and an outer border to make it double the size of the original pattern.

Aniva used Riley Blake's Alphabet Soup Boy (main) as her inspiration fabric.  It's perfect because it has little arrows on it!

She used an assortment of fabrics for her arrows (incorporating all of the colors from the border fabric) to give it a real scrappy feel and then she backed it with a light green minky to make it extra soft and cuddly.  She finished the whole thing off with an all over arrow quiting design.  Pretty fun if you ask me! 

And I love what Aniva did next ~ she used her arrow scraps to make this little number:

Thanks Aniva for sharing this project with me (and letting me snap some pictures of it too)!   You've inspired me to make a big one for my 8-year old whose been crushin' on it ever since Market. 

You can find the Every Which Way pattern HERE.

Also, there is one more day to enter my scrapbag & Gigi's Thimble pattern giveaway.  Click HERE to enter.

A Finish and a Scrap Bag Giveaway

Well, it's been the summer of swimming lessons, scout camp, a pioneer trek (and a bunch of other stuff that I can't exactly put my finger on right now).  

I'm sorry there hasn't been much blogging around here lately.  With some camera issues and 2 kiddos to entertain all day, I'm lucky to have gotten a few posts under my belt.  Thanks for bearing with me though.  I hope you're all still out there?!?  It seems a little quiet on my google reader these days so maybe I'm not the only one taking it easy for the summer...

There are a couple things I want to share with you today. 

First, my button.  You may have noticed it over there on my sidebar.  You are welcome to grab it and share it, if you'd like.  I was pretty proud of myself for making it :)  Can I just say, "Yay me!" !?!  I must admit though, I did not figure out the coding on my own (I'm not that smart).  I did have some help.  This link gave really easy-to-follow instructions that anyone can follow (even me):

http://oikology101.blogspot.com/2008/09/make-your-own-button-for-your-blogger.html

I might be the last one on earth to "have a button" and you all are probably thinking, "it's not that big of a deal".  But I did it and it felt good to learn something new. 

***

On a different note, I thought I would share my newest finish.  Well, it's just a quilt top right now, but that counts doesn't it?  You've seen a little snippet of it before (when it was in its newborn stage).  But look how she's grown! 

She started out as this:

and it ended up as this:

I'll show better pictures when it's finished, but she really is so different than my original plan.  A few new blocks were introduced, setting triangles were added, and I'm thinking a scalloped border is in order.  I hadn't thought to put the blocks on point until they were just about done and I'm really glad I decided to do it.  

   

All of the blocks came from the book, Around the Block with Judy Hopkins.  They were really fun blocks to make with simple, clear cut instructions.

This was a project that my quilt group decided to do.  We just picked out 12 blocks and each made our own quilt using our own color schemes and settings.  Mine will hopefully be done soon (as I am a little behind in starting and finishing this project).  I'm trying to keep up with these ladies...

My 2 favorite blocks?

This one (in the middle) called, Old Favorite.

and one right next to it called, Arrow Crown.

All the blocks finished at 10" and the size of the quilt is now measuring about 63" square.

Well, enough about that. 

I mentioned a giveaway, didn't I?

I was thinking that it's been a while since I did a giveaway on here so I decided that I am going to give away my scraps from this project and I'll throw in a couple of patterns (your choice which two) to one lucky winner.  I love these fabrics (most of them are Daydream by Stitch Studios for Riley Blake Designs).

I really thought some dresden plates out of these scraps would be so sweet, but since this is my second and a half quilt made out of these fabrics I thought it was time to move on.  Didn't want to over do a good thing, ya know? 

So we'll make this real easy for ya.

Just leave me a comment below telling me the best thing you did this summer.

Leave some contact info. and make sure you're a follower.

You'll get an extra entry if you blog about it on your blog

(just leave a separate comment saying "blogged it).

This giveaway will close Thursday night at midnight. 

I'll announce the winner this weekend.  Good luck!

~ Amber

I've caught the bug.

Besides swimming lessons for the kiddos, a walk/run with my 8 year old, sewing a binding on a newly finished quilt [pictures coming soon]

and cleaning my kitchen for way too long, I pretty much wasted the day away "pinning".  I'm a bit technologically challenged, so I'm always a little slow jumping on the bandwagon of things like Pinterest, Twitter, Flicker, etc.  [I was pretty proud of myself though for figuring out how to get the "Pin It" button on my favorites toolbar yesterday.  It's been hard to stop pinning since then].  For those of you out there that have not yet caught the bug, let me tell ya that you're missing a whole lotta eye candy.

Here are just a few photos I've "pinned" today.

First, I found me a new project I want to do.

[Please don't hate.  I know this pattern is everywhere these days,

but I like it on everything and in every color!]

yeah.  that's a rug.

 [tutorial found here].

{credit}

I've been inspired to spruce up my craft room.  Well, really I've been wanting to for a long time.  Isn't this cubby system fun?

There's been some serious color inspiration too. 

Is anyone else feeling orange and turquoise lately? 

I may or may not have a new pattern in the works using just these colors...

And, I suddenly need to make this quilt.

I've been ignoring that fact for far too long.

[All photos credit = Pinterest]

To follow me on Pinterest, just click on the link on my sidebar.  I'm having a lot of fun.  I think you will too :)