Mawwiage!

So as some people know, I got married a month ago. The wedding planning involved a LOT of DIY. We made our invitations, table decorations, programs, favors, etc. I sewed my skirts, and a friend sewed me gorgeous corsets. If you're interested in that entire process, go here: Wedding blog
While proud of all the things we created for the wedding (and it was indeed a family affair), the subject of this post is the Chuppah. In traditional Jewish weddings, the couple gets married under a canopy, which can be made of many things, and sometimes is made of whatever's handy (even a table cloth or sheet). I decided, of course, to make our Chuppa.
The main colors for the wedding were black, blue and silver and I knew I wanted something that looked dynamic, and somewhat unpredictable.
I'd been wanting to learn how to do Crazy Quilts for years, and have always been quite intimidated by them. A true Crazy Quilt is a piece with little or no organization, made up of bits and pieces of many different things (fabric, feathers, yarn, buttons, lace) over years of accumulation. This was too scary for me. Instead I found a pattern for a faux Crazy Quilt. It's got an organization, once you know what you're looking for, though the craziness still comes out in the lack of figuring out the fabrics ahead of time.

Here is the finished Chuppah:

I gathered scraps of fabric of the right colors, and bought 2 colors for what became the silver stars. I even managed to incorporate some of the fabric from my wedding skirt. That's the lightest, shiny blue. The silver is the only thing that went in predetermined places in the quilt. Everything else was mainly what I grabbed out of the bag at my feet at any given moment. It was great to make a scrappy quilt for which I got to use many fabrics that I already know and love from previous projects.

Here's a close up:

I enjoyed making this, much more than I thought I would, and I think I got the hang of Crazy Quilts. I may even be ready for the real thing, at some point.

A Recent Project

My good friend Miki's due to have a baby in 2 weeks. I've known Miki for about 10 years now. We met when my youngest was 2 years old, and my eldest was 5. Miki and I were housemates for about 3 years and during that time we became friends. Fast forward years later, my girls are 12 and 15, Miki is married and about to have a baby. This is a much-wanted baby; her parents (yes, it's a girl), had gone to some trouble to conceive her. And when Miki told me the news I was thrilled!
I knew I would make them a quilt, and knew it had to be filled with colors, and life, but not be overwhelmingly colorful. Not too "busy", if you know what I mean.
As luck would have it I was fooling around with a pattern that called for strips of many different colors at the time, which was easily done with scraps of fabric. This worked well for me as I have decided to trim down my fabric stash. In fact, this quilt is made entirely of fabrics I had in my studio sewing room.
I call it Ducking Around:

And here's a close up:

I gave it to the expectant parents a few weeks ago at their baby shower. Both were thrilled and the quilt is waiting for its owner to join us here on the outside.
When I know the baby's name I will amend the quilt name to "Ducking Around with ________"
 Addendum: The baby's name is Audrey so, Ducking Around with Audrey. Yay!

Monsters Vs. Aliens

Last week I finished a quick baby quilt for a coworker. This is her first child, a boy, and she is nervous about it even as she's very excited. I wanted to giver her something colorful and lively. I don't do very well with traditional boy/girl colors so I had to think of something that would suit her, and also be fun for me to work on. I came up with this:

The pattern is alternating four patches with s simple square. The fabrics, close up, look like this:

 
And hence the title, Monsters Vs. Aliens.
I just love the crazy monsters. I suppose you can tell this from the fact that the larger squares are the monster fabric rather than the aliens or yellow fabric. I saw this fabric at the store a while back and had to get it, even though I did not have any project in mind for it at the time.
I'm happy I found a project for it, and a home for the quilt. And just in time: the baby's due in 3 weeks and the Mama's been having braxton contractions all week!