Black and Gold Giant Hexies by Halves Quilt (Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry)

It's that time of year again!!  Blogger's Quilt Festival is one of my favorite events.  I knew this quilt had to be one of my Blogger's Quilt Festival Entries.  The hard part was really just deciding which category to enter it in.  It could have gone for a throw quilt, home machine quilted, or I'm thinking it might have enve counted as a two color quilt...but I've decided to enter it in the Quilt photographer category.

Title: Black and Gold Giant Hexies by Halves Quilt

Made by: Me (Polly Carlson)

Size: Approx 46"x58"

Division: Quilt Photographer

Techniques: Home Machine Quilting

 

I've really fallen in love with this Giant Hexies by Halves pattern.  I've designed lots of my own quilts, but this is the first one that I've taken then the time to thoroughly write up into a polished pattern.  It's available here in my shop and if you enter QUILTFESTIVAL20, you'll receive 20% off the purchase price of the pattern (offer expires Nov. 8, 2013).

Modern Rocket Launch Club Triangle Quilt (Bloggers Quilt Festival Entry)

My second choice for Blogger's Quilt Festival was a bit harder.  I've been trying so many fun and different patterns, that I feel like my quilting has shown a lot of growth.  This one is a particular favorite because I love both the prints and the overall composition of it...and I love that it's made from leftover scraps, so I'm entering it in the scrap quilt division.

Title: Modern Rocket Launch Boys Triangle Quilt

Made by: Me (Polly Carlson)

Size: Approx 36"x 40"

Division: Scrap Quilt

Techniques: Home Machine Quilting

I just love the Rocket Launch Club prints in Sarah Jane's Children at Play line.  They're getting hard to find, but you can still find a lot of the collection on Amazon or Etsy if you look around.

I love the little boys playing around doing brainy things.  My husband is a physics teacher and his family is such that shooting off model rockets is a common family reunion activity.

"Organic" Chemistry Cupcakes for Mole Day or Any Day

Happy Mole Day everyone!  In honor of the greatest chemistry holiday few people know about, I thought I'd share a sweet treat, even your less geeky friends will appreciate.  Organic Cupcakes!

Or rather Organic Chemistry Cupcakes.

While the hubby and I are all for natural food...having chemistry backgrounds we do occasionally poke fun at people calling particular food "organic" because from a chemistry perspective pretty much all food except for salt is organic.  (The field of organic chemistry deals with pretty much any chemistry relating to carbon compounds...which is just about everything relating to living things and what we eat.)

Eric likes to do something with his science classes to celebrate Mole Day.  A mole is a number...kinda like a dozen means 12...although instead of being something countable, a mole is 602200000000000000000000.  It's important in chemistry, and since the shorter way to write it is 6.022x 10^23, chemistry geeks take the 10^23 part and turn that into October 23rd.  If you'd like to learn more about moles, well you can learn a lot from this song.

I-Spy Heart Quilt - A Quilt for a Baby Logo's Heart

Sometimes there are quilts that just HAVE to be made regardless of what other projects I had planned.  This was one of them.

This adorable little guy is going in for heart surgery today (as long as everything went well over the weekend and it didn't get pushed back.)

You might remember several weeks ago when I posted about the little boy reading onesies and I sent one to a Robyn, a blogging friend at Pen Pals and Picture Books as a little surprise for Baby Logo (his blog name...not his real name).  And as a side note, it's easier to surprise a blogging friend, when they have a blogging partner, you can get their address from.  Thanks, Whitney!

I had no idea until we started exchanging emails back and forth that her little guy would be going in for heart surgery soon.  Robyn hasn't posted about it on her blog yet (because seriously...how hard is that to write about?!?  I've never even actually met him and I'm tearing up writing this), but she said it would be okay for me to mention it here.  So before you read the rest of this post...say a little prayer for Baby Logo and his family, and the doctors and nurses caring for him that everything will go well and that he'll have a speedy recovery and healthier heart soon...next pop on over to Pen Pals and Picture Books or their Facebook page and say something kind or funny to Robyn to lift her spirits...and then you can come back and read the rest of this post...

***Update:  Robyn says that Baby Logo's surgery went just as planned and he's doing great and started on the road to recovery!  So good to hear!

I figured with all the hospital quilts I've been making for people, that Robyn's family could use one as much as anyone, and I wanted to get it done before his surgery to help brighten Baby Logo's room and give big sister and brothers something to help entertain them during visits.

Although, seriously...his 5-year-old brother just finished the most amazing quilt (go check it out) for baby Logo, so Logo is set.  The I-Spy quilt may end up staying-at-home with the big kids to help comfort them while Mom and Dad are at the hospital with the baby brother.

We put a heart in the middle because Logo's little heart will be so much healthier when they're done.  And we made it blue because he's a boy, that's his mama's favorite color...and it just so happens that there are usually extra blue squares in any given I-Spy swap.

Anyway, my girls helped me sort out squares.

We decided to make this something of an all-star quilt.  We just picked out our favorites.  We started by pulling out favorites out of our most recent I-Spy Swap, and then I raided my "special squares" pile, so this probably has squares in it from 4 or 5 different swaps.

Some of the squares are super-duper-favorites that I've been hoarding saving for just the right project...like those humerous candy knock-offs, the kitty peeking out, and the girl scout patches (I know...he's a boy...but they're green and pretty unusual as far as I-Spys go.)

We also tried to stick to boy or neutral themed squares.  I also had a couple of book themed squares that I made sure made it into the quilt.  (Like Where the Wild Things Are above, and Oh, the Places You'll Go...Dr. Seuss below.)

And this is Becca showing her favorite square...although she had a REALLY hard time choosing one.

We made a heart in the middle with blue and then the rest of the quilt is just random.  I thought about using the 4x4 color blocks, like I've done before, but since we were just trying to use the best squares, I didn't want to be limited by a certain number of each color.  I'm hoping to have a little tutorial for the heart block soon.

I like the backs of I-Spy quilts to be kinda calm, since the fronts are so loud and busy...but I had a half-yard of Oh The Places You'll Go Elephants (Dr. Seuss) from Sisters and Quilters that really wanted into the quilt because of the book connection, so I in this blue print from my stash since Robyn likes blue and it matched the elephants.

And we took some quick photographs of it, and shipped it off to Robyn and her family.

If you're not familiar with I-Spy Quilts, each square has a different picture on them, and you generally get the squares as parts of I-Spy swaps.  I've hosted several swaps in the past, and will be doing one again soon.  If you'd like to be notified of the next one, you can go here and fill out the form at the bottom of the post or I have a couple of extra sets of I-Spy squares listed for sale in my shop here.  I also make custom I-Spy quilts if you're not up for making one yourself.

 Please show my sponsors some love...

This Way and That with Cat in the Hat Quilt KIT- From Sisters and Quilters

200+ I-Spy Charm Squares Set - From Pieces by Polly Quilts

Dr. Seuss Fat Quarter Bundle from Sisters and Quilters

Made to Order - I-Spy Quilt - From Pieces by Polly Quilts

GIVEAWAY: 12 Days of Christmas Jelly Roll and 20% Coupon Code at From You Keep Me in Stitches

I've been excited about this all weekend!  Friday a package showed up in my mailbox filled with fabric for a fun series of giveaways courtesy of Patty at You Keep Me in Stitches.

I know none of us are quite ready to be thinking about Christmas projects yet...but if you've been thinking about sewing up  festive Christmas quilt, now is the time to get started and this jelly roll will be just the thing to kickstart your holiday sewing.

In case you're not familiar with a Jelly Roll, it's a collection of 2 1/2 inch fabrics strips, the width of the piece of fabric (usually 44 inches), with a selection of all the fabrics in a particular collection, in this case 12 Days of Christmas by Kate Spain.  This is OVER 3 yards of delicious designer fabric, already cut for you.  They're convenient because they can be used in so many patterns, and you save a TON of time with not having to cut the fabric yourself.

And it just keeps getting better!  Patty at You Keep Me in Stitches is offering Pieces by Polly readers a 20% discount off EVERYTHING on in her store  AND 20% off everything on her sister site, Granma's Treasures.  Just use the Coupon Code "Polly Pieces" at checkout.

Besides Patty's gorgeous fabric selection, she also has an amazing selection of yarns.  Just browsing through it makes me want to pick up crochet again.

Fabrics: Holiday in the Pines Jelly Roll, Holiday in the Pines-Red, Aspen Frost Snowflake,  Small Chevron Fat Quarter Bundle, Saddle Up Charm Pack, Shuffle Navy, Spring House Zig Zag,  Spring House Jelly Roll.  

Yarns: Strawberry Remix, Ocean Park Linsey, Superwash Daffodil, "Calypso" Starbella Reggae, Nightclouds Starbella, Variegated Antique Blue, Evergreens Merry, "Grey Marl" Softee Baby

Now for the giveaway...
a Rafflecopter giveaway


I'm linking to:

Harry Potter Printable Spell Books - Sew and No-Sew Version

The only thing more fun than a magic wand, is having a spell book to go with it, so you can cast all the best spells.  Now you can make your own.

(You can see more about the Ginny Weasley Golden Snitch Skirt here.)

These spell books were really popular at Katie's birthday party earlier this year...and I was surprised to realize I'd never posted the links to the tutorial and printable I used for them.

The One Ring (Hobbit and Lord of the Rings) from Boutique Academia goes to...

And the winner is...Elisza T!  Elisza, I've forwarded your info on to Maile from Boutique Academia and she will be hearing from her soon.
a Rafflecopter giveaway



Thanks so much to the rest of you for entering!  If you're not the winner of The One Ring giveaway, the good news is you can order your own.  Just stop on by Boutique Academia.  This would also make a great gift for yourself or the Lord of the Rings fan in your life.

And while you're at Boutique Academia, don't forget to check out all of her other unique math, science, and geek related pieces.

 

Fibonacci Necklace, Anatomical Heart Necklace, Digits of Pi Necklace, DNA Earrings, Moon Necklace, Neuron Earrings, Mandelbrot: Julia Set Necklace, Darwin-Evolution Necklace

Please show my sponsors some love...

Infinity Bracelet from Boutique Academia	Q.E.D. Necklace from Boutique Academia	Pi Necklace from Boutique Academia