I can barely see the dinosaurs for the trees!

I finished the quilt top for my baby's dinosaur quilt tonight.  It is a little busy, but I think he'll like it.  I took a dinosaur print and 5 brown batiks and turned it into a disappearing nine-patch toddler quilt.  I purposely did not fussy cut the dinosaurs and the end result looks kind of like you're watching dinosaurs run through the forest.

When I first started putting my colors together I wasn't too sure about how this would turn out - the nine-patches that I needed to make disappear were pretty ugly looking.  That fabric in the top center position is really horrifying on its own.  I bought it only because it tied in the orange from the dinosaurs.  Fortunately, my quilt top turned out like I imagined and wasn't the disaster it could easily have become! (Please excuse the poor quality camera phone pictures...)

My fabrics made some really ugly nine-patches!

I kept my pattern and color placement consistent and I think that helped keep it from becoming a big brown batik mess.  I like how the final top turned out and I think Peter will love pointing out all of the T. Rexes.

Mr. Muppy, our quilt inspector, approves.

I have some soft cocoa minky dot fleece to back the quilt with to make it extra snuggly for Peter. The minky fleece makes a horrible mess when you cut it though.  Since our house is on the market, I won't cut that and make my sandwich until Monday night though.    So why wait until Monday, you ask?  My husband, in his infinite wisdom, decided that our vacuum cleaner was dirty.  Did he wipe it down with a damp cloth?  No.  Did he empty the canister?  No.  He threw it away.  Our house is on the market and I have no vacuum cleaner. Our cleaning people don't come until Tuesday, so I cut the minky on Monday.

Random Projects

I wanted to send my best friend from law school a little something to let her know I was thinking of her, so I put together a composition book cover for her.  I hope she likes it!  I made one for my niece in Italy for her birthday, and I think she liked it - I really want to make myself one - it is just never a priority.  Maybe I'll cover my day planner instead of a composition book. Anyway, here are some pictures of the one I made for Michelle, complete with a friendship star...

I also have a couple of quilts cut out and ready for piecing.  One is for my mother-in-law.  We are going to Italy in May, and will be there for her birthday, so I thought I'd whip up something to take to her.  Her quilt is an easy pattern - nine patches set on point and sashing with cornerstones - but is going to be made in really yummy batiks.  The other is for my 20-month old, Peter.  I recently made quilts for my 3-year old twins when they switched over to big kids beds.  Even though Peter will be in his crib for a while longer, I feel badly that I didn't make him one!  The theme for his quilt will be dinosaurs.  I'm going to use a simple disappearing nine-patch pattern and the quilt will be backed in a snuggly minky dot fleece.  I think he'll really like it.

Here are some pictures of the ones I did for the older two.  We have sharks and fairy ballerinas.  The twins still share a room, so I used the same pattern for both.  Originally I was going to do a bento box, but I couldn't bear to cut the sharks up any further, so this is what we ended up with!

Shark toddler bed quilt

Fairy ballerina toddler bed quilt