Playmates for a Playdate

While trolling my usual blogs I stumbled upon a great rag doll pattern from Patty Young's new line of fabric, Playdate. Three of these adorable rag dolls come on a panel of fabric, and were quickly delivered right to my doorstep. I remember this style of fabric paneling from my youth, when my admittedly uncreative mom would cut Halloween costumes from panels purchased at Joanns.

The girls were easy as pie to cut - in fact I was able to do it while playing with the kids, which is no small feat. The kids were really excited to be involved too, taking each piece that I cut and matching the fronts and backs together. They stitched up in no time, and the stuffing was made easy by using a chopstick (I'm sure there's some tool for this, but the chopstick worked just fine!).

The next morning the kids came down to three new dolls who quickly earned a special spot in the "stuffed animal" army and were seen running around the house, having a spot of t, and riding dumptrucks.

Now I just think they need some cute clothes, don't you think?

love in circles

I haven't had much to post about lately because I've been working exclusively on one project: a wedding quilt. This is the first time I've tried to make a quilt for a wedding, and with good reason. It's been an incredible amount of work. However I also deliberately chose a pattern that would stretch my skills. I've learned so much, and next time I think it will be a bit easier.

All that being said, the wedding's in a week and the quilt still isn't done. The top is patched together, now I just need to get to the quilting. Maybe sometime this week, or maybe it will be ready by September, just in time for the cooler weather.

The quilt is Denise Schmidt's (who I have ALWAYS loved) Single Girl quilt - a new take on the traditional Wedding quilt. I love that the rings touch but do not intersect each other. I chose the colors based on items on their registry. The quilt involved cutting and then sewing 36 x 16 + 8 x 16 which, if you're not good at math is 704 pieces. Crazy. But fun.