This quilt is about to be a gift. My oldest friend is going to be a dad.

I remembered to label the quilt, but forgot to name it!

I guess I will call it “Baby Rows.” Or “Rows Garden.” I’m getting punnier as I get older. And check out my houndstooth addiction!

I think it took me as long to design this quilt as it did to make it. Well, the top, anyway. Since it’s only about 36″ wide and 41″ tall, and it’s a special shower gift, I hand-quilted it. All I really knew was that I wanted a row of houses. But only one row!!! I don’t know how I come up with these bizarre restrictions I place upon myself, but they always seem important at the time.

But, I have to say, my weird and annoying instincts pay off more often than not. I can look at this quilt and say, “Okay, that’s exactly what I wanted.” Even when I didn’t know what I wanted.

I’d put together a tutorial, but anybody who’s ever made a quilt before should be able to puzzle this one out on her own. Blocks and sizes are as follows:

From top to bottom:

9 4″ four patches
4 9″ anvils
3 12″ houses
12 3″-wide rectangles (they’re 4″ tall)
4 9″ Dolly Madison stars
9 4″ four patches

If you take all the staring and rearranging I had to do to get to this point, there really is nothing to it. And, believe it or not, this is a stash quilt, from beginning to end. I started with about a yard and a half of the flannel you see for the backing, and just went from there.

I know it helps that I have a big stash, but, still. It was so much fun putting this together from my leftovers. Most of them aren’t even really “kid” fabrics, which goes to show that a little novelty goes a long way.

I’m thinking or revisiting the concept of different rows of a single block again soon. I’m so used to seeing huge grids of the same block over and over again in traditional quilts. And while I love that look, I can see why some people find it sort of fussy/monotonous. I think row groupings are a great way to make traditional blocks a little more dynamic and adventurous.

That said, I’m off to work on some log cabins and Carrie Nation blocks. Cause a girl can’t get too crazy….

Thank you all so much for your interest, but we are now FULL.

And apologies to anybody who couldn’t get my comments page to work. It was a totally unfortunate factor in the sign-up process.

Swap members can expect an email from me soon!

for a virtual quilting bee!

These are all the rage right now, and I want to play!

Questions? Comments? Joiners? You know where to find the box.

Now that we’re just about hitting the halfway mark on the first month of 2009, I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself for having finished a quilt:

Not TOO pleased, as it’s a gift for a wedding I already attended. But done and late is better than… what’s a really crappy wedding gift?

As if you couldn’t tell, this is a one-patch made from a bunch of Kona cotton charm squares cut into quarters and joined up with muslin. Except for the border, which is made from Kona cotton charm squares cut in half. Easy peasy.

I’m resisting the urge to snuggle under it, as it’s not meant to live here.

Even if it looks as though it wants to.

Oh, dear. It seems I have once again neglected my bloggy home in favor of dealing with my actual home.

But can you blame me?

I don’t know if I would have even signed the lease on this place if it hadn’t had that cute red door.

We’re keen on the built-ins, too.

Because we are renters, we have to think of inventive ways of fighting off vast expanses of white space without paint.

Which is not too tough for a quilter. Did you know I first learned about pomanders from the Little House books?

A corner of the dining room.

We call it the Mad Men corner, actually.

Pretty much everything lives in the dining room, as it’s the biggest room in the house for some reason.

Hence, the Civil War-era dresser - that won’t fit in the bedroom - all decked out with holiday libations. The big oatmeal container is full of Scottish shortbread my grandmother sent for my birthday. Yumtastic!

Happy New Year, everyone!