Good Times With Lula

Finally I have one finished! I managed to quilt it last night at my sister's birthday party and I bound it this morning. Still needs to be washed and have the label added but I can do that tomorrow. I like it and Hannah just loves it! It's the perfect size to cover up her shoulders and head on the way to the car too, to block the wind.

Sally Sweet Top Finished!

Ok, I posted a pic of this laying somewhat together... but wanted to post a pic of the top as sewn. This is it! Tada!

Originally I intended to make a small Sally Sweet and 5 other characters and put them together, but I have decided that several of the characters I can use the same colors, so those will get put together in one, scrappy top. Then a few others I am just going to make the small tops and finish them and let my kids use them as doll quilts or sell them.

I think I will back this one with the purple/white/black with spiders and maybe sell it. It is 24.5 x 24.5" square.

Good Times With Lula

My first mini quilt top is done! Though, like Lula it didn't quite cooperate the way I wanted. I squared up HSTs and blocks and sewed more blocks together and lost a bunch of points. Sigh. My daughter Hannah loves it though and I will quilt it and give it to her as a play quilt. It is 24" square and is an original design based on traditional HSTs. I am thinking of baking it with the black fabric with the maribou slippers all over it and binding it with a bright lime.

The Bad Lula Block

I added a few fabrics to my Lula fabrics and set out this evening to make 4, 12" blocks for my Lula mini (is that an oxymoron?) However I miscalculted my measurements not once but twice and the result was a 6" block with 27 pieces and 18 HSTs!! Ooops!


Thank God I only squared up the HSTs I needed for one block because my baby was fussy and I figured I'd do the other three in the morning. All the remaining bits are going into the trash. Not the scrap box, the trash! The one horridly sized little block is getting borders and being turned into a potholder.

I originally designed a slightly simpler block to use for Lula and I will try again with it and the same fabrics, just not tonight. :-)

Bumbling Bounty Hunters Miniature Quilt Challenge

This is a challenge inspired by the Stephanie Plum series of books by Janet Evanovich. I love those books and have recently met a lot of other quilters who do too. I was thinking, "I wish I had a way to kind of incorporate the characters from the stories into a quilt." Here is my solution!

The rules for this challenge are easy. The main idea is to think outside the box, explore and create and have FUN! Since it is a miniature quilt challenge the finished quilts should be between 14"x14" and 24"x24". You may make them rectangular, square, oval, circular, star shaped, etc. However it is you want to do it. Take one character from the book and turn them into a mini quilt. For instance, maybe Lula reminds you of bold colors and animal prints--run with it. Or maybe Ranger is army camoflage or a quilt made with lucisous chocolate brown velvet.

You can use traditional blocks, applique (hand or machine), paper piece, etc. Quilts may be embellished with sew on accents (like beads, etc).

Use any character from any book in the series, which include but are not limited to:

Stephanie Plum, lingerie buyer turned bumbling bounty hunter. Jersey girl.

Lula, ex-hooker and current file clerk at bonds office, likes shooting people, spandex, loud colors and animal prints.

Connie Risolli, bonds office manager, very Italian, related to the Jersey Mob.

Vinnie, owns bonds office, pervert, likes farm animals and Joyce Barnhardt

Grama Mazur, mid-70s, free spirit. Likes purple sweatsuits, her .45 long barrel and giving Stephanie's mom a hard time.

Ricardo Carlos "Ranger" Manoso, bounty hunter extrordinaire, Cuban-American, does security, dresses in black, mysterious.

Joe Morelli, very Italian, vice/homicide cop, owns a red Ducati and Bob the dog

Bob, reported Golden Retriver, huge, orange, dumb, eats furniture, watches ESPN, poops mountains

Joyce Barnhardt, totally nasty, wears black leather everything, has red hair teased to the sky, finds mysterious mountains of dog poop in her yard all the time

Diesel, in the between the numbers books, large blond guy, has special powers kinda like a super hero

Sally Sweet, tall hairy Italian guy, musician, transvestite, drives a school bus

Mooner, total stoner

Albert Kloughn, Stephanie's sister's boyfriend, lawyer, reminds people of the Pillsbury Doughboy

Valerie, Stephanie's once perfect sister, has a baby by the Clown (Albert Kloughn)

Mary Alice, one of Valerie's daughters, thinks she's a horse.

Angela, one of Valerie's daughters, perfect child

Some other ideas: Donuts, Birthday Cake, Cluck-in-a-Bucket, Heavily Armed (everybody!)

The deadline for your quilt's completion for this challenge is December 31st 2009. You have almost a whole year to be creative! Also, bear in mind that it's not a swap so no pressure. No one will see your quilt but you, and us if you chose to share pictures!

If you want in on this challenge, just leave a comment with your e-mail address (in the format of soandso AT somewhere DOT com) and let me know. I'll add you so that you can post on this blog with pictures of fabric choices, quilts in progress, finished projects, etc. You can make one quilt, or many! Whatever floats your boat.

If you are interested in watching the progress of the challenge, or just LOVE the Stephanie Plum books, or are just plain nosy... feel free to follow this blog with NO obligation to make any kind of quilt whatsoever.

Also, feel free to take one of the graphics from the side bar to add to your personal blog as a link back here so that others may join in!

Blog Rules:

No cursing

No offensive material

No advertising. Upon your quilt's completion, if you own an online shop and wish to make your quilt available for sale, you may say so. Otherwise advertising is a no-no. When you join the challenge a link will be added to the right with your name and either the title of your blog, personal website or shop (your choice)... just let me know.