Top Ten!

 Well, this has never happened to me before. I submitted my Texting While Sewing block, and it made the Top Ten!

There is a lot of stiff competition but I'm thrilled to have made it this far!

Texting While Sewing

 Amy from During Quiet Time is one of my favorite blogging friends. She is uber-creative! So when she came up with this contest called "Texting While Sewing," I really wanted to enter. It just involved a 12-inch block. How hard could it be?

I thought and thought, waiting for inspiration to strike. Nothing.

I drummed my fingers on my cutting table. Nothing. And then I had a lightbulb moment when I looked at my bags (and bags....) of selvages. Texting. I was inspired to make a little texting conversation between "me and my sister." Here is their conversation on the iPad. Feel free to do a little eavesdropping.

The entries have starting coming in, and will continue through Wednesday. There are lots of fun and creative entries.

Whatever the outcome, I had the best time making this block. It would make a great cover for my iPad, don't you think?

The Name Game: The Girl Who Quilts

Today I'm so happy to have Nikki here, from The Girl Who Quilts. I have been a fan of Nikki's for quite a while. When I first started following her, she was living in Seattle. Now she lives all the way across the country, in upstate New York. When I sent her the questions for The Name Game, I told her to choose 8 to 10 pictures. Then she apologized because she had sent me 11. No problem, I said, the more pictures the better. So while I was grabbing her blog header, I chose a few more pictures to add to this post. Hope that's okay, Nikki, but that's just big a fan I am! So you have been warned--this is a picture-heavy post. And you will not be sorry!

How did you choose the name for your blog? 

When I first started my blog I wanted to name my blog QuiltyGirl, which is my email address. Unfortunately the name was already taken! I started to brainstorm other ideas that would go well with QuiltyGirl, which led me to "The Girl Who Quilts". I started quilting right after college, when I was just 22. That used to be considered quite young in the quilting world, so using the term "girl" seemed to fit!

Were there other names you considered, and can you share any of them with us?

I honestly don't remember if I came up with any other options! I've always struggled with coming up with creative names, so when I thought of "The Girl Who Quilts" I ran with it.

Isn't the orange zipper the absolute best detail?!

Now that you are recognized by The Girl Who Quilts, are you happy with it, or do you wish you could change it to something else?

Now that I've been blogging for awhile (and, ahem, getting older!), I do sometimes wish I had chosen a different name. I've also been thinking more about selling my quilts, and I think a sleeker name might work better.

 Here is that dreamy orange color again...

 I may decide to just change the name of my etsy shop, rather than a complete overhaul. But first I have to think up something new that I like!

Be sure to head over to Nikki's blog to say hi. Plan on spending LOTS of time looking around. I could have kept adding pictures here but you really need to go check her out for yourself.

Thanks, Nikki, for playing The Name Game this week!

WIP Wednesday

First of all, I just want to thank Lee for hosting WIP Wednesday each week and say that she has had a well-deserved break during the summer. After guest hosting last week, I realized what an amazing amount of time she puts into being the host here every week. I tried to comment on as many links as I could, and I saw some incredible work and gained much inspiration. Thank to everyone who linked up. I had a great time visiting so many wonderful artists.

Not much to report this week. We were at the coast for the weekend and I had intended to get a lot of sewing done. But got kind of distracted by the view.

I finished one more Kaffe'-O-Lait block.

And started a wedding quilt for this adorable couple.

I'm using "Indie" by Art Gallery Fabrics. It is just beautiful fabric and I'm hoping this quilt has kind of an Anthropologie feel for these very hip newlyweds.

The time-consuming part is done. I'm just waiting for fabric to arrive for the sashing and border.

And the mail brought surprises. When I sent some extra Denyse Schmidt fabric to Hadley, I wasn't expecting to get this in the mail! Isn't it awesome? She knows how much I love orange...

And I did a fabric exchange with Petra. Well, actually she put out a call on Flickr for some Heather Bailey fabric and I happened to have a little of the whole line she was looking for. When she asked what I wanted to swap in return, I told her "nothing." I mean, I'm trying to lessen the amount of fabric I have, not add more to it! But when she said that didn't seem quite right, I said, "Okay, how about some of Amy Butler's first lines?"

Wow!

I didn't have any of these. Thanks, Petra!! I'll put it to good use in a future WIP!

I'm off to see what everyone has been working on in the past week.

WIP Wednesday: Psssst...I'm over here!

Guess what! I'm guest-hosting WIP Wednesday this week. Follow me over to Freshly Pieced. See you there!

Progress Report: Fusion Blanket Crochet Along

A progress report on the Fusion Blanket Crochet Along? Yes! Even though there is very little progress to report. Which is kind of bad for a co-host...

Yesterday I sewed all the squares together. I now have 20 altogether.  They haven't even been pressed yet. But it's a start. 

Plan:
1. Press.
2. Hand stitch the opening closed.
3. Machine stitch 1/4 inch all the way around.
4. Blanket stitch.
5. Start crocheting--the part I'm really looking forward to!

In case you forgot (and because there really isn't much to remember...), this is what my blocks will look like.

Minus the wrinkles in the center...

Are you playing along? How is your progress coming?

The Name Game: Don't Call Me Betsy

This week I'm really excited to have my friend, Elizabeth, here from Don't Call Me Betsy.

We have been email buddies for awhile and we finally got to meet each other in May while in Kansas City. We even had the chance to have breakfast together. Elizabeth will confirm that often my emails include the sentence, "How do you get so much accomplished???" She has a 4-year-old and totally puts me to shame with all the amazing things I see on her design wall.

Elizabeth, how did you choose the name for your blog?

When I decided to start blogging, I spent a good week or so brainstorming about a name for my blog. I had previously blogged for a few years about food under the name Type A Mommy (typeamommyblog.blogspot.com). If you read my quilting blog, you know that I definitely have a Type A kind of personality, and that's where that name came from initially.

(Am I the only one who is coveting one of these mini bookshelf quilts?)

The first quilt blog name I thought about was Type A Quilter, but I was coming from a very different place with quilting than I was with food. I've cooked and baked since I was a kid, so I felt pretty confident about my food skills, and that blog really shares that. It shares my recipes and techniques, and with my quilt blog, I wasn't really sure what I wanted my quilting blog to be yet, other than a place where I shared what I was working on, as a online quilty diary of sorts.


Don't Call Me Betsy came to me when I started to think about the journey I've had with my own name, Elizabeth. When I was a baby, my mother nicknamed me Betsy. My older sister lobbied for calling me Beth, but my mother was insistent that I was a Betsy. Still is, actually, and she is one of the few people in the world who still calls me Betsy. I think I was in either kindergarten or first grade when my teacher told me that I wasn't a Betsy, that the name didn't fit me. I don't think my mother ever forgave her for it! So, for most of my schooling years, I went by Liz. I still didn't love the name, but it was better than Betsy.
It wasn't until college that I started to go by Elizabeth. My husband mostly calls me Liz, since he's known me that long, but my friends, former business colleagues and so forth all call me Elizabeth at this point, and that's the name that I feel fits me best. I felt like my blog name could maybe in a fun way tell the story of the journey behind my name, and that's where Don't Call Me Betsy came from. The funny thing is that to this day, when I meet people who know my blog, they tend to call me Betsy!

Were there other names you considered, and can you share any of them with us?

Yes, definitely, I had a list. I'm a big-time listmaker. The only other name that I can recall at this point other than Type A Quilter is The Novice Quilter, but I ultimately rejected that one after realizing that I wouldn't be a novice forever, and that I wanted my blog name to fit for an indefinite time period.

Now that you are recognized by Don't Call Me Betsy, are you happy with it or do you wish you could change it to something else?

 From Elizabeth series, "Christmas in July"

Yes, I am happy with the name. It tells people more about me in one simple phrase than I can convey in a paragraph.
 

 (Elizabeth's Quilt-along, Sliced  Coins--you can see my version here)

The funny thing is that when I meet people who know my blog, they tend to call me Betsy! It makes me laugh or smile, rather than get irritated, so it's all good. I think it's a good name, it fits me, and I find that I get a lot of email from other Elizabeths who have once been called Betsy, which is always fun to read about.


Elizabeth, thank you so very much for playing the Name Game this week.


If you haven't been to Elizabeth's blog before, please head over and say hi. And then plan on spending a lot of time looking around.

I can almost guarantee you too will be saying "How do you get so much accomplished???"