A special announcement and a new project!

This is my latest sewing project that I am pretty excited about.  But first of all- I think it could be time to announce an exciting development that I have been reluctant to post about.  And that would be that my husband and I are expecting our first child in January!!  We are very excited!  And it's a boy which we are very happy about-especially the hubs.  YAY!  So instead of sewing and quilting, I've been napping and reading up on pregnancy, birthing, newborn care, and baby names.  I have found that there is a lot to learn!

So now, of course, I needed to start in on a baby quilt.  In the July/August '11 issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine an alphabet quilt was featured in the "This Old Quilt" section.  Hmm, that's a neat idea I thought, an alphabet quilt!  I Googled alphabet quilt images and found THIS.  Go ahead and look at it.  It is awesome!  Loooooove it!!

The original wonky letters blogger wrote a book about them, which looks very cool,  but I decided to just wing it and see what happens.  I printed out my inspiration picture to help me mentally break down each letter and figure out what letter parts need to be sewn first.  I started out with the "I" and worked my way up to the "W".  So far the "W" has been the trickiest for me.

The only rule I have is that each letter is 4.5 inches tall.  I am going to have 3 orange letters.  Why 3? Because isn't that how designers create interest-by using groups of odd numbers??  I couldn't decide on just 1 orange fabric, and 5 would just be too many, so I used 3.  And orange because it contrasts nicely with the rest of the letters in blues (opposites on the color wheel) and greens.   See- I was paying attention in art class!  And orange also because it's a boy color.  (There is such a thing as boy and girl colors you know. At least that's what I thought when I was 6!)  

This will become a wall hanging for the baby's room, which is currently painted in pink and lavender with a princess ballerina border from the previous homeowners...  That will have to change soon. 

Wow, this is a pretty wordy post-for me.  Anyway, that's what I've REALLY been up to this summer!