i love our dahlias

I am so grateful that when I was all super-bloated and about-to-pop pregnant and couldn't stand the thought of spending an afternoon on my knees in the garden planting the dahlia tubers that Matt was awesome enough to volunteer to plant them for me  - and that he was cool enough to let me direct the process and tell him where to plant each one (because I like to arrange them by color - of course!). While the veggie patch is Matt's pride & joy, the dahlia patch is mine. There's something wonderful about being able to cut flowers from your own garden to brighten up the ol' kitchen table.

oh look! it's another baby quilt

Only this one's not for my wee one. This one's for my friends Nico & Sara and their adorable 3 month old daughter who I met for the first time just last weekend when they were in town. I started this quilt just a couple of months after Finn was born, banging out a bunch of half-square triangles in an hour or so. I totally thought I would have the top finished in a day. Hah! Yeah, that didn't happen that way. I was lucky that I had the top pieced when they called week before last to let us know they would be around Labor Day weekend. I was able to whip up a backing and quilt it in a day. Measuring 32 x 40 inches, it's a pretty modest size for a baby quilt, but it works. I'm pretty pleased with it (as seen here being kindly held up by my mother-in-law):

So after I quilted this, bound it, and threw it in the wash, I came upon about 1/2 an inch of open binding in the front as I was folding it up to wrap it. DOH!!! Apparently, I missed a spot when I initially machine-stitched the binding in place. I thought I was pretty thorough, but I know something funny happened with the walking foot at one point. What could I do to salvage the quilt? I didn't want to have to completely rip out the binding and start anew. Besides, it was already all shrinkly and wonderful after doing its thing in the dryer. There was just this one mess-up. What to do? It was pretty clear and easy - use a piece of selvage as a sort of fabric band-aid to cover up the spot and reinforce the stitches beneath. And hey, it works as a design element, too! Erin suggested making this my finishing touch on all my quilts, and I gotta say I *LOVE* that idea.

I'd been meaning to make a quilt like this ever since I saw Hillary's doll quilt years ago. And I'm happy to say that my friends loved it. Now to finish the other two baby quilts I have in progress and get them out to my other friends before their babies are in college.

it's dahlia time!

...and that means that Fall is right around the corner. I know as soon as these guys start blooming in force that Summer is just about over and we're only a sneeze away from decorative gourd season.

I've got a backlog of projects to talk about here that I hope to get around to soon. In the meanwhile, have you seen the trailer for the American remake of "Let the Right One In" yet? It's called "Let Me In," and it looks fantastically creepy. I can't wait to see this.