alien quilt

Okay, I just submitted my first ever quilt to a quilt challenge/contest. Not really in my comfort zone, but the challenge of creating a "modern" quilt, from my own design, intrigued me. I am a stay-at-home mom, however loosely that may be interpreted. I often feel that I live out of my car, playing taxi lady to and from activities. I really don't stay at home. I also work - all day, every day. But not for pay. At least not the monetary, instant gratification kind. My work is more of the long-term pay-off type. I hope our kids turn out good and happy. I also do a lot of laundry.

Thinking about this quilt challenge, I snapped this picture. Alien invasion/endless black hole of laundry? Could be an inspiration ... ... Found a couple of fabrics in my stash that I just love ...

... and voila! A quilt with endless black holes and aliens all over it. Much cuter than a load of dirty clothes, but it sure was fun to make. And I even got it finished 3 days before the deadline - good for me!

But I can't forget to show this part. When here for a visit, my dad fell in love with the design of this quilt, loving the 3-D aspect. I have to give full credit to him for the idea of using glow in the dark thread to quilt it - I didn't even know they made such a thing! I will also give full credit to my kids for taking it into the dark laundry room and yelling and screaming about how cool the thread really was. Quite entertaining.

Oh, just a little FYI, so you can learn the easy way: Don't use glow in the dark thread for the top stitch and the bobbin. It's slippery and the tension won't work well. A regular thread on the bottom works much better. Do I really need to mention that I learned this the hard way?

wave quilt

For church, we have had an ongoing service project to make and collect quilts for various shelters in need. One lady, unable to quilt herself, donated fabric to those of us who can quilt. This is the quilt that I made from her fabric donations.

Front: Back:

Moda fabric - came from this fabulous tutorial.