Single Girl with Retro Flowers - A Finished Quilt. (Oh, and anniversary celebrations too.)

Way back during round 7 of the Pillow Talk Swap, I played around with the idea of combining the Single Girl pattern (by Denyse Schmidt) with the Retro Flowers pattern (by Christina, The Sometimes Crafter). When I showed my three ideas in the Flickr group, my partner picked a different design as her favorite so I decided to turn this pillow top into a quilt top by setting it a bit askew and adding some borders.

I used a bunch of scraps and then added Kona Bahama Blue and Stone as well as Albert and Victoria books for the top and backing. For the binding, I used a blue plaid from Riley Blake's Play Ball line.

I've also been trying to break out of my quilting style a bit by trying some new things from Angela Walter's free-motion quilting book. I thought this quilt would be a good one to practice on.

I finished this one up just in time to give to my friend who's been in the hospital on bed rest with placenta previa. She made it to 35 weeks (hooray!), so her doctors say she can have the baby any time between now and 37 weeks so she doesn't run the risk of needing a blood transfusion.

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A few posts back, I mentioned some anniversaries happening around here. My parents celebrated their golden, 50th anniversary! My sister made a cake for their special day. Not only did it look great, but it was absolutely delicious! We set out some photos and cards too. For their gift, we made them a voice quilt. Family and friends placed calls that were recorded and then we compiled all the messages onto a CD that my parents can listen to whenever they want.

My dad is in poor health, so it was the perfect way to celebrate.

The mister and I also celebrated our 9th anniversary. We headed downtown and went to the place where we got engaged. We reminisced about our engagement and gave each other "new" rings (we got mine resized and got a new one for him that fit...sometimes marriage makes you comfortable and you gain weight, making your rings not fit you anymore).

We went to dinner then caught a double feature before turning in for the night. The next morning, we ate brunch at The Grand America in Salt Lake. I'm telling you, if you ever get a chance to have Sunday morning brunch there, DO IT! So, if you're coming into town for The Sewing Summit, head across the street to the Grand America and stuff your face with really good food. You won't regret it.