Geektasticly Awesome Quilt - Waka Waka

I was cruising around on fabric.com one fine day and came across fabric called Geeks Gone Wild Pac-man and knew that I had to have it.  I mean seriously, a fabric that is paying homage to one of the greatest video games ever made, who couldn't resist that.  There is a reason why I don't own a gaming system other than a Pac-man plug and play.  If I did own a gaming system like a Playstation or X-box...I don't think this blog would exist.  I'm kind of an addict.

Anyways, it has been sitting in my art room for a few months when Prudent Baby announced their Embroidery Contest.  That is when I knew I had to kick it into gear and get a quilt done for Colton.  I am sure you are wondering the connection between quilting and embroidery...I decided that I was going to hand embroider Pac-man's catch phrase of, "Waka Waka Waka," across the quilt.

I purchased my coordinating fabrics and went to town on doing the quilt.  I decided (with this being only the second quilt I have ever done) that I would do a strip quilt since it seemed much simpler than blocks.

I cut out randomly sized strips of all my fabrics, I made one large strip with the Pac-man fabric.  I arranged the way I wanted to started sewing.  It came together rather quickly which was great.  I then cut out and appliqued Pac-man to my large strip of the Pac-man fabric.

Now, I am sure that I probably didn't do the batting correctly, but I did a fantastic job with the binding.  I am a person who most definitely learns by trial and error.  This is a vast improvement over my first quilt.  I intend on making more in the future, but probably not right away.  I am going to bask in the glow of this being a super duper kick butt quilt with a seriously geeky boy flair. 

Anways, enough about me telling you how cool this quilt is, why don't I just show you?

Maben pointing out my hand embroidered, "waka, waka, waka."

Maben sitting on the quilt, asking me if this is another blanket for him.  That would be a no pumpkin.  Your brother deserves things every once in a while too.

The little monster Colton standing next to his new quilt...which he so proudly asked to sleep with that night!  Woo hoo!  He likes it!

And a shot of the back with all it's imperfections.  There are a few, but I honestly didn't feel like redoing it and I am still learning.

A special thanks to my hubby for holding up the quilt and the boys for actually posing for me.  So all you quilters out there, how did I do for my second quilt?  Not sure what the learning curve is with quilting.  Is anyone else as geeky excited about this as I am?  I might have to show this off to my favorite geeky online store, Think Geek.  They have some totally awesome gift ideas for even the not so geeky (And I am not paid to talk them up, just love the occasional shopping there).

Showing this awesome quilt off at the following places:

So You Think You're Crafty

What a Beautiful Gift

As you know, we went and stayed with my In-laws for Christmas and had a great time.  We left a few things behind to be mailed to us.  I got a couple boxes in the mail and there was something in one that came as a very pleasant surprise.  It was this blanket.

Isn't is just beautiful?  Attached to it was a note that said, "Give to Jim and Les (my in-laws).  For your first grandchild.  Yvette (Hubby's grandmother that passed away before we had kids)."  I honestly couldn't think of a better surprise than that.  This isn't the first blanket that we have that Yvette made, but right now, the one that has touched my heart the most.

These two blocks are my favorite ones.  The neatest thing about all of this, my oldest son is obsessed with birds.  He loves them and pointing them out to me.  It's one of those things that was just meant to be I guess.

A new blanket

My older son has outgrown his baby blanket, but still insists on sleeping with it, even though if he pulls it up to his chin, it no longer covers his toes.  The nights here have been getting chilly and he refuses to sleep with anything else.  That was until he came with me to Hancock Fabrics one day.  He spotted this Thomas The Train fleece and insisted that he had to have it and it was his blanket.  He actually pulled the fabric off the table and wrapped himself in it on the floor.  (Now I wish I had taken a picture of that!)  I had made him a Cars themed quilt a few months ago, but he refuses to use that because of the texture, so I thought "what the heck, let's give this another try."  I bought 3 yards of the fleece and some blanket binding and brought it home.  After I washed the fleece, I sewed the blanket binding around the edge and TADA! a new blanket for my son.  Now, he wasn't too keen on using it until I told him his baby blanket cannot come downstairs, but Thomas can.  So here he is all wrapped up in his new blanket...oh and he's been sick with a stomach bug all weekend, so lounging around in jammys with a warm blanket and lots of TV is the prescription for a happy child.