This weel, the blog tour of Block Party continues, with lots of giveaways and other goodness!
June 27th Melissa Burt – Connecting Threads Blog
June 28th Anna Luna – Crafty Girls Workshop
June 29th Kathreen Ricketson – Whip Up
June 30th Kathy Mack – Pink Chalk Studio
July 1st Kim Kight – True Up
July 5th Block Party Bee Blog
July 6th Anna Maria Horner
July 7th Craftzine
(Wish we were doing this in person! It would be so fun to meet all of you!)
My sweet Annie girl turns four on Tuesday. To celebrate, we had a birthday party yesterday that was full of rainbows, giggles, and watersliding. (I will freely admit that my rainbow theme was completely inspired by Jessica of Juicy Bit's amazing party.)
Four is funny- seems to be right where they start to be little kids and when personality starts to SHINE. This has been a great year for Annie, full of firsts and full of love. She certainly has her share of thunderstorms, but with Annie, a rainbow always follows. She is quick to love, and feels life so very intensely. This day full of color was perfect to celebrate Annie as she grows into the person she will be.
Here is the birthday girl. I appliqued a rainbow 4 onto a tank top for her to wear. The crown is courtesy of the local party store. Annie picked it our herself (what, you couldn't guess that a 4 year old girl wanted a giant sparkly birthday crown??)
(as an aside, is this age grumpy for everyone? Annie has never been a particularly sunshiney kid, but she seems poutier than normal these days.)
I will show you the outside today and the rest later this week.
We used a LOT of rainbow tulle to decorate, inside and out. The front door is covered with ruched and ruffled tissue paper. We draped the tulle from our ugly porch lamp and tied it to the railing.
We set up an inflatable water slide for the kids, which is always a huge hit.*
We also filled up a bunch of water balloons.**
Then (OF COURSE) there was more pouting.
Here's little sister. Man, is it hard to be almost three and NOT be the birthday girl. There was a lot of talking about Frances and the Chompo bar yesterday.***
*This is a very basic Banzai waterslide (similar to this one). We bought this last year and it has held up surprisingly well. This is our third birthday party and probably our twentieth time using it, and we have had no leaks or tears. I think it helps that we have little kids. I hear big kids can be tough on these slides. In our area, it can be a few hundred dollars to rent these, so overall I think this was a good value to buy.
** The water balloons they sell in the grocery store are the worst. We spent ten minutes trying to fill up these tiny little balloons without tearing or popping one. Finally, we admitted defeat and went back to the store for the big balloons. We had the complete opposite problem with these guys. They were so big, they were really hard for the little guys to pop. It was almost like trick candles. It was pretty comical actually.
*** Have you read A Birthday for Frances? Such a wonderful book about not being the center of attention, which is just very very hard for little ones. Happy chompo to me... happy chompo to me.
And some more pics of the Kaufman Kona booth.... 
A full Kaufman post for Trueup is in the works, but for now just a little love.
My favorite Kona colors, the ones I buy over and over again, are:
Ash
Grey
Aqua
School Bus
Celery
What are your favorite Kona colors?
I came across this amazing Swedish textile company, Brita, and fell head over heels for the pillows, bedding, and fabric. However, it was the plastic rugs that really did it for me. Apparently quite common in Scandinavia, these rugs are woven of "soft plastic and foil" and last forever.
(image from Brita Sweden)
After staring at the "Gunnel" rugs for hours, I finally figured out what many have known for a very, very long time- you can make this zig zag from a simple two-row rail fence block. Yes, reinventing the wheel, I know.
This is very similar to Amanda's method, although because the blocks are not set on point, this layout is probably less challenging for some of us (er.... me). This technique is not new, but if anyone is interested I could put together a little tutorial.
(Don't look too close- my rails are a bit, shall we say, wonky.)
The front features a bunch of Kona Schoolbus Orange, Katie Jump Rope by Denyse Schmidt, Central Park by Kate Spain, an some other various orange prints from my stash.
I did a pieced binding ala Alissa for a pop of color on the front.
The back features Anne Kelle's Urban Zoologie print for Kaufman, some teal polka dots from my stash, and a really nice twill tree print from Joann's. 
I also included one of my Spoonflower quilt labels. 
This quilt is for a brand-new baby named Ellis James. I hope he (and his parents) love it!
My first guest post is up on Trueup.com and it is all about the Clothworks booth, Penguin & Fish, and other new lines. Here are some favorite pics that didn't make the Trueup post.
All of my pictures of the Clothworks booth can be found on flickr.
Inspiration:
Quilt:
Details: Made for a new little baby named Aaron.
Front- Kona grey with orange, aqua, and blue scraps from my stash.
Back- Kona orange with scraps and Castle Peeps (Lizzy House/Andover) border print.
Binding- Kei grey dots.
Straight line channel quilting.
Quilt market was, in one word, amazing. I met so many talented quilters and began to really appreciate the breadth and scope of the craft of quilting.
Here is a peek:
(clothworks: new japanese line)
(anna maria horner embroidery thread)
(kaufman: kona solids)
(oliver & s)
(1001 peeps, lizzy house)
(michael miller inspiration boards)
More to come on trueup.com over the next couple weeks.
The first quilt-a-long tutorial is up on the Block Party Blog.
We've chosen the Friendship Star, which is a timeless block that is a great block for new and experienced quilters alike.
I do hope you will join us!
http://www.blockpartyquilting.com/2009/11/friendship-star-tutorial.html
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