Get Ready

Are you planning to listen to American Patchwork and Quilting Radio this afternoon (4pm eastern)?

If you are not available, do not fear!!!  These are saved and you can listen to it later tonight (the second you become available) as many times as you would like!

For this show, I am giving away a copy of my book Beyond the Lines. Leave a comment by 5pm eastern Friday, January 11, 2013 to be entered in the giveaway.

Easy Street

Have you been following Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street mystery quilt?

I have started three of her mysteries, but this is the only one I ever FINISHED!!!!!

My Easy Street quilt, on my guestroom bed:

It may not stay there, but I want to be able to look at it for a while.

I do not keep a lot of scraps but this was all from my stash.  Even the backing:

I am a machine quilting teacher and often provide kits for students at quilt shows.  I buy bolts and bolts of fabric.  Last year it was green.  I had a lot of little ends of bolts left, so I stitched them with the leftover pieces of the quilt to make the back.  It was not enough though.

I had to find my really little pieces:

I am so in love with this quilt.

Thank you, Bonnie.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Check out everyone's progress here.

Gifts! Toaster Cover

My mother-in-law wanted a new toaster cover for Christmas.  Her toaster is from 1966, and her toaster cover is of the same approximate vintage.  My husband looked online and was not encouraged by the toaster covers he found there.  "You could probably make one," he challenged.

Never one to back down from a challenge, I took the dimensions of the toaster (stealthily supplied by my father-in-law) and started piecing a toaster cover in the recommended color of "yellow."

The results:

I promise that it looks much better in person.

My husband's comment, "It looks like it could be nicer that what I found online," nearly landed him in some hot water, but I kept telling myself that he meant it as a compliment.

My mother-in-law loved her toaster cover.  And my husband is still alive.

Announcement!

On Monday, January 7, 2013 at 4:00 pm Eastern time, I will be a 

!!!!!!!!!

was that enough exclamation points?

No?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is that better?

So what are you doing on Monday?

If you are as excited as I am (!!!!!!!!!!!!!), go and listen to her previous shows.  I love to listen to them while I am quilting.  I have "met" so many neat designers through her show!

Happy New Year!

Out with the old year:

My Christmas quilt from 2011.

In with the new year:

My brand new quilt for January 2013!

Do you change your bed quilts with the seasons?

More Easy Street

I'm loving this so far!

Easy Street Update

I'm so excited to see how Easy Street turns out!

Today's Obsession

Scrappy Christmas Dresden blocks. Two done. Seven to go. I hope to finish this by the end of February 2013. Consider that a New Year Resolution.

Easy Street part 5

Bonnie is keeping me guessing!  I finished part 5 of Easy Street and have absolutely no idea what this quilt is going to look like.

Here are my units:

Do you have any guesses?

Check out everyone's blocks here.

Easy Street Part 4

I went on vacation during Easy Street clues 2 and 3, so I had a lot of catching up to do this week.

I finished step four.  Here are my blocks so far:

I always throw my little leftover bits in a bag and give them to a friend.  She informed me that she is no longer taking them, so I had to make a crumb block from my Easy Street leftovers:

I have absolutely no idea what I am going to do with this 9.5x12-inch block, but it was fun  to piece!

Check out everyone else's Easy Street blocks .

Thanks Bonnie!

Easy Street

I swore that I would not start another project, but who can resist a Bonnie Hunter mystery?

Here are my step one blocks. I did not have gray scraps so I just used yardage from my stash.

Check out everyone's progress here!

I'm feeling modern

I spent this afternoon with the Hudson Valley Modern Quilt Guild. I am looking forward to learning new things From this group.

Farewell, friend

I love to quilt.  I love the quilt community.  Sometimes I get to combine those loves and make a quilt to donate to an auction supporting the quilt community.

I am in Houston this week for Quilt Festival.  IQA is holding a silent auction of little quilts.  One of my quilts is hanging there, waiting for someone to take it home:

I enjoyed making this quilt and I will miss it just a little bit.  I hope it finds a new home with someone who loves it!

If you are in Houston for Festival this week, check out all of the small quilts and bid on a few to support the IQA!

Hot off the presses!

Run, do not walk, to pick up a copy of Machine Quilting Unlimited magazine. It's a fabulous magazine with the latest and greatest in machine quilting.

If you turn to pages 44-46 you will find an article about me! Page 46 has a photo of my favorite quilt. Any guesses which quilt that is?

More in the Serious Quilt Series

When I made my young friend a Minimalist Kermit pillow, I decided to make a Miniature Minimalist Kermit quilt for myself.

There has been no sun this week, so I haven't been able to get a photo with true color.

My Miniature Minimalist Kermit quilt is quilted and awaiting binding:

I have more plans for my Not-So-Serious Quilt Series.

Another Super Serious Quilt

While on call for jury duty this week, I started another fun quilt project.  It's a very serious quilt, since quilting is VERY SERIOUS BUSINESS (wink).  

There are letters on this quilt that spell out a word or phrase.

Any guesses yet?

How about now?

Closer?

Last chance!

The colors in all of the photos are so different, yet none really shows the color of this quilt.  There has been absolutely no sun this week.  I will take a photo of this quilt in sunshine as soon as I am able.  Until then, here is the photo of the entire quilt:

I made this quilt for one person, but now can think of three others who deserve a Rock Star quilt.  I will have to make more!

What words should be on my next super-serious quilt?

Too Serious About Quilting?

Sometimes I have to remind myself that, even though I am very serious about quilting (it is my JOB!), quilting itself doesn't have to be very serious.

Last week a young friend introduced me to Eric Slager and his Minimalist Muppets.  Something about the simplicity of the shapes just stuck with me.  I decided to see if I could reproduce one of the Muppets as a pillow for my young friend.

I went to the Quilt Basket with my favorite lawyer (hiya Peg!) and bought some green fabrics:

 

I decided that it was ok to try something other than what I normally do (machine quilting), so I started drafting a paper-piecing pattern:

Much to my surprise, I survived (and enjoyed?) the paper-piecing:

The flash ruined the color in this photo, but my Minimalist Kermit pillow (thanks to Eric Slager) was finished:

My young friend loved it!  And I love her.

I don't think I am done with Mr. Slager's work yet.  Which Muppet would you choose next?

Is this bad?

Send in recommendations for a new iron please.

And the winner is...

... the Ferris Wheel!

I have already started the process of making a quilt from this photo.  

First step:  Project the photo on the wall and trace the elements onto a large sheet of paper:

I am sure that there is a computer program that can do this work for me, but the tracing helps me get my brain around the objects in the quilt.

I am trying to decide on the background fabric.  Should it be pieced or a single piece of fabric?  Help me decide.

Stay tuned for the next step in The Sky Over Glenelg (working title of the quilt)

Readjusting

I am home from Australia and slowly adjusting to being on this side of the planet again.  Yesterday I was awake and ready to face the world by 5:30 pm.  Today I was out of bed around noon.  I call that progress.

I will be posting my Australia photos over the next several days, but wanted to show a here vs. there selection.

A photo of the clear blue sky in Glenelg.

A photo of the clear blue sky at home.

One of these photos will be the basis for my next quilt.  Vote for one!