Quilts and Books

Before I get into this month's list, don't forget to hop over to the Brenda Novak Online Auction for Diabetes Research. My quilt is listed here and last I looked had already been bid up to $91. Very exciting. QBFF T. says she's going to win it. Make her pay through the nose!

I had plenty of strong reads last month and it was hard to pick just 5.

5. In for a Penny by Rose Lerner. This is, I believe, Lerner's debut novel. I had seen several positive reviews for this book, including this DIK review at AAR. The story involves a young man, Nev (short for Lord Nevinstoke), who inherits an earldom and an impoverished estate. When he learns the extent of the debts his father left, he proposes marriage to the only child of a wealthy brewer, a young woman named Penelope, or Penny. Penny is a "Cit" and thus looked down upon by most of aristocratic society. But Nev needs Penny's money and Penny is attracted to Nev and wants to help him. The purpose for their marriage …

Tonight I finished my happy rainbow quilt and emailed a picture to Brenda Novak to list on the auction site. Hopefully it'll appear there within a day or so. Meanwhile, here are some fun facts about this quilt:

1. This quilt is a traditional 9-patch design. The layout, though, is a modification of a design by Jean Nolte that appeared in the 2010 March/April issue of Fons & Porter Love of Quilting magazine. That quilt, "Dream in Color" emphasized value placement. I decided to play with color placement.

2. This quilt is made entirely from my stash (see picture in the sidebar). I have been quilting for over 25 years and collecting fabric for most of that time. I found one fabric with a copyright date of 1989 in the selvage. Another fabric I remember purchasing last summer while on vacation. I am certain several other fabrics are at least 15 years old.

3. There are 1,053 individual 1.5" squares in the finished top. It measures 54" x 40.5".

4. I began this quil…

I'm working hard to get this finished so I can get it bound and a decent picture taken to send to Brenda for the auction. My goal is to be done by Monday. Tonight I finished the quilting.

No TBR book this month.

I realized recently that I have a tendency to do everything I can think of to postpone the moment when I will finally put the first quilting stitch into a finished quilt top. After all, I've worked so hard to get the right combination of colors together and done my best to see to it that all the seams align as well as they can. Then I lay it out with a backing and batting and I have my quilt "sandwich" all ready to be quilted. Like this:

Sometimes it can take me weeks, and yes, years, to get around to finally quilting a top. Because figuring out how to quilt it and which thread to use can be very intimidating. It's a good thing I am on a deadline with this one, or I think I would not have started.
I have been calling this My Happy Quilt. Flowers also make me happy. So I decided to free-motion quilt flowers. And while at the retreat 10 days ago, as a friend helped me pin the layers together, she also gave me some wonderful advice about which thread to use. And she was s…

This quilt makes me happy. I think it's the bright colors. I'm having fun watching the rainbow emerge each time I add a set of rows. Next up purple and purple/blue. It's going to be graphic and dramatic when it's finished.



And if this quilt makes you happy, you can own it by being the high bidder in May at the Brenda Novak auction for diabetes research.

It's that time of year again and I need to get a quilt made for the Brenda Novak Auction to benefit diabetes research. Both Brenda & I have sons the same age who have Type 1. I am thrilled to participate for the second straight year.

This year I'm thinking "rainbow."
















And here's a sneak preview of my work in progress. I expect to have the top completed by the end of the weekend.























You should go check out the auction site. There's already some cool stuff posted.

Since I had to spend Saturday attending an all-day meeting, some important household chores were left until Sunday. Which left less time for sewing. Not to mention, the games were close and worth keeping an eye on. That also meant less sewing. Congrats to the Saints and the Colts. Should be a fun Super Bowl and I'm looking forward to it. I'll be hand sewing during the Super Bowl so I can keep a closer eye on the action. But if I watch all the commercials, I won't make much progress.

Meanwhile, during this last week I started working with those sets of strips for the Quilts of Valor project. The strips were in groups of two and I began joining those groups of two together.


I sewed them into strata of 10 strips each and I wound up with a stack of close to a dozen of these strata. The strata are about 40 in. long and anywhere from 20-30 in. wide. They'll get cut into 6.5 in. segments and sewn into one very, very long strip set that is to measure 10.5 YARDS. I've been to…