Quilts and Books

This has been a very productive year so far for me on the quilt front. I've finished 4 projects that I began before the new year. For the record, those would be the Frieda Anderson small wall quilt , two lap quilts that were donated for cancer patients , and the Blooming 9-Patch . I've continued to plug away on the Block of the Month (BOM) project, although I am officially behind again (I was briefly all caught up in January!). Now the year is over and I still have several parts to do: I need to make a gazillion "flying geese" rectangles for the border and there is filler to go around the central medallion. I'll have a picture of that soon. I made one baby quilt in two weeks ! I made another baby quilt that I finished last week. I was hired to make this one by a co-worker for her great-nephew who was born in early February. Those polka-dots don't photograph very well in the picture above, but the close-ups below might give you a better sense of the colors...

My block of the month project is now 3/4 finished. I've made 8 blocks, 2 rows of sashing, 8 sets of block connectors, and the first part of the center medallion. Tonight I sewed some of the blocks and connectors together. Then I put it all up on my design wall: I believe that tomorrow I'll receive the fabric and instructions to finish the center medallion and I will be able to sew the whole center unit together. From there the 4 corners and the rest of the border. Still lots of space to fill in to make it look like this: Actually, mine will look slightly different. The shop owner who is running this program made a few fabric substitutions to create more contrast. As a result, I arranged my blocks a little differently to improve the symmetry. But dang! I am totally caught up. Yea me.

Wow! I haven't posted a quilting update in ages. I went back and looked and realized that I haven't finished a project since September. Me, being me of course, started a couple of new ones. And I did churn out a dozen Kindle covers for my ... ahem ... Etsy store  (Christine may now say "I told you so."). Remember the paint chip challenge? Here's the table runner I made (it's not quilted yet): Remember the Block of the Month? The project that will one day look like this: I've got 7 blocks done and a mile of sashing: Now, if you want to see some seriously beautiful little art quilts that are bright and funky, you MUST  follow this link . Frieda Anderson, a quilt artist & teacher came to town and I got to take a class from her a couple of weeks ago. The class project was the cone flowers quilt that's in the 3rd row of that link, 2nd from the left. Mine's only partway done, but here's a preview: So that's what I'm work...

I've been neglecting my blog lately. Someone even noticed (thanks JW!). Between travels, the heat, reading, the heat, sewing, and the heat, well, I've just run out of steam at the end of each day. But I did want to make an attempt to catch back up. So here's what I've been sewing. I machine quilted two quilts. One is a fairly large square "Blooming 9-Patch" from the book Tradition with a Twist by Dalene Young Stone & Blanche Young . This quilt is about 5' x 5'. My mother-in-law bought the fabric for me for my birthday about 6 years ago. I finished the top before she passed away, but sadly, she did not get to see it. The top sat for several years while I figured out how I wanted to quilt it. Here are some detail shots of the quilting from the front and then the back. It took me about 3 months to finish this, but I'm VERY pleased with the results. As soon as I get the binding on, I'll post some more pictures. I also finished the quilting on...

Yes, I did a lot of reading in May, but I also got quite a bit of sewing in. And in between, I kept an eye on the action over at the auction . So, if you didn't see, my quilt sold for $176! A very respectable price and the auction itself raised over $285,000. That just amazes me... Meanwhile, I actually finished the May block of the month in May. This one was a little easier than the first one, although one of the edges didn't come out quite as straight. Nonetheless, the corners came together right and it squared up nicely to the required 12.5 inches. Here's a look at my blooming 9-patch. The quilting is almost done. As you might be able to tell, I appropriated the kitchen table which is nice and big. When it's done, I'll get some close-ups of the quilting. Finally, I am basting into a quilt sandwich the last top my mother-in-law completed before her death in 2006. It's stretched out on a frame in our living room, which has almost no furniture in it. Every now ...

For you non-quilters who read this blog, quilters often talk about this mythical group called the "Quilt Police." They're supposedly the ones who walk around insisting that things have to be done a certain way or look a certain way. They're the critical ones who have a comment (usually negative) about everything. I think there are "X, Y, or Z Police" for just about anything you can think of (novel writing? blogging? cooking?). You can let yourself be beat down by the negativity or you can ignore it and do what you want because who are you really trying to satisfy anyway? A third alternative is to take that negativity and channel it into something positive, like a challenge simply for the sake of the challenge--because you might learn something, or it might even be fun! Fabric manufacturer Timeless Treasures and Wing and a Prayer Design company have collaborated on a Block of the Month project being offered by quilt shops around the country. I have signed u...