Backpack...

I'm off to see the grand-kids next week and I have to bring something cute! I used the tutorial from Sew, Mama, Sew to make this backpack. It was really easy! The fabric is Sugar and Spice by Riley Blake.I was a little worried about doing the straps, but they were a breeze!
One down and one more to go. Even at 1 1/2, Maddy needs a backpack. She's familiar with backpacks thanks to Dora and she has to have whatever her big sister has, including wearing underpants over her diaper!

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More Info...

Issue 5 of Fat Quarterly Magazine (an e-zine; electronic magazine) is available on Wed. I'm thrilled to be featured in this issue - I even broke down and sent in a picture of myself. I thought it would be fun to take it in the sewing room. Four pictures of my quilts are also included in the feature.

There are also a lot of great articles and patterns in the magazine. For a sneak peek, you can visit the blog. The e-zine can be purchased here.
I had a few questions about how I did my block in the last post. I used a Kaleidoscope ruler that I've had for a while - there are other rulers you could use. The top needs to be a 45 degree angle. The background triangles were cut from a 4" strip and the colored triangles were cut from a 6" strip.

Simply sew the triangles together like you would a pinwheel. Notice that the colored triangles are bigger than the background triangles. Then trim the block to a 6 1/2" square.

Here it is all trimmed up.

In my quilt, I alternated white and gray backgrounds. I had to carefully lay out the colored triangles so I'd use the same fabric in adjoining blocks to make the stars. That was the tedious part!
Hope that helps!

April 27th - oops! This post was updated today with some corrections on the block. In my original post the background and colored triangles were switched. Hope nobody made the whole quilt incorrectly last night! Amazing how clearly things look in the morning after a cup of coffee. ~C

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When 1 quilt becomes 2...

I've been wanting to try the pattern on the cover of this magazine for a while. I knew I wasn't up for a big quilt and thought I'd do a small wall quilt. I changed the block up a bit and used my 45 degree Kaleidoscope ruler to cut the blocks. So far so good.

I did the math. 5 blocks x 5 blocks = 25 blocks. Each block needed 4 green or coral pieces. 25 blocks x 4 pieces per block = 100 pieces. I had 8 fat quarters of each color (coral and green). I divided 8 into 100 and got 12+ pieces from each fat quarter. Do you see my mistake? I should have divided 16 into 100 and cut 6+ pieces from each fat quarter! I have 100 extra pieces.
Here's my little wall quilt. I love how it came out and it was tedious - small is fine!

So I'm playing with my remaining pieces and decided to add some aqua. I've come up with 3 possible configurations for my long, skinny triangles. A kind of elongated zig zag...
Diamonds...
Pyramids...
What would you do? I'm leaning towards the zig zag.

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Some finished quilts...

A couple of weeks ago I got 2 quilts back from my awesome longarm quilter. They've been gone for over a year and a half - she's good, but she's busy. And I figure they would have been sitting on my shelf too for a year and a half. It was somewhat of a reunion!

This took me a while to applique, so it was probably started 2 1/2 years ago. The pattern is from Kim Diehl's book Simple Traditions. It was fun looking at this and thinking about how my style has changed in the past few years. But I still love my traditional roots.

The quilting is fabulous! Butterflies...
Swirls and feathers...
This also came home and is bound. It was designed by me for my third book, but got cut for space.
I love how she quilted a feather wreath in the center.
One of my goals this year is to clear my pile of quilt tops. I'm getting closer! Thanks for visiting!!

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Hexagons...

I was inspired by this book:

This quilt in particular, called Honeycomb Hexagon. It's made of quite large hexagons and requires "Y" seam piecing to put the rows together. I decided to use the template in the book for the half hexagon that is used to fill in the top and bottom. I cut my hexagons in 2 pieces making it 10 times faster to piece. It does mean that there's a seam through the middle of each hexagon.
If you're using small scale, tone-on-tone prints, the seam would be really negligible. But not me, I'm using big prints and lots of them. I cut the bottom and top halves of each hexagon from one piece of fabric, so although they won't match perfectly because of the seam allowance, they will be close.
From a distance you can barely tell and I think when it's quilted the seams will be even less noticeable.
Here's a closeup of how they matched up.
Today was a gorgeous Spring day. I couldn't help but photograph it in the sunny garden!

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Win it to be in it...

Remember my Jewel Box quilt? Pattern from Issue 1 of Fat Quarterly. Fabric Hope Valley by Denise Schmidt.Well, I might have entered it into their reader competition.

And I might have won.

And I might be getting a fabulous prize.

And I might be featured in the next issue of their e-magazine.

Check it out! Win It To Be In It

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Salt Water Taffy...

Totally inspired by (copied from) Twin Fibers...Pattern ~ from Fig Tree Quilts
Fabric ~ all from stash. Yeah!

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Winners and my challenge...

Good Monday morning! Thank you all for your wonderful comments and I'd love to see your Sanctuary Squares quilts if you make one. Did you see it over at Modern Day Quilts yesterday?

The winners were randomly selected and are Moewest, Jenniffer and Kristy. I've sent you all an email. Congrats!!

We had our mug rug exchange at the STLMQG meeting on Saturday. I got this awesome one made by Candy. I love it and I doubt if she knows what a big tea drinker I am.
Much progress has been made on my solids only challenge for STLMQG. It started with this...

Kona Solids from Robert Kaufman

And ended up with this...
And this...
It's certainly a modern stretch for me and I'm pretty pleased. My husband even noticed it and commented how much he liked it. Believe me ~ he doesn't notice too much in the way of quilting around here.
Over the weekend I completed the quilting...
And I'm finishing up the binding...
Another little project this weekend was these book bags for the girls using the tutorial from Sew, Mama, Sew. It's Hello Kitty fabric purchased from Fabric Worm.
I was really careful not to disfigure any kitties in the making of these bags. You may remember my decapitation of Elmo in a pillow case seam that caused quite a stir!
I recently got 2 quilts back from my longarm quilter. A little more binding and I'll have those to show this week. Have a great week!!

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What's old is new again!

Our guild had a wonderful speaker this month. Hallye Bone gave a talk and presented quilts from the 30's. I got some great photos and as I was listening to her lecture, I realized how much commonality there is between quilting now and the quilts made in the 30's.

Certainly many of the popular patterns are popping up today. The beloved Dresden is one of the favorite blocks of modern quilters. Today they have a wonderful new look - like my Amy Butler Dresdens.
This quilt is a new one made with feedsacks from the 30's. The pattern is Jewel Box. Remember mine?
This block is really popular today and we saw several 30's quilts with the same pattern. I think it's called X's and O's.
Another common trait of 30's quilts is the use of white and lots of white space. Think we're seeing that today too!
We saw several quilts using this pattern. I just love it. I'm going to rack my brain to see if I can come up with an easy way to piece that one!

And notice all the solid fabrics in the 30's quilts? Well, it was cheaper so they used it liberally. With cottons rising, I think we're in the same boat!


Hexagons!!
This is Glorified Nine Patch and was just patterned in the latest issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. You'll find a beautiful modern version here.
Fans. This quilt belongs to our member Darlene and is simply beautiful. Love the border. I'm going to have to try that!
Lots of scraps. They didn't want to waste any scraps in the 30's. Sound familiar?
I have a quilt top and a set of Flower Garden blocks that my Grandmother made in the 30's. I'm really inspired to try and finish those. Because what's old is new again!!

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