Inspiration from my new book!

My books arrived on my doorstep last week! You should start seeing them in your shops soon!

I've always wanted my blog to be a space of inspiration. I'm excited to show you many of the quilts made in alternate colors and fabrics. Hope you enjoy seeing them all up close! I've asked a few of my favorite bloggers to review the book and we'll be sharing that too.

And of course, I'm always working on something new - so expect some new show-and-tells between book posts!

No Christmas book would be complete without a tree skirt and some Christmas stockings. So let's start with those...

The stockings are super simple. The book has 4 different patchwork options for the cuff and each stocking is fully lined.

The tree skirt was inspired by a traditional star block - known as both Rising Sun and Christmas Star. The good news is that there are no set-in pieces!

Last Christmas I made one for my daughter using solids and a bright holiday print...

This is one of my favorite projects. A simple wreath design that can be hung on the wall or used as a table topper...

I want to make this again! Can you see it in Fall colors or solids?

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Steam Punk Quilt

My Steam Punk quilt is finished! It's a beautiful Summer evening here and I thought I'd take it out for a little photo shoot.

The combination of machine and hand quilting gave this quilt a wonderful drape. The hand-quilting is limited to 2 concentric circles on each block.

The pattern is by Jen Kingwell Designs.

It's been a wonderful Summer project!

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#kinderhook2013

Tell a non-quilter that you're going on a quilt retreat and they give you quite a puzzled look. Most think of praying when they hear the word retreat. And although there are plenty of prayers uttered {my grandmother always taught me to say a prayer before cutting}, if you've ever been on a quilt retreat you know just how amazing and restorative they can be.

We sew drinking our coffee in the morning until sipping our wine at night. In between there's yummy food, tears of laughter {often over the same old jokes} and tears of sadness as we experience the safe place to share our struggles. I've been retreating with the same group of friends for many years now and though not biologically, they are truly my sisters. My heart is filled with gratitude for each and every one of them.

And yes, I got some fun sewing done!

A fat quarter pack of Nordika transformed into a Garden Lattice quilt from my new book...

The July Lucky Stars block...

A new pincushion using this tutorial... 

home for my awesome, new "Little House" pins available here and here...

Four more "Fresh" blocks, giving me a total of 5... {pattern from Simply Retro}

Nine blocks to add to my Flying Geese Redbird Bee quilt...

And a final Good-bye to Kinderhook Lodge. You were fun!!

More pics from this year's retreat on Instagram... #kinderhook2013

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Happy-go-Lucky...

Oh, how I enjoyed quilting this one! It's my 9-patch/snowball combo quilt made with Happy-Go-Lucky by Bonnie and Camille {plus a few stash pieces thrown in}. It was done with Charm Squares and you'll find my method here.

I do have a love affair with fabric and what made it fun to quilt was all the eye-candy as I sewed.

And the quilting was pretty simple. Straight lines through the squares and a free-motion design in each of the Snowball blocks.

I struggled choosing a border for the quilt. If you remember my earlier post, I was determined to put a navy border on it. In fact many of you agreed with my choice. But it started to seem a little overpowering for the quilt and I ended up with the aqua and a navy binding.

The back is one of my favs from the collection.

Couldn't resist this overexposed shot with the garden and the beautiful blue sky.

Hope you have a "happy-go-lucky" day too!

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Color Wheel Quilt...

My granddaughter has been admiring the color wheel hanging in my sewing room. As a budding artist, she needed one too! My colors may not be perfect, but I was pretty happy with what I found in my stash for each of the color wedges...

 I used my "Fat Cats" ruler, which is just a 30 degree ruler, to cut the wedges 8 1/2" long. I sewed a white strip cut 1" x 10" to each wedge and trimmed it even with the wedge. Then it was just a matter of sewing the 12 wedges together in a circle. There's a circle appliquéd in the center and the outside edges are just turned under 1/4" and machine appliquéd to the background. Some spiral quilting, Architextures binding and it was done!

I happened to have a bit of Crafty Chloe fabric leftover and it seemed the perfect backing...

{Couldn't resist zooming out to get my Crepe Myrtle in the picture...}

And here's a sneak peek at my next project. I'm getting ready for an upcoming retreat and cutting out the blocks for this beauty... "Fresh" from Simply Retro.

I also received this lovely rug mug from an equally lovely friend on Saturday. Miss Nancy, a member of our Redbird Bee, made this with scraps leftover from my Bee block!

Yes, quilters are the nicest!!!

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Star

I have a finished quilt! It's small - 43" x 43" - but packs a big punch!

I found this block about a year ago when I was looking through some of my older quilt books. I thought how cool would it be to make the star big - like for the whole quilt. Then I saw this one by Rita at Red Pepper Quilts and wow. It went on my to-do list!

I wanted clear, colorful, and modern fabric to make my star. Vanessa's Simply Style turned out to be just what I had in mind! I added a few stash fabrics to round out the colors with additional prints and voila. Couldn't be happier with it!

The half-square triangles finish at 2 1/2", which makes the star 40". I added a 1 1/2" border to separate it from the binding.

The quilting is simple - lots of straight lines. After quilting the lines, I decided to add a little texture to the center white triangles by doing a little free motion back and forth in every other space. I'm thrilled with the dimension it added!

Now to find a nice place to hang this one!!

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Catching up on some quilting...

So last year I was determined to finish up all the tops that were piling up or give them away. Yay! I pretty much did that and have been determined to quilt each top as I make it ~ as all of you do?

I've done well, by keeping an ongoing list. Something about putting it down on paper, {or whiteboard} that keeps me on track. Until now... oh no, I've got 5 tops on the list. There's something about that pretty fabric that keeps calling me to cut it up and sew!

Today I promised to make a dent and pin-basted 2 tops. So hopefully, I'll have some finished quilts to show soon!

Even though this lovely fabric pile keeps calling my name. I won't touch it ~ promise. 

{I'm doing "Fresh" from Simply Retro}

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