Who's going to Houston?

Wouldn't it be great to meet some fellow bloggers?

Runner (and pillow) time!

I warned you!
I'm trying to come up with a name for this one but I'm stumped. Any ideas?



And a matching pillow cover.

Why?

The quilt top is made...

The binding is ready...

...but I don't have ANYTHING to use as backing.

You'd think I'd have learned by now.

Thanks everyone!

Wow! The response to my rotary cutter question was AMAZING! Thank you so much! Hopefully all the wonderful responses helped other people with their decisions too.
I think I'll be going with the Olfa Ergonomic cutter since that one got the most votes, but it wasn't an easy decision.
I'm left-handed so having the option of switching the blade to the other side was really important to me.

Here's a glimpse of a little something I'm working on.

Rotary Cutters

After 10 years of constant use, I think my rotary cutter needs to retire.

So...I was hoping you could help me (and probably a few other people) with my decision in deciding on a new one.

What rotary cutter do you use?
What do you like/dislike about it?

Thank you, lovely blogfriends!

Melissa's Block

For the Virtual Quilting Bee.
Melissa sent the yellow fabric. Her theme is trees.
I had a hard time incorporating it without adding all kinds of fall oranges which would not have worked with the other fabrics she sent out.
I'm quite happy with these little trees.
Freezer paper foundation pieced.

Wow, thanks!

Your response to my emergency plea was amazing! I love all of you!
Because I had an urgent need to iron, I used the "salt on brown paper" method, which miraculously took most of the gunk off, although it did scratch the surface a little. As soon as I get to the store, I'll buy one of the other amazing products you recommended and take the rest of it off. Stay tuned for the review.

I know you're probably getting a little tired of runners, but I have to make 15 of them by November 11th, so here's another one.

Romantic Roses:

H-e-e-e-l-p!

Two words:
Fleece.
Hot iron.

OK, that's three words but...

Oh, you need a more detailed photo?

Do tell me you've done this and found a way to clean it up.
Please.

The Butterfly Block

Right now my life feels a little out of control. I think I have too many things on one small little plate. Maybe it's just PMS and I'll feel better tomorrow...

I've had a couple of requests for the pattern I used to make Jennifer's Virtual Quilting Bee butterfly quilt block.
Well, I didn't have a pattern, although I did "design" something in EQ5 at the time.
So, today I drew up a pattern for the Butterfly Quilt Block which I'd love to share.
The VQB block was 12" square but to make printing easier, I designed this one at 10" finished.
It's foundation pieced and machine appliqued. Refer to the photo for placement of the applique pieces.

I saved the pattern in two PDF files.
Butterfly Quilt Block Part I
Butterfly Quilt Block Part II
If you do try out this pattern, please let me know how it worked out.

Look what I got!

At some point soon there will be a "real post" again. You know, one with something you can actually read...

A while ago I won this giveaway. Isn't it cute?

Thanks Helen!

What happened?

When did I become a weekly poster? Too many irons in the fire, I think.

I did start working on my Grandmother's Flower Garden hexagon quilt again. 24 blocks done. At least 24 more to go.

And I'm working on another table runner.

Oh, and did I mention that I started guitar lessons this week?

(What was that about the irons...)

Impulse buy

I was at JoAnn's looking for fleece to make a dog coat and some thingies for a giveaway, and what stumbled across my path?

The current dining room drapes are from a different era (think burgundy, mustard, green) and this will be just perfect to replace them!

It's a Liz Claiborne fabric but I can't find it anywhere online to see what it's called. It almost looks like it's quilted, which I love.

Goodbye Summer

Happy Labor Day with compliments from my dear hubby.

Random logs

Here's what I did yesterday. I made this top quite a while ago. Wow, I didn't realize it was that long ago until I started searching for the post!

Yesterday I did the basting, quilting, and binding. And of course the washing and drying for the lovely, cuddly, wrinkly look.

I wanted the pastel log cabins to randomly float in the white background.


I actually bought backing fabric for this quilt, but penny-pinching me did not buy enough, so I still had to do some piecing. I always end up loving pieced backs though.

I l-o-v-e the little bunny fabric.

I purposely kept the quilting big and loose on this one because I wanted it to stay soft and plyable. The denser quilting is, the stiffer the quilt turns out.

(In my Etsy shop now)

Guess what I'm doing today

Fortunately this process is largely automated and I'll be quilting (yay!) while it's chugging along.

Minny Muu Baby Quilt

I'm definitely not as prolific as some people, but I did finally manage to finish one baby quilt. I used the Minny Muu squares I received recently.


For the back I worked in the leftover squares.


Things are a little hectic around here getting ready for school to start on Tuesday, but once that happens I will hopefully be back more regularly.

Flirting with Fall

That's what I call my newest table runner. I made this before we left for Hawaii.


I did some contrasted quilting again.

More Squares

I will post photos of an actual project soon, I promise. The Japanese squares moved themselves up to the top of the list.

These are the 200 6" squares I cut yesterday for Katie's Vintage Sheet and Fabric Square Swap.

Look what I got

While we were in Hawaii these little Japanese fabric squares arrived from a bloggy friend. I think they call for a pretty little baby quilt. That would be about the 10th thing on the "to do" list, I think.

I'm back-ish!

Hawaii was wonderful! So wonderful in fact that I totally forgot to take photos. It's strange how, when your children are older, photos become less important.

I loved the flowers...



...and took a Hawaiian quilting class

Right now I'm buried under laundry and the garden is a jungle so I may be quiet for the rest of the week.
Check out the sidebar for all the books I read while on vacation. To see what I thought of them, visit my Goodreads bookshelf.