The Source Of My Inspiration....

When Lucy and I went to Paducah last year, we stopped at EVERY antique shop we could find! I'm not even sure which shop this quilt was in,but we both fell in love with it. It is heavily quilted with very wonky baptist fans....it has CHEDDAR...it has "normal" blocks and then blocks that really are colored strange...all the things that make a great quilt in my book! (Click the pic to see the large version, and enjoy the variety of blocks and fabrics!)

As I've been cutting for this, I started out thinking I wanted the 3 fabrics in each block...one blue, one coral/pink, and one neutral. As I pulled strips, I'd measure to slice the 2" strips into the pieces I'd need, and sometimes I'd come up short...so just like this quilt, I started substituting...I tried to put my mind in the place of the maker with a limited scrap bag.

I didn't put red where the blues are supposed to go..I stayed pretty much in the same color family, but some of the blocks, instead of having 4 pink rectangles that match, are only going to have 3 that match, and one odd one that is similar, and maybe use 2 lights for the background, etc..or 2 blues in the cross parts. I'm not sure how it will look, but this is what I'm aiming for!

Oh my...there are 1980 something heart prints that I'm using...(Hey, if it's over 20 yrs old, it's vintage, right?)I wasn't going to use them, was going to pass them by...but putting myself in the mind of the maker of this antique quilt, if that piece was in HER bag.....would she have used it? I have no doubt she would have. So I did too!

I just mailed off my Patches & Pinwheels quilt to Quiltmaker for the Sept/Oct 08' issue. Seems funny to be thinking of fall already, when it hasn't warmed up enough to be SPRING yet! Lucky for me they wanted a quilt that was already done. Got some other articles in the works for the future too...never a dull moment around here!

Quote For The Day!

The quote for today comes from our own quiltvillechat list member, Sherry Denton! She put my own feelings into words so well!

She wrote:

I can see that I need to be more open to color choices. Especially if it's fabric that I already have. I just straightened up my sewing room and I have so much fabric that it is almost embarrassing. I really need to be creative with what I have. It's funny that I have the orange fabric, but didn't really want to use it in this quilt. I don't know what am I saving if for? After all, what better place to use orange fabric than in a quilt called Orange Crush?

AMEN SHERRY!!!

I was playing with some blocks last night....I've always wanted to do a "crossed album" block, and finally sat down to it while watching some DVDs last night. My thought was that I could cut into the new FQ bundles that I bought for my birthday.

My thought was to pair up "something old" (from the scraps) with "something new" (from the bundles) so I was getting the satisfaction of playing with "new" fabrics while still using what pre-cut stuff I had on hand that has been maybe floating around here for a while.

I am going with a blue and salmon/coral/dirty pink color way. The FQ bundles look so pretty, and the fabrics are folded inside of each other in a special way, and tied up with a big fabric bow...I just couldn't take them apart! *LOL* But I told myself....I COULD take them apart if there was something I really needed/wanted in there....AFTER I pulled everything from my 2" strip bins that would work first.

I haven't cut into the new fabrics yet! I know I will...I don't have that many dirty pinky coral salmon colors in my pre-cut strips, but it is amazing what we can do when we start sewing with what we have instead of automatically running to the store. (Or starting with your scraps, before cutting into new yardage)

It's really easy to run out and buy a "kit" or a "jelly roll" and not ever have to learn yourself about what plays well together, what doesn't...and how to substitute one thing for another. I love the challenge of going through what I have and finding something to make it work. I've learned a lot about color and value and impact this way.

I joined the workout express lady's circuit gym yesterday! It's fun! And I can't believe it's only a mile up the road. My goal is to make it there 4 times a week. Weeks that I'm out of town, of course, I won't be able to,but it's a goal, and I need to get in the routine of going. No excuses! The hours are 8am to 1pm and 3pm to 8pm. I am sure with those hours I can find 30 minutes to do something for me. And I'm going right now!

Better Than Chocolate!

Oh, MY GOODNESS!! It's Quilter's CANDY!!

My son called from the top of the stairs: "Mom, you've got another quilt box!"

I thought it was a quilt from a customer coming....I opened the box and there was all this popcorn styrofoam stuff....and then...I saw a basket handle!

Not only that, but there were delicious smells coming from the basket, and I couldn't fathom what it was!

I impatiently partially up-ended the box so that I could grasp the handle and pull the basket out. Styrofoam popcorn going EVERYWHERE! Imagine my surprise when I found three yummy candles and quilters candy: 1/2 square triangles already squared up and trimmed! And scraps...and FQ's!

Thanks SEW much Kathy! You made my day! I am going to love burning these candles in my studio, enjoying the yummy fragrance, and I'll think of you every time I sew some of your fun fabric bits into my projects!

A Use For "Iffy" Fabrics!

I have found a place where I will dare to use a poly/cotton blend fabric!

And before you gasp......

It's the HANGING SLEEVE! I had a sweet sweet lady donate some "shirt" type fabrics to me when she found I was working with recycled fabrics. She sent me YARDS of this great grey/white stripe oxford cloth. I love the look of oxford cloth, but it is rare to find it in 100% cotton, and when I ironed this...yep...poly in it. You can just SMELL poly when you iron it, can't you?

*LOL* It reminds me of the "Child Catcher" in Chitty Chitty Bang-Bang! Instead of "Children! I smell Children!" It's "POLY!! I SMELL POLY!!" and I kind of make that face too when I iron it :c)

But what's worse? Poly blends ending up in a landfill? Or poly blends being used in appropriate places and having a purpose? Think green...use the poly blends for foundations in string piecing, or use them as I did...as the hanging sleeve on the back of a quilt! It will suit the purpose just fine. And I have the memory of this sweet little lady who gave so much so generously.

I'll send a pic when I finish stitching it down!

Its a Collage!

First off, Happy Easter to everyone....and Happy Passover too....and okay...happy EVERYTHING! Let's get it all out there!

Oh,funny joke I heard today, you've probably heard it.

A teacher was asking her 2nd graders all about the holidays and what they were for...they covered Christmas, 4th of July, Thanksgiving (this is the short version, you get the idea) and then she asked one shy boy what Easter was. He replied most seriously...

"Oh Easter! That's when Jesus comes out of the tomb....and if he sees his shadow we have winter for 6 more weeks!!!!"

I thought this was SO FUNNY. But then I have been going on lack of sleep!

I got the coolest thing in my email! The guild photographer from Durham Orange Quilters Guild (where I was last Monday night...was it only LAST Monday night?)sent me a pdf file of a collage she made of my presentation! It is SO cool! Because it is a pdf, I can't just upload it open, but you can click HERE to view it.

The only thing I'm not happy to see is my belly...*LOL* The more I travel, the more I eat out, the more I don't have time to WORK OUT...the bigger I get..pffffttt! Oh well....guess I better get working on that!

Actually, ONE MILE up the road is a little women's circuit training thing similar to "Curves" and I'm thinking of joining. The prospect being..I can WALK there....do my 30 minute circuit training....and WALK home. I think I'll check it out tomorrow. I stopped in the other day and they are waiving the $99 start up fee this month...and it is only $30 a month to join. It's just my kind of thing. I'm not big on huge aerobics classes, and I don't want to work out with big guys pumping iron, or little 20-somethings in skimpy tight shorts strutting around in their perfect bodies while I huff and puff.

Yep. I gotta do this. I think it will help me with my pent up lack of energy too....


I rented "Atonement" at Blockbuster.....that's on tap for tonight while I bind my Bargain Basement quilt :cD

Bonnie

The Next Mystery Quilt - - -Orange Crush!

Can you guess what I've been working on today?!

I'll give you a hint...it isn't laundry, or painting my unwallpapered ugly walls or working in my yard!

I'm working on our next mystery quilt!

We have a name...and we have yardage amounts!

The name of the quilt is ORANGE CRUSH. And for those of you who don't like orange, never fear, you can swap your orange out for something else.


You can read all about it here!


At the top of that page is also a link to a printer-friendly .pdf file! So many have requested pdfs that I decided it was time to splurge on some software. In time I hope to be changing all my printer friendly pages to pdf files, but this is a start anyway.

Gather your fabrics, get ready to sew! The Orange Crush Mystery begins April 1st!

I Sewed!!

I had the most WONDERFUL morning!

I met with Mrs Goodneedle and her church's quilt ministry and SEWED for two hours! Two hours might not sound like a lot, and in fact it goes by way too quickly for my liking, but it was just the medicine I needed to get me out of the slump I've been feeling since Saturday night.

I have been feeling SO DRAGGY. I asked Yankee Quilter if she felt this way after her big move too, and she told me her mother called it "Acquired Tiredness Syndrome" Because I couldn't pinpoint what would make me feel so blah and lethargic, I figure she must be right. I had A.T.S!

Since the charity quilt thing was only 2 hours this morning, it didn't wear me out! Two weeks ago, the last time I went, I picked up a little pre-cut kit of 5" squares to make into a top. Today I finished putting it together, and got the borders on. It turned out really cute, but I neglected to get a pic of it. :c(

I felt energized when I left, like I had the whole day in front of me, and I ran errands all the way home. I stopped and got a haircut. (Ran out of time to do that the other day)and then....

I stopped and got some drawer pulls for my kitchen drawers. This house was built in 1978 and has a serious case of "golden oak overload!" (G.O.O.??)Even the handles for the golden oak drawers and cupboards in the kitchen are brass with little golden oak inserts on them. Blech.

I can't afford to totally re-do the kitchen at this point, so I am scrubbing everything down, re-oiling the wood, and putting on more "rustic" looking hardware.

















I'm looking for cabinet handles, but I found the drawer pulls I want at Target! One problemo, tho...the screws are too short. So on my little jaunt, I stopped at Lowes and got bigger screws. Uno Mas Problemo!! Now the screw heads are too small and pull right through the screw holes! Ayie Carumba! So tonight..on the way back from Maundy Thursday stuff, (choir singing) I'm going to stop for WASHERS. Do you think I'll eventually get these things IN the drawers?

And sheesh..for such a little kitchen...I need ....10 drawer pulls and 29 (29!!!!!!!!!) cabinet handles! So you can see what I mean about G.O.O.! (Golden Oak Overload). It's also the same in the master bath, where the cabinets have the same brass/oak handles, and the previous owners went so far as to have
Two oak towel racks
one oak circle hanging hand towel rack
oak hooks for robes, etc
2 oak medicine cabinets
and an OAK TP holder!

Oh the joys of setting up a new household in an older house. I sometimes feel like this place could be on one of those makeover shows on HGTV (Maybe they could call it OAK BUSTERS?!)

Buddy got a checkup for his broken leg, and a new cast yesterday. Bad Doggie has been pulling on his cast, and licking at it, so to stop that I put an old knee hi sock over it, and then sprayed it with that bitter apple stuff. He isn't licking NOW!(And I know why, because I didn't wash my hands after spraying, and when I wiped my mouth, blehh!)

While I Was Away....

Spring crept in!

One of the wonders of moving to a new place in winter is finding out what actually comes up in the spring and where!





Temps are not reflecting that it is spring yet, that is for sure! This is the latest spring arrival I can remember since living "south". It's also the earliest easter most of us will EVER see because of the way the calendar works. Something like, Easter won't be this early again until those of us reading this message are long gone to kingdom come? Interesting......(but still cold!)

Buddy is still hobbling around with his leg in a cast. He is getting around quite well right now,but still,he is limited to where he can and can't go. While he was out doing business, I brought the camera to snap some pics of what is blooming here!

You can't miss the daffodils! They are big and yellow and springing up in the front flower beds! I need to get in there and clean the leaves out from around them. Daffys are alwais the first thing I think of when I think of spring and I an so happy to have these!

Also along the side of the driveway, I discovered grape hyacinths coming up..SO CUTE!

And look at this bush! I don't know what kind of bush this is,but the blossoms are like snow flakes.

When I lived "north" Forsythia was always the first sign of spring there. It bloomed long before tulips could even think about opening up.

And look! I have a pink blooming tree of some sort! *LOL* Oh, I loved Lucy's pink tree in Holland, and now I have one of my OWN! (Lucy, is your's ready to bloom yet? or is it too early?)


I also wandered down by the creek, Sadie at my side (Buddy gave up and was plopped on the lawn closer to the house just observing us) and took some pics.

The creek bed is DEEP....but according to our realtor who also lives in this "four brooks" area, has never overflowed that he can remember in 30 years or so. And it is quite a slope UP to the house, a long distance, so I am not in danger of studio flooding.

I just love having this nature all around me!

Last night I ventured out and drove to Durham/Chapel Hill NC for a guild meeting with the Durham Orange Quilter's Guild! I met up with a bunch of ladies at a place called "Squids" for dinner, and it was FABULOUS! I had a seafood Fla Diavolo. Scrumptious...and I swear to you they had the best hot hushpuppies I have ever had. And they kept bringing more! Seriously, if they rolled these in cinnamon/sugar they could have been dessert, they were that good.

The have a terrific guild with so many talented ladies. Show and tell went on and on. I will be doing three workshops there at the end of July, and really looking forward to getting to know these ladies better!

So what's on the agenda now that I'm home for almost a couple weeks?

Drivers License Test (WRITTEN! ACKKKK!)
License Plates/Registration
Change Bank Info (gotta put the new address on all the accounts)
GET HAIR CUT!

These are the most pressing things for me today. And then I get to come home and work on customer quilts for a while, and head back into Downtown Winston Salem for choir practice. Being Easter Week, there is lots of music to rehearse! Oh, did I forget to mention that I auditioned for the choir at St Pauls? What better way to meet people than to just join in? That and quilting is all I really need to get me situated in a community.

Other than that, I've got a quilt for the book that needs a border...and I've got THREE quilts for the book that need quilting! That should keep me busy over the next couple weeks along with catching up with customer quilts. They've all been so patient with me through this move.

Oh...and Jeff just asked if he came with me to run the errands, if we could go to the Chinese Buffet place by the bank for lunch. Smart kid. He is learning how to work his mama into a free lunch out! *LOL*

Email Shenanigans!

Is it a St Paddy's Day Prank?!?!

Okay, so I AM wearing green,but that doesn't seem to matter. My email isn't working! It isn't coming in from my server, and if I send OUT..it never gets to where it is supposed to go. So..I'm switching email addresses until it is FIXED! You can now reach me at my alternate address of Quiltville@Yahoo.com

The Mysterious NEXT MYSTERY!

I've been getting mail asking for more specifics on the next Mystery! I originially said I was going to start posting it on April 1st. I know that is looking closer!

You know, I moved just ONE MONTH ago? It was Feb 11th when the moving van dumped everything on my door step. That one month anniversary passed a few days ago, and it occurred to me that out of that one month...I've spent 2 weeks of that time out on the road teaching!

So I know you are anxious for more info. I've got the Mystery quilt designed. I've got it broken down into units, how many of what, etc. I've got part of it made so I can show you samples. I am figuring yardage, because if I go by what EQ says...you need more than 25 yards for a 70X90 quilt top! *LOL* So I'm cutting pieces myself to see how many of what I can get out of a yard, and going from there.

Parts of this quilt are scrappy. Parts of it aren't, so there will be yardage you can find hopefully in your stash. I want you to shop your stashes FIRST. That is the challenge!

For now, I will tell you that you need approx 1.5 yard of assorted (meaning every color as long as it reads dark) dark 2" strips, any length. Because it is a scrappy unit, the number of strips you may need may vary depending on how many sub-units you can get from the length of your scrap strip.

To go with the 1.5 yards of assorted dark 2' strips, you need the same amount (approx 1.5 yard) of 2" light strips.

If you don't have enough strips, you can start culling through your FQs and scraps, pulling out things to cut into 2" strips. Throw in some un-loved pieces. Throw in some "ehhhhh" stuff that is okay, but you are tired of seeing it laying around. Throw in something that is just NOT your style that somehow crept into your stash. Try to get a good variety of colors, as in....everything but the kitchen sink!

That should be enough to get you started. In about a week, I'll have the rest of the yardage figured and will post that.

This quilt uses the EZ angle ruler. Many of you will have this from our last mystery, but if you don't have one, you can get one HERE!

I will also include the "traditional" rotary cutting directions for any parts that require a specific ruler, but believe me, this ruler is terrific!

Bear with me...I have many irons in the fire right now! I guess part of the Mystery is not knowing when I'll be able to post the next clue! *LOL*

This Leprechaun is HOME!

SO...another week has gone by! What have you all been up to while I've been gallavanting around? :cD

I'd love to thank the guilds in Aiken, Santee/Elloree, and Augusta for hosting me this past week! I had a wonderful time. Everywhere I stayed a new friendship was made, or an old one was deepened and strengthened, and I thank you all!





Yesterday's class for the Virginia Bound quilt workshop was the icing on the cake. We had 26 (or was it 27? I lost count!) quilters attending, and since it was a string type scrap class, we had mess everywhere!! It was so fun....I'd walk by and the ladies would be digging into their piles...I'd come back around and the piles seem to have grown even bigger as they continued to dig and FLUFF up their scraps. We had quite the laugh about it.

This class starts with instruction for drafting your own block! So not everyone was working on the same block size. That also made the class fun. Now that the ladies know how to do it, they can draft the block in any size they want for any project they want it to fit.

Everyone had different color/fabric choices they were working on, and it made for some interesting blocks. We had christmas fabrics with a gold background, we had christmas fabrics with a cream background, we had blue/cream.....purples/blues/teals against pastels, we had purples against green, green against cream, brights against black, plaids against shirtings, orientals against creams, you name it, we had every color combo under the sun and they were fabulous!





The facility was great too. Lots of light and lots of room to spread out. Lunch was provided, the best chicken strips, and I'm not kidding you.

We finished up about 4pm and I hit the road right then anxious to get back to Winston Salem. It was a 4 1/2 hour drive from Augusta all the way home, and a good part of it was through black nasty thunderstorms, but I knew coming north that I'd work my way out of the way of this storm system, so I kept going. I just wanted to be home and sleep in my own bed.






Thursday and Friday nights were fun and special for me, as I got to stay with my son & his significant other :c) It was the first time I got to see their place since they moved in, and we had a really good time. They are fixing their place up so cute and homey. Jason was even spending time in the yard on friday, and that tickled me. When he was growing up he would grumble and moan about having to do yard work, and here he is working on their place! I'm proud of both he and Kim for how hard they are working to make this house a home for the two of them.

I've got lots of packing and organizing to do. Tomorrow night I'm doing a trunkshow/lecture in Durham NC! At least it is closer to home. I'm meeting the gals from that guild for dinner which should be fun. It's just a quick evening thing.

I have a June 2nd deadline for my book, AND...I got a call from my Editor while I was away! I am so excited about this book project. You'll just have to bear with me if posts aren't as frequent while I buckle down and make this dream come true!

For those wanting to participate in the next mystery..that is still ON. I just need a couple weeks to get everything together so I will be posting the fabric requirements on April 1st! And we'll go from there.....