Yellow brick road

I finally got some Wizard of Oz fabric....now I have to decide on a pattern. Will probably design my own so that the fabric can be featured. Can't wait to start but have to finish the project that I am on now...that is one of my resolutions...finish one project before starting another!!!! The one I am working on now is coming together well. The blocks are almost all made. The cutting directions were for a twin sized but I am going to change it into a full/queen sized. It will be easy, I'll just have to cut and sew 10 more blocks. Since I always get extra fabric, I will have enough I am sure. I hope to have it done this week but since they are coming Thursday to install the Murphy bed and the weather is supposed to be nice this week and I want to work outside, I may not be all done. We bought a rosebush at Lowe's today that we want to put in a flowerbed we started in the backyard....it is a beautiful dark red tea rose that is supposed to have 4.5 - 5 inch blooms.

Quiltmaker's Gift - Quilt Started

To answer a question - I got my copy of Quiltmaker's Gift about 5 years ago. It was published in 2001 by Scholastic Press. The author is Jeff Brumbeau and illustrator is Gail de Marcken.

I got my quilt started - the fabric is cut and some sewing is complete....I like how it is coming together. Can't wait for it to be done. But to slow things down, we got a call that the Murphy Bed we ordered for my office/den will be installed this coming Thursday. Now I need to move all the stuff out of that room so they can install everything. The room will have a built in desk and wall cabinets in addition to the Murphy Bed. Thank goodness I don't sew in that room.

Hubby put up the pegboard in my crafts closet today. Now I can hang all my hoops and rulers.

Week with Little One

I just returned from Newark where I spent Monday through Friday babysitting for my 2 year old grandson while his mom and dad went to the Poconos for their anniversary. It was tiring but I enjoyed it tremendously! The best part was when he climbed into my lap and wanted me to read him books...Thomas the Train of course.

I returned to a bunch of emails about my upcoming book...from the editor and publisher...more details to take care of but it should be in print by the end of July!

I am spending this evening washing the yards of fabric that was delivered last Friday from my online order. I will definitely start a project tomorrow...I'm going into quilt withdrawl. I think it will be based upon a pattern from the book. Quilts from the Quiltmaker's Gift. The block is called Children's Delight. If you haven't seen the children's book The Quiltmaker's Gift, you should check it out. The story and illustrations are beautiful. I first saw the book when my friend, Rachael, who teaches children's literature showed it to me. I fell in love with it. She gave me a copy of the book as a present. I have quite a collection of children's books with quilts as themes and the book is one of my prized possessions.

Creative Weekend

I just spent the weekend with about 200 writers from all genres at the Writers at the Beach Annual Conference. The conference benefits mitrochondrial disease research....you should check out the website...just type in "Writers at the Beach" on your search engine. My head is still spinning from all the inspiration.... I ate dinner next to Carolyn Parkhurst, the author of Lost and Found. If you watch reality shows, you may like this book! Her characters are interesting. I aslo met Jacquelyn Minchard, the first author whose book was chosen for an Oprah's Book Club selection...she is as charming as she is talented. I'm reading her latest one now. What made the weekend special was that four friends from PA spent the weekend at our house so they could go to the conference...72 hours of creativity!!!

To top it off, Friday a big package of fabric that I ordered came by FEDEX....I put in an order because I was having trouble getting the new Wizard of Oz fabric locally...but it was backordered anyway. The local quilt shop is small and does have lovely fabric but their selection of solid colors is limited, thus the on-line ordering.

I can't wait to get busy on a new project!

At our next guild meeting we are going to have instruction on the Lonestar pattern. I had been hesitant to try it because of the biases....I am going to take the quilts that I posted here for show and tell....I like that part of the meeting because I get so inspired by the beautiful work some of the members bring to show.

Also, this weekend was special because the first daffodils in my garden bloomed!!! Spring is really coming.

Question about pressing

I just read an article about the pros and cons of pressing seams open rather than pressing to one side. Some of the pros included eliminating bulk and ease of pressing. The article said that pressing to one side is a remnant of hand piecing which needed the pressing to one side to help with the integrity of the seam and keep stitches and the spaces between from being so visible. Made me think

What do others think? Does anyone press open?
I'll be anxious to hear.

Thomas the Train

Here is the latest quilt in this series. I had some Thomas the Train fabric and since both of my grandsons are fans, I decided to make quilts. (The other is still at the long arm quilters.) Around the sides of the Thomas panel I used the rail fence block design. I call this quilt - Thomas I. It has some of the same fabric in it as the Playhouses.

This week I won't be doing too much quilting. Some of my friends are coming for the Writers at the Beach Conference this coming weekend and I have to get my sewing machine and fabric put away so the guest bedroom can be used.

I have been working on some other crafts, too. This is a box that I covered using fabric that is from the valance in our bathroom. The box was painted with crafts paint, then sprayed for the shiny finish. Beads were added to outline the fish and some of the bubbles. The fabric was glued with a layer of quilt batting on the top. Ribbon was glued around the edges.

Friendship Star Quilt

Here are some pictures of another quilt I made this past winter. I call it Mermaid Friends. It is also for the "kids room." The pattern is often called the Friendship Star and can be found in many variations. There are also other Friendship Star designs but this is my favorite. If you look closely at the quilt you may see hearts that were appliqued on in a cluster near the middle of the quilt and then scattered over other places.

working with the camera

I'm not the greatest photographer...something I need to work on. My kids a couple of Christmases ago got us a digital camera because they were tired of seeing me run around with those disposable ones...actually most of the pictures I took with those cameras needed to be disposed of. ..I usually cut off heads or took pictures of my finger tips. Now with the digital camera those photo mistakes can go into digital never-never land.

I never really had much time to play with the camera until now. Here are a couple of photos of one of the quilts I made this winter. I call it Playhouses. It is for the "kids room" beds. If you could see the whole thing close up, you would find two of the houses have faces looking out the window. The game is to find them.

Energized

The spring weather is really energizing me- yesterday I was out weeding in my flower garden, checking out the sprouts that are coming up. Tulips, daffodils, and crocus are starting to peek through - some have buds on them. The rose bushes are beginning to get leaves and some of the other perennials are starting to show. Today it is supposed to be even nicer outside so I am trying to get my inside work done early.

Yesterday I went to my quilt guild meeting. Our speaker was very inspirational. Even though she does a lot of art quilts and I am more interested in traditional blocks, it was great to hear her thoughts.

I also committed to the guild UFO challenge - for you non-quilters, UFOs are unfinished projects that seem to hide on shelves and drawers. I committed to finishing a quilt that I started in 1980....yes, 1980. It was the first big quilt I started. It was done except for quilting around the edges and putting a binding on it. It was cut by templates (no rotary cutting back then), hand pieced, and hand quilted. Boy, can I see how much I have learned since that project.... My excuse was that we were in the process of building a new house and I was working with two little kids and going back to school for my master's so it got put aside. No excuses now!!

The other UFOs that I plan to finish are 2 projects made from "orphan blocks" (blocks left over from other projects or blocks made to try a pattern). I don't know how I will use them but I will figure out something.

Also I am going to make something from 2 vintage blocks - these are blocks that I rescued when we cleaned out the old family home - as best as I can tell they are blocks that were made by my grandmother or my aunt Gladys. My grandmother passed away in 1949 and my aunt passed away in 1975. I know my aunt hadn't worked on quiting for ages and by the look of the fabric I can guess the fabric is circa 1950 + or - ten years. I also have pieces of a crazy quilt kimono. I found an old diary of my aunt's that talks about making it in 1939. There are also bunches of embroidered squared - mostly flowers and children's designs that are crying to be used in something. I just have to decide how to best showcase these heirloom pieces.

We heard from our publisher - we are now at the stage in the book where we do galley proofs, etc. Tedious.

Well, must get busy...the day is not getting any longer!

New Wallhanging

Here is a picture of the wallhanging I finished this past week. The little dots you see are beads. The "water lines" were machine quilted with variegated blue thread.
Can you see the geometry in it? The parts of the appliqued fish were made with parts of circles. The border fabric is tessellating fish.