Folklorique

Look at the beautiful new fabric that came in the mail! I am in love with this fabric. It's called Folklorique and is by Moda. I have plans for this fabric!!!! Isn't Moda wonderful?

Pumpkins Picked

The weather has finally been cooling off a bit more lately. I have to get myself used to the seasons in reverse... For example, my birthday is in April and I have always referred myself to being a spring birthday, but now suddenly my birthday is in the autumn! Easter no longer is associated with spring either which is hard to get my head around. Not to mention Christmas in the middle of summer! We are in harvest time now, (it feels like there should be a Thanksgiving celebration) which includes the pumpkins we grew down by the river in the photo. These are just a few of the pumpkins we picked that my sister-in-law is standing next to. The other picture is a shot of Teejay and Moxie all grown up! They will be a year old at the end of June. Time goes so quickly!

Toile du Jouy Quilt

I got the pattern for this quilt out of the magazine, "Quilter's Companion." I originally saw the quilt in the magazine hanging on the wall at the Kay Brown's quilt studio and was intrigued by it, so as soon as I saw it with the instructions published, I knew I had to make one like it. I just finished it today. The toiles I used are by P&B called, "A Season of Toiles" and are now very hard to find. I am really pleased with this quilt!

Some Progress

Hmmm... I got a few more civil war prints in the mail the other day, so I have been busy cutting them up and sewing them into my Jane Austen quilt. This picture shows pretty much how I will keep it without the border on it. The border is where the real work will begin as there will be many many small pieces in it. I think I will try to keep it close to the original work and cut the diamonds in a one-ninth ratio instead of a one-fourth. We'll see...

I also came up with a design on EQ6 of how I would like to finish my Nell's Flower Shop quilt, but it involves a lot more fabric for the border and will be a huge quilt. The design was fun to make though... Any ideas before I commit??? Please post.

Progress on Nell's Flower Shop

It feels like a while since I last posted anything, but not for lack of working on quilts! I've completed a few more blocks on my star quilt so you can now start to get an idea of what it will look like. I was playing around with my EQ6 and have designed a border to go with this quilt. Only problem is that I will have to get more fabric to finish it. So far this has been a very enjoyable quilt to work on, I think moda makes some of the nicest fabrics!

Nell's Flower Shop Star Quilt

Here are a couple of pictures of what I have been working on recently. I had a hard time finding a star pattern to use with my Nell's Flower Shop fabrics, so I gave up looking for one and drew what I wanted instead. I measured out exactly what I wanted and then penciled in a quarter inch seam allowance to get the actual measurements. This was the first time I tried this, so it was a good experience. I finished all the cutting last night and pieced my first block this morning, one down 34 to go. This one is going to be the center block of the quilt, all the other blocks will have a cream background with a black center. I am thinking that I might set these on a point and put sashing around the blocks, but I will see once I get the blocks finished before I decide for sure...

Jane Austen Style Quilt

Lately I have been working on putting my civil war fabrics together into a quilt in the style of Jane Austen. I love diamond shapes and when I saw templates to make this quilt at the show in Melbourne, I had to have them! This has been my first time using templates to cut fabric and I find it so much easier and faster. I am putting this project on hold now as I am waiting for some more civil war prints to come in the mail.

On the other hand, I recieved this fine bunch of fabrics in the mail last week. Anyone recognize these? They are Nell's Flower Shop by Moda, which I couldn't resist going for a low price on ebay. I plan to make these in some sort of star design quilt. I still haven't determined the exact design yet...

Flying Geese with Border

So, this is how I finished my Japanese Flying Geese quilt. I was quite unsure as to what to do about the border since if I used a dark blue as the border it would run into the quilt on one side and the same thing would happen if I chose the turquoise blue color. So, I decided I needed something all together different and went for the bit of peach color that is in some of the fabrics. It's one of those choices that the more you look at it the more you like it, but at first you are unsure about. I think once I get the binding on it, which will be dark blue, it will frame it in and hopefully give it the right finish.

As you can see in the second picture, our pumpkin patch is progressing! I only hope that these cooler nights don't bring on a frost and kill the whole lot before they mature! Hmmm... Never do know, we live in a frosty area...

Pickling

Yesterday my mother-in-law Myra and I were busy in the kitchen pickling the cucumbers that are coming in full force in the garden at the moment. I thought it would be fun to try to get a lot of cucumbers going this summer and they took over like crazy. In a space of 3 days we've picked over 40! Anyway, now that she's showed me how to do dill as well as bread and butter pickles, I can do some more this weekend.

A special hello to Lynn, Amy and is that Laura I see visiting as well? Hope you gals are doing great!!!

Little Bricks Quilt Finished

Little Bricks quilt is now ready for when I get my longarm. Dh says, "it's not one of his favorite's," but I don't mind it. I quite like the border on it and with the anchor fabric it reminds me of a quilt that belongs by a lake in a cottage or something like that... Hmmm... I would love to quilt it with sailboats over the entire quilt in an edge to edge pattern. I hope it will wash ok considering it's not all cotton. One must try things to Really learn.