FABRIC SHOPPING

My friend Cathey and I are going to make a bunch of quick baby quilts. So I went shopping. In my own stash, of all places. I found focus fabrics and then found coordinating fat quarters and yardage. The quilt pattern that we are going to make takes 12 fat quarters and makes 12 big blocks. We are going to use six blocks in a quilt so one bundle will actually yield two quilts. Cathey of course is way a head of me with three tops ready to quilt while I'm still picking out fabric. It's really fun to play in your own fabric playground -- you'd be amazed at the friends that you've forgotten. Stay tuned for photos soon!

Country Charms Quilt Show

This weekend my quilt guild had its annual quilt show. The quilts were wonderful and the show went off without a hitch. Here are some great pictures for your enjoyment:

Quilters Are Nice People

In the past few weeks, I've been going nuts trying to finish my taxes, revise my book, and work my day job. That really didn't leave much time for anything else. Now that the taxes have been mailed in and the revised material is in the hands of my trusty editor, I can get back to blogging.

In my 14 years of quilting, I've only met a few grumpy quilters. Most quilters are the nicest people -- who else would spend lots of money to buy perfectly good fabric in order to cut it up, sew it back together, and then sew three (or two if using a fleece backing) layers together, only to just give it away?

Below, are three quilts that I've made in the last couple months just to give away.


This is a simple cuddle quilt made up of 10" pink and green squares. I backed it with fleece and machine quilted it. The binding is a pink and green stripe on the bias. I made this quilt for my aunt when she found out she had breast cancer. I just gave it to her this past Sunday and she seemed to really like it! She said that it would come in handy when she went for chemo because she gets cold.



This is a baby quilt that I made for my cousin Karen's new baby, Loran Fay. Once she knew she was expecting, she sent me a message on Facebook and told me that she was going to need a pink quilt -- what an announcement! I included a close up so that you can see the all-over free motion quilting.



This is another baby quilt. I made it for a coworker whose baby has some serious health concerns and will need surgery immediately upon her birth. Check out the close up of the allover free motion quilting.

Both baby quilt design came from the Feb/Mar issue of McCall's Quick Quilts magazine.

MY BOOK!

Whew! A lot has happened in the last week or so concerning my book, ORPHAN BLOCK QUILTS. First, last week, I received the BLADS. BLADS are kind of a summary of the book which includes the cover, contents page, a project or two....that kind of stuff -- it's used for sales and advertising. WOW! It was so exciting to "see" my book for the first time. It was definitely a teaser, though, and left me panting for more.

Then, this week I received the book pages in the mail! Although everything is in black and white and some of the photos aren't in place yet, it really gives me a sense of what my book will look like. It's a truly surreal experience to read your own words. My editor has done a terrific job -- she's taken my ideas and words and smoothed them into a nicely-flowing book. As for the color photos of the quilts -- I can't believe that I actually made them -- they photographed very well.

There sure is a lot to learn about this publishing stuff.