Earth Day!

That is the title of my new Modern Mini for April.

My "vision" was to create a quilt that represented spring crocuses and Daffodils.  I added the rocks because I live with a lot of rocks here in CT.

Here is my approach

Step 1:  dump out all my little scraps.

Step 2:  pick out colors that I like

Step 3 and 4:  Make "blocks" and set them in strip fashion

It is messy, but I really enjoy the whole process.  I'll be adding this to my fall Workshop Offerings.  It is such a great design exercise and I feel Everyone can do it!

A pretty Kaffe fabric for the back.

 Here I am proudly holding it upside down, lol   Which begs the question, is there a right side up?

 The quilting is undulating lines with white Invisafil #100 weight.

Wee!  I have finished the center and the star border of my Medallion Quilt.

I have a goal to finish this for a fall quilt show.

I hope everyone had a nice Easter.   We had a quiet day and enjoyed Easter Pasta.  I was able to get a little centerpiece together.

This year I watched The Ten Commandments.  It had been many years and is such a Classic.  It also offered 3:40 hours of quilting time :)

Gorgeous Sunset - looks like dyed Easter Eggs.

Thank you all so very much for your kind comments on my post about Gwen.  I've been thinking of her everyday and I'm so grateful for all she has left us.
xo

Spring? Where?

Blog News Bulletin!  I have somehow lost my google friends followers :(   I've tried to get them back, but blogger is having an issue.  also, if you follow me on Bloglovin, you may have to "re-follow" as I had 2 domain URLs and there were followers on both.  I now have 1 domain URL and lost the other followers. - sorry for the inconvenience, hopefully you'll still find me.

This week I needed a little thank you gift, so I decided to make a composition notebook cover.

Here is the front.   I just love this fish.  It is the only thing I planned, the rest is random.

And here is where you write all your brilliant thoughts and ideas.

The inside, where the notebook covers slip into the quilted cover.

The back.

I use the direction on this blog.  I reduce the overall width to 26" to 26 1/2" inches depending on the notebook.  You can measure yours first for a good fit.

Here are some of the steps:

Layout a rectangle of strips, blocks, strings or whatever piecing you like.  Or you can use a beautiful whole piece of fabric like I did for Christmas 2010.  See those covers HERE.

Piece or choose a lining fabric.  It doesn't have to be fancy or pretty, but I happen to like fancy and pretty for most things.  cut a piece of batting roughly the same as the back.

Machine quilt the three layers like a little quilt.  I use 2 quilt halo when I free motion quilt.  You can check them out here.

The rest you can find on the link above.  Although it takes a little time it is easy.

Can I just say, no wonder I make mistakes at the machine!  Look at all these distractions!  Watching the Good Wife, while checking the on-line instructions and sewing.......

I decorated the window sill above my kitchen sink again.  I used to have 2 mantels to decorate, so I'm using this space in the same way.  It is super hard to photo graph anything near a window.

Do you see spring outside this window?  I don't!  A few bunnies on the front hall table with my carrot tree.

Despite the snow and ice on Wednesday, the Pansies out front look great :)

I wish you all a Blessed Easter, Joyous Passover or just a Happy Spring Weekend.

All About Diane

A couple of days ago my good friend, Diane, featured some of the doll quilts I've made for her over the years on her blog; Persnickety.

Today, it's Diane's turn here. This one I received this year and did a post about here. I decided to machine quilt it with red thread and bind it with mottled black single binding.

Here is one I received for my birthday last year. They are like little sister quilts with similar coloring. The backings are cute too.

These are such cheerful and fun little quilts - I just treasure them - thanks, Diane! (and anyone else who helped with them ;)

This is a birthday post card that I received - isn't it adorable?
Love the cake lady!

This is one of my favorite little quilts. It features sweet little picture shirtings. I hand quilted this one and it hangs permanently in the sewing room.


This is a sweet little pincushion (but I use it as a little pillow on a wicker doll chair) that Diane made me several years ago - So lovely.


I love the honey pot backing fabric -


Note to Diane - I know there are a few more pieces that you have made me, but darned if I could lay my hands on them at the moment. They may be packed up with holiday appropriate decorations -
You can see the most recent Christmas doll quilt from Diane in a post here.

Coco update a before and after:

7 weeks.
now - 12 weeks


And finally, Happy Easter, or Passover, or any other Spring reason to celebrate!