Coming attractions

Thank you so much for all the well wishes.  I am feeling better -- if not 100% -- and well enough to sew, which is always a good thing!  I am far from any finishes but keep plugging along on three quilts.  I finally have enough blocks today to spread them out randomly for sneak peeks into the quilt tops they will (hopefully) soon become.

Three very different quilts.  To me the hexagon quilt has lots of sass and energy, while the cross quilts are subtle and calm.  Who knows how they will evolve as I still have so many more blocks to add.

Be sure to stop by on Monday as I will be participating in Sew, Mama, Sew's May Giveaway Day!

A few days after that:

And in June I hope to have another giveaway to celebrate a pretty big month for me -- my birthday, my 25th wedding anniversary, and my one year blogiversary/one year Flickr anniversary.  I'm hoping to come up with something fabulous!

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan

Mini show and tell

I thought I would finish a quilt back or two today for the Spring to Finish challenge, but that never happened.  After spending a lot of time looking for good deals on fabric online without ever actually pressing that "buy" button and then grocery shopping, I didn't find any time for sewing until late in the afternoon.

I finished this Hope Valley 36 patch for a bee,

and these gnome homes for another bee,

and I finished a few more cross blocks.  Believe it or not, I'm actually running out of fabrics for each cross quilt and need to get more.  I still just can't make myself hit that "buy" button.

You should probably know that my beautiful daughter looked at me with her big eyes and flashed her movie star smile, and she will now be the happy recipient of the Nicey Jane + Essex cotton linen cross quilt.  It was only a matter of time really.

Actually, I did buy one thing online today -- the first issue of Fat Quaterly.

Seventy-eight pages of information, inspiration, patterns, articles, and giveaways! 

On Wednesday you saw that I am joining the Pillow Talk 3 Swap, and I am very excited about it.  I love the pillows that have come out of that swap in previous rounds.  Maybe I should make a practice pillow.  The only pillows I've ever made were the ones to match Molly's half hexagon quilt from last summer.

 I recently completed my first swap in a Flickr swap group.  This is what I received from Melanie (Crandons):

The swap was for the 1/2 yard of the Amy Butler fabric and the 1/2 yard of the FMF vines, but Melanie tossed in all these precious scraps!  Opening the package felt like Christmas morning, and I am convinced that no one could love or appreciate these scraps more than I!  And -- another believe it or not moment -- my first FMF ever!  It's about time!

And last, but not least, I prepped just a few more hexagon blocks for the ORBC quiltalong.

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan

Friday Night Sew-In - April

Heather and I are making cross quilts "together," and Amy and Carla have joined in the fun.  Heather and I have been using this pattern by Kelly McCabe, but both Amy and Carla have come up with their own fast and fun methods and posted tutorials.  Carla's liberated cross block tutorial is here, Amy's method designed to make the most efficient use of her precious Hope Valley fat quarters is here.

Friday Night Sew-In seemed like an ideal opportunity to make up a few cross blocks, and I started with two more Amy Butler fabrics.  I love how these turned out!

They are starting to add up, and I'm very happy with them so far, except these two blocks:

See how the background color on the Sun Spots is just a little to yellow for the Kona Snow?  Although this Wall Flower fabric has a little of a similar color, so maybe in the end everything will work out.  Time will tell.

Next, I finally turned my attention to the Nicey Jane + Essex cotton-linen blocks.  I love working with the Essex!  Once pressed, the fabric really holds it's shape, but I had to be careful to press and not iron as it was surprisingly stretchy and just the movement of the iron on my 10-1/2 inch squares could distort the edges.

Final total for the night: 10 blocks.  I was working slowly, and while Amy and I agreed that I should not be a distraction to myself, I absolutely was -- puttering around and re-arranging things.  Buy, hey, I found my Kona Color Card!

Final total for all cross blocks: 34 (26 Amy Butler and 8 Heather Bailey).  To put this in perspective, I think I would need 58 for a throw.

And yes, it does strike even me as odd that I am making two cross quilts and each is blue and green.  And it does occur to me that they just might work together if I combined them.  I should try to find time to outsmart the cats so I can lay them all out together and see how they like each other.  Or not.  A person can never have too many blue and green quilts -- at least in my book.  As always, I'm just making it up as I go.

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan

Spreading the love

In a recent post I shared a few things about making a quilt for my daughter and taking her fabric shopping with me when she was much younger.  That was the start of her first fabric stash.  Just a few fat quarters lovingly chosen while I shopped for more serious yardage.  A bloggy friend, Chris (Izzy Inspired), who is a member of the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild wrote some lovely comments, including this:

Lastly, but mostly....I just LOVED the story behind your closet quilt!!! I let my little Izzy pick out a fat quarter every time we go to the fabric store also....and it touched my heart to hear how that small little detail became such a momentous emotional connection now that your daughter is grown. It is absolutely a quilt to treasure.

We continued the conversation by email and I mentioned an idea that Amber Lee (Life In Color) had shared at the first meeting of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild -- making a design wall for a child.  Here is Amber Lee's daughter in action (go check out the post here).

 Well, Chris took the idea and ran with it.  Now little Izzy can sew (needle removed), 

press (with a pink iron, don't you know),

and express her creative genius to her heart's content.

You really must visit Chris' blog for more pictures and to see what else she made to keep this little quilter organized.  Warning: high cuteness factor!  It touched me so much that it brought tears to my eyes.  So many I could hardly read her post!  To think that an idea casually mentioned by Amber Lee could be passed on by me and bring such happiness to Chris and little Izzy is so meaningful to me.  Memories are being made that neither of them will ever forget.  Contented sigh.  

I have to admit -- I'm a little envious of the actual design walls (instead of an old flannel sheet), the turquoise sewing machine, and that pink iron!  And do these little ones have great taste in fabric, or what?!?!

Do you have a mother-daughter/mother-son/grandmother-grandchild/etc. quilting story?  I'd love to hear it!

The other love that seems to be spreading is for cross quilts.  Here are my latest blocks as of last night:

Heather (a la mode fabric) started hers and you can see pictures of her fabulous blocks here.  And these ladies who blog all expressed an interest in joining in the fun:

Amy (Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts)

Jennifer (That Girl... That Quilt...)

Carla (Lollyquiltz)

And one of them is having a giveaway right now....

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan