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I've just passed the half way point with my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks.

This section was template piecing. I have to confess that I only used templates for 3 of the 15 blocks.

The rest I did using paper piecing. I printed out the patterns from Electric Quilt 6. I've had it for over a year and this was the first time I've used it.

Just being able to print out the patterns made the purchase worth it.

Is it down hill from here?

My Quilt Sister

As a kid, you and a friend might cut your fingers and put the cuts together and you became blood brothers or sisters?

Well, I've decided Cheri is my quilt sister now. Giving up a quilt is more painful than a little cut. We have both given each other quilts, so that makes us quilt siblings.

This is the quilt she gave me. Pinwheels and Posies. Isn't it a stunner!?

She was very tricky. She had me help her pick out the fabrics. Then when she finished piecing the quilt she had me help pick out the two border fabrics too. I kept asking her who was getting the quilt and I don't know if I ever got a straight answer.

Just this week, she called to see if she could come over and take pictures of her quilts. I didn't know it was mine until she had me check out the quilt label on it.

I guess it pays to be friends with quilters. Thanks Cheri!

Glad's Top Model

Glad's has a new model. Charlie.

If you've been in Glad's, you've probably seen this picture of Charlie modeling my Maggie bag. Look at his form and grace.

The bag makes a good doggie bag holder. Load it up with bags before a walk and you will never be caught unprepared.

Also if you are lucky you might find Charlie visiting the shop on his afternoon walk.

What a cutie!

Bride's-Sampler Revisited

If you are doing Sylvia's Club at Glad's, you know we are working on session 4 blocks. Once this session's blocks are done, we will be just past the half way mark.

That makes now a good time to look back and reflect. I was at a quilting get-together at Dee's house. I brought along my blocks, so we put them all out on her design wall.

Amy brought along her camera and snapped a pic for me. I'm still working on my session 4 blocks, but all the blocks through session 3 are in the picture.

If you haven't laid out all your blocks, you should. Looking at this picture every now and then is a good reminder of how great the quilt will look when it is done. Great motivation to keep going.

I'm so excited to see how this quilt is going to look when it is all done!

Sombrero Del Gato

So I wish the success of each project could be judged by Daisy. She seems to like my failed attemp at a Bali Bowl from Aunties Two.

The bowl is supposed to have upright sides. Mine ended up with more of a gentle slope. On the plus side two cats can lay on it at once.

Now I do have to say that Daisy looks great on it. Steve did a good job at picking out the Bali Pop to go with her and Pippin.

So any one have any ideas why I got a sombrero instead of a bowl? I'm wondering if it could be that my tension was off. Or that I didn't have the right touch when shaping my bowl.

Either way, the cats will have to share the one bowl, because I'm not making another one.

P!nk

So a year ago, I became very enamored with three quilt kits at Glad's. They were for Mystery By Mail #43, which has now magically turned into Tapestry.

I cut up two of the kits right away. I started with this one and finally got back to it. I think it is cute. Very appropriate for the spring.

It is definitely for a lover of pink. My favorite part of the quilt is the very cool border.

The quilt has blue, green and pink. All the colors of a raspberry patch, so the name for this one is Raspberry Patchwork.

Fancy That!

Contrary to what you might think, I am not dead, but my blog is on life support.

So the pics are the finished product from Mystery Weekend 45.

The quilt is called Fancy That. The block is Fancy Contrary Wife. Isn't it a great block name?

I started out with 636 pieces after finishing cutting. The finished quilt has 30 blocks and 2387 pieces in the finished quilt.

I'm trying to think of a name. I'm think something like Fancy Frenchy. What do you think?

Vacation from Farmville

I took a little trip a while back to Lanesboro, MN for a quilt retreat with Cheri, Amy and Judy. Judy has a great posting about the retreat on her blog.

I had this quilt cut out for quite a while, so it was on my UFO list. The pattern is called Weather Vane.

I made the half square triangle squares before I left. That way I didn't need to rip off the triangle paper or trim dog ears before I could start sewing.

By the end of the retreat, I was able to get all my blocks made and pieced the strips for the border blocks. It took me about a week to finish the quilt, partially because I was a little burned out.

I think it turned out great. I'm going to put it in the non-judged portion of the Minnesota Quilters Show in June. I need a name for it.

Any ideas?

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag

What's your bag? Mine is Maggie and Maggie Jr.

I think they turned out very cute. I think Junior would make a great gift card holder.

I got fat quarters to make them with. Out of two coordinating fabrics you could cut out 4 Maggies and probably twice the Juniors.

When Cheri was over, she had a great suggestion for making the template. She suggested tracing it onto freezer paper. That worked great because I just ironed it onto the fabric and cut around it.

I made my loops out of the fabric using one of the left over fabrics, a 1/2" bias tap maker and fray check. I like the result.

I'd also recommend fusible velcro for the closures. The bag is small enough that it would be hard to sew on the non-fusible velcro.

Look for them at Glads at the next Scraptamers!

Sunday Leftovers

I promised to post my progress with cutting out my Mystery Quilt #45 fabric, so we are time travelling back to Sunday.

I finished with the cutting as Cheri and Amy were arriving for our shindig. As per usual, here is the summary of the cutting. We have 466 pieces for the dark fabrics and 170 pieces from the background fabric.

Some of the pieces are big, so I'm guessing there will be me more crosscutting after we start sewing. I can't wait for my session, March 11th and 12.

You will notice my fabric all fits in an Artbin, which I highly recommend. I'll stop there, because my friend Judy has a great posting on Artbins.

As per Cheri's request, here are pictures from our amazing dinner.
We started with Pomegranate Margaritas, which were gone before I took any pictures.

The first picture is of an Amy Miller original salad. She thought of yummy stuff that would taste good with chocolate. She put it all on butter lettuce and shaved chocolate over the top. Yum!

Here is the rice I made. One was Arroz Verde and the other was just rice with onion and peas in it. Now the real treat was Cheri's chicken mole. She worked her magic with a mole mix and made it spectacular.

I think we are going to do more themed potlucks now. I heard talk of cuban for the next one. Can't wait!

Lazy Guy

I decided I'd like to spend the day with some of my quilting buddies and they are Steve's buddies too. We decided to do a chocolate potluck. Steve and I are making rice and bought a raspberry and chocolate mousse torte.

Cheri made chicken mole and Amy is making a salad with bittersweet chocolate. I think I got off easy.

Cheri got me a special treat. She, Nancy and Susan picked out fabric from the new Oz line to make a couple of Maggie bags.

I love Lazy Girl patterns. Joan Hawley does such a nice job of illustrating and explaining the steps in the patterns.

I also love her blog. It is fun to see the patterns made up in different fabrics. She is also on facebook, where she posts pictures of other people's lazy creations. Now that you have the links there is no reason why you can't be a "Lazy" too.

Provence Fantastic!

It is Mystery Weekend time again. What I love is how the supply list you get from Glads gives you great hints on how to pick your fabric.

This time I need 20 dark fabrics and 1 background fabric. The dark fabrics are supposed to have some variation of value or color. The background needs to contrast with the dark fabrics. There are additional instructions to avoid stripes or a strong directional fabric for the background.

I'm very excited about a collection of provence fabric I have in my stash. I got them on my trip to Missoula with Cheri last year. I got the reds, blues and all but one of the yellows at The Quilt Haus in Bismark. They were 50% off! There was a whole room of discount fabric.

Once I had the reds, yellows and blues. I thought it was missing green and a yellow. One of the next stops was ReproductionFabrics.com in Bozeman. They have a great website, but a visit to the shop is worth the road trip. The fabrics are grouped by the year the fabric pattern comes from. I found the greens and my background here. I also bought a yellow but ended up trading Cheri for a 5/8 yard cut off a yellow she found in the discount fabrics. It pays to shop discount and have generous friends.

It is so nice to pull fabric out of your stash and put them to use. Now all I need to do is cut up the quilt. I'll post my progress with that soon.

Not-So-Ugly and Not-So-Challenging

You know it has been a while since your last posting when your blog address disappears off your own recent web history. Sorry all!

I'll try to post at least every couple of days. Hopefully show more progress photos.

Last posting I talked about the ugly fabric challenge. The quilt actually turned out really nice. I love the mix of old timey victorianish fabrics with the leopard and bamboo leaf prints. A kind of classic modern quilt.

This quilt will be tied at my extended family reunion this summer. It will either be donated directly or auctioned off and the money given to charity. Pippin we will keep.

It feels good to give back and use my love of quilting to benefit others.

Ugly Fabric Challenge

Cheri and I work at Glads Monday nights when there is a class. If we get bored, we like to entertain ourselves by playing the ugly fabric challenge.

One of us picks a fabric, then we have to pick other fabrics to go with it.

I should make it clear that the fabrics aren't usually ugly. Mostly we pick the fabric because it is unique.

Sometimes we are a little too good at the game and the fabric comes home with one of us. The fabric on the far left was a challenge fabric for Cheri, and the rest are fabrics she picked to go with it.

I'm making Nifty Nine Patches, except I'm using the challenge fabric as a solid border. The light fabric will be the sashing. The rest will be used to make the blocks. I'm excited to see how it turns out.

Next time the fabric goes home with Cheri.

My Simulated Life

As you might have noticed, I've been missing from my blog.

I haven't just been missing from my blog. I've been missing from my life.

I have taken on some simulated lives. Lately I've been playing Farmville on Facebook. I'm now a level 18 farmer.

I have to check on my crops and and animals a couple of times a day. Any one need a new neighbor? Like any good neighbor, I fertilize their crops.

I'm also addicted to Fable II. In the game, you go on quests and you get to chose to be good or bad. Just so everyone knows, my purity points are very high.

I promise to start sewing again and post more regularly. I will try for more balance in my real life.

Don't Bother Me!

Shoo fly, don't bother me! Every one knows the saying, but I experienced it first hand.

I went into Mystery Weekend wanting to use up my 30's reproduction fabric. And we all know that using up fabric you already have isn't nearly as exciting as buying new fabric.

So once I started sewing, I had a hard time being excited about the quilt. Steve liked everything I was doing. When I finished the quilt, he thought it was cute and old timey.

I still wasn't that excited about it. I took it to the quilt shop, and everyone thought it was great, but I still wasn't that excited.

It did get me thinking though. Sometimes it is hard to see the beauty in your own work. You come to it with all your expectations and the quilts don't always fit those expectations.

I've had a week separation from the quilt now, which helps to bring a new perspective to the quilt. Looking at the picture now, it looks like a quilt my grandmother would have made for me.

I am starting to see the charm of the quilt now.

Star of the New Year

I've made a start on my Amazon Star. I have the units made for the center of the quilt. I love the blazing hot orange in the points.

I'm a little worried that this is the easiest part of the entire project. Even if it is I'm so excited about how it looks, I think I'll make it all the way through.

When I was cutting out the project, the instructions had me put the cut pieces into 10 bags. The center was the first bag. I need to make it through the other 9 bags before January 2011.

That makes the Amazon star my star of 2010. Happy New Year!