PROJECT TO GO BAG

I've been sewing projects to go bags from www.wpcreek.com lately. It's not an easy bag but after 4, I've figured it out! Held a guild workshop Saturday to teach it!

BARN QUILTS

Lori from BEE in my Bonnet is hosting a Barn Quilt along where every other week she will post a new barn quilt block pattern. Just wanted to share a pic of the side of the Village Quilts shop in Lancaster, PA. My sister and I visited there in 2012 on a geneology mission. Across the street from Village Quilts was an amazing quilt shop that was literally bursting with quilt fabrics. It was owned by two AMish sisters, the top floor serving mostly the general public and bottom floor offering fabrics and notions for Amish clothing. The prices were fantastic as well and there was no sales tax. I guess the Amish are exempt from sales tax on fabrics used for clothing and quilts, etc. I bought a few pieces of fabric but there was so much, I was a bit overwhelmed. Check out Lori's blog. SHe has amazing tutorials. Carol

February Already?

In spite of my best intentions of posting regularly on my blog, it hasn't happened. January found me sick for most of the month and there have been some personal and family issues to deal with. But, I have continued my sewing and quilting and lurking on other peoples blogs. I've joined a couple of block of the month programs and added them here. This year I'm president of my local guild and I've created a "president's challenge" where each month, a square or strip of fabric will be distributed among the members and they will be asked to create a block with it and bring it back. February's challenge was of course, the log cabin. I gave out a colorful 5" square of fabric and they are supposed to create a 12.5 inch log cabin block and bring it back. The blocks will then be put together to make charity quilts! Won't that be fun? I can't wait to see the finished blocks. All participants name will be put in a hat and whosever name is drawn will win a prize! Until March, maybe. Carol

UFO'S AND PPP's

I invented a new term, PPP, (previously purchased projects). I have plenty of those around. Last night, as we were watching the Florida State football game (yea NOLES) I brought out boxes of fabric to sort. I ended up with a bag of scraps to donate or pitch and 7 organized boxes. Why is it that quilters find it so difficult to part with little tiny pieces of scrap fabric? Do we actually think that someone else wants them? At any rate, my new stash consists of a large plastic storage bin literally full of green fabric, primarily hunter green from the 90's I would say. This stash came from another quilter who left it to our church and I wound up with it. Green must have been her favorite color. I also have another bin of reds and pinks and three smaller bins of Christmas fabrics. NOw one of my new ideas for a project will consist of making a jelly roll type of quilt using only green strips with an occasional red thrown in. That would be kind of pretty. I can visualize myself standing at my cutting counter and stripping away. OH, how fun! I was on Bee in my Bonnet this morning and she was talking about starting a new project and I thought, I have too many PPP's and UFO's already to start something completely new, like buying new fabric. I think I will see if I can go the whole month of January without buying any new fabric. We'll see. Carol

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013

This year I am going to make a real effort to resurrect this blog and I hope to be able to share! I have a goal this year to make 12 charity quilts for our local guild, Silver Threads Quilt Guild in Fort Walton Beach, Fl. I have a good start as I am a prolific sewer and I just sit down and push that fabric through the machine. I am also very creative in mixing and matching fabrics as I have been an interior decorator for 28 1/2 years! I love fabrics and making them work. 1. My first quilt is a for a little boy and was made entirely out of scraps left over from two quilts I made for my two three year old grandsons. Its amazing how much you can make with literally a pile of scraps!

I started with the center rectangle of part of a road and just kept sewing strips around it until it was the size I wanted. It wasn't hard to find backing in my stash either, plain red! 2. The second quilt is a take on the 9 patch. I had a stack of nine patch blocks from a swap and they really weren't very attractive so I took a square of contrast fabric the same size as the block and cut strips 2 inches out from the center square. Then sewed them back for the disappearing 9 patch, added sashing and borders and voila! Totally from my stash.

3. Quilt # 3 was a fun one made for a little girl! I don't get to do much pink as I have 3 grandsons and my granddaughter isn't in to pink. The pattern was a tutorial entitled Little Kukla Quilt tutorial and was fun to make. The four large birdhouse squares were a fat quarter and the rest of the strips were entirely from my stash except the outer border which I bought on sale last week. You can find the tutorial at

I did change it up a bit by adding the brown sashing all around the center strips and only one border additional. I hope you've enjoyed seeing these as much as I enjoyed making them!

I've been entirely frustrated with getting this blog up and running because my technical skills with computers are sorely lacking. However, I stumbled onto today and with her help, managed to post 2 gadgets! Who knew I could be so creative. I hope with these baby steps, I'll be able to post more and more information on my blog and even gain some followers! If you stumbled here by mistake, sign up and cheer me own. I want to be a viable blogger, someone who can participate in hops and quilt alongs! Thank you Quilting Gallery for the help!

Amish Quilt Shop, Lancaster, PA