What are you doing this Sunday?

Why not join me at Bear's Paw in Towson? I'll be teaching the Modern Improv Workshop!

First Little (Modern) Amish Quilt Finish

I finished #1 (19 to go!)

It came together really fast, especially since I had all of the center squares cut and mainly pieced (remnants of a long abandoned project.)

These minis will be the perfect place to practice some free motion quilting. I fmq'd some feathers in the borders - not too bad for a first try!

I'm already planning July's quilt. But it will have to wait for a bit. A few things to finish up first.

Quilt Books

I love them! I love reading them, I love writing them (huh, what? writing them? Hee hee, more on that on another post!) I especially love older books. I hesitate to call them vintage, because the ones I've been picking up lately are only 20 years old. (What qualifies as vintage anyway? Okay, quick Google search tells me 30 years to be vintage, at least in the Etsy world.) Anyway, so much great inspiration. My latest find was this treasure, found recently at a local quilt guild's show.

Twenty Little Amish Quilts by none other than Gwen Martson!

After flipping through the book, I got to thinking how I might make one or two. Then I thought about making all of them. Say, oner per month. And then I got to thinking that maybe others might want to make some too. Do you?  If so, let me know. If you don't have a copy, the book can still be purchased from Amazon.

Here's the first one I'm making:

So, will you join me?

A funny thing happened when we were moving to New York...

We realized we didn't want to. No offense to Syracuse, but it wasn't what we wanted. Our kids are here. Our family is here. And we wanted to be here. And so now we are. And since making that decision, lots of great stuff has fallen into place. Opportunities we didn't know were possible are not only possible, but happening, right now.  I don't use the word blessed very often. But that's just what we are right now. Blessed.

With my babies on Mother's Day

I have about twenty minutes of free time this week...

So you know what that means ~ let's start a new quilt!!

I think that's one of the most fun things about being a quilter: dreaming and scheming up new projects.

Here are some fabrics I'm thinking of working with:

Okay, seeing the last one, maybe not so much. I like the prints, just not on the "punch" background. Maybe a nice bone. The black and whites? Love them. Love the pond background especially, but I've been doing a lot of pond" backgrounds lately. So maybe I should change it up a bit and use the top black and white and punch? What do you think?

Playing with Curves

And my Quick Curve Ruler.  The more I play with it, the more I see the potential. It's just so fun!

This is from Jenny's free poinsettia tutorial. I was going to stop at just one flower, but now I think I need a few more.

Oh, and if you love this ruler, I'm teaching a class with it at MAQ this summer. Check out the Classes link above to see more details. I'd love for you to join me!

Star Fruit Pattern Testing

Here's something new for me ~ I volunteered to be a pattern tester. Diane of From Blank Pages put a call out on instagram  (@fromblankpages) for pattern testers. I thought, sure, why not? And then Diane sent me the pattern. What I didn't realize was that it was a foundation pieced pattern, which is definitely not my forte. Uh oh. But after reading through Diane's pattern and thorough tutorial I had no problem. The pattern went together really easily (well, okay, I had to rip out a few seams, but total user error) and the results are great! Here's my test block.

The pattern comes in 3 sizes: 6", 12" and 18". I did the 12" version. I could totally see an 18" block as an awesome pillow. Check out her blog to see her turn a block into a mini quilt,  plus see some other versions from her testers.

The pattern is available to purchase in Diane's Etsy shop or on  Craftsy. Better yet would you like to win a copy? Just leave me a comment by the end of the day Saturday, May 3rd and I'll pick a winner on Sunday. Let me know how you feel about foundation piecing. Any great tips?

Happy Quilting!