Introducing my latest project

I'm using the Gypsy Kisses pattern from "Material Obsession 2." Blocks should finish at 24 inches. I'm thinking I'll make nine.

My entry in Blogger's Quilt Festival

I'm sharing this quilt for Blogger's Quilt Festival because 1) it's finished except for the label, 2) I was able to get a picture of the whole thing between wind gusts yesterday and 3) I had lots of fun putting it together.

The pattern is Girlfriends Galore by Kathy Doughty from Material Obsession's first book.  I had bought a couple yards of Philip Jacob's print "Daffodils and Dogwood" around the same time I bought the Material Obsession book. I was planning on making a different pattern from the book, but these two insisted on meeting. The rest of the fabrics were pulled from my stash. I didn't have enough yardage of any one fabric so I used several fat quarters of similar colors to make up the yardage.

The different piecing sections made the quilt fun to work on. I get bored doing the same thing over and over. With this quilt there was the Lone Star center, a few set-in seams, then a triangle border, some four-patches and some half-square triangles.   

Maggi Honeyman of Texas did the machine quilting on this. I hope that you can see in the picture how great her quilting is. Each section is done differently to complement the piecing. Because I used a solid backing it looks like a whole cloth quilt. That makes it reversible and is why it doesn't have a label. I'm not sure what to do because it should be documented (I regret not putting labels on some of my earlier quilts), but I want to be able to use it with either side showing. Suggestions appreciated.

A clean house is a sign of a broken sewing machine

Just returned from a trip (more on that later) where I was able to shop at Greenbaum's Quilted Forest. OMG what a great shop! In 2007, American Patchwork and Quilting magazine named the store one of the 20 best quilt shops in the United States and Canada.

Above is my haul. I was very restrained. Probably because there was so much to look at that I was constantly distracted from one pretty piece of fabric by another pretty piece of fabric. Also because I don't really need anything.

I ended up buying a few bits that related to things going through my mind lately, such as Laura Gunn's Lantern Bloom, the new Gerta collection that I'd read about the night before, and three pieces with text on them, including a half yard of "Housework Whenever?" by Sharon Yenter for In The Beginning fabrics.

That's where I got the title for this post. The fabric has retro images of women with quotes, including:

• I got a sewing machine for my husband! Good trade, huh?


• If I sit here long enough maybe they will fix their own dinner!


• I sent my son to college so I could keep my fabric in his room ... expensive storage!

I also got a couple pieces of Aboriginal fabric to add to the ones in this block I made right before the trip.

The pattern is block No. 6 from the Sue Ross Block of the Month that I'm doing through Material Obsession. This is going to be a quilt as soon as I make more blocks and figure out how to set them.

Speaking of the BOM, here is block No. 7. All done. Piecing was not too hard, and the templates made it easy to cut accurately, which always helps. Appliqueing the piecing to the background is where I have trouble. This was one of my better efforts. Not too wobbly a circle at all.

It always starts with fabric

Found this Phillip Jacobs' print at the local quilt shop when I was looking for something to go with the Transformers fabric. No, I did not think the Rowan colors and prints would match Megatron, but you never know what you will find where so you must look at everything in the shop.

The Transformer star blocks are all done, and I've decided on a setting, but need another 2.5 yards of solid blue that is currently on-order at the shop, so I had no choice but to find a suitable pattern for the Daffodils and Dogwoods. I think this is it: The "Girlfriends Galore" pattern from Material Obsession's book.

I buy a lot of fat quarters so I don't have the yardage the pattern calls for, but a bunch of fat quarters in similar colors will substitute for each single fabric in the pattern, with the print above substituting for the the light green floral. I hope I have enough. Would hate to have to go back to the shop to buy more and be forced to look at everything again.

I spent the good part of a day cutting out the diamonds for the center star. It takes longer to cut when you go scrappy, but it's worth the effort. So much texture.

I got part of it pieced, and I'm really liking the way it is coming together although the photo isn't so great. I'll cut as I get to each section so I can change my mind about what fabrics to use along the way. Kathy Doughty did such a good job with the fabric placement in her pattern. When I studied the composition, trying to figure out what fabrics to use in mine, I was really impressed by what she did. I like this pattern so much more than when I started!

Sue Ross BOM

When I saw the Sue Ross BOM on Material Obsession's blog, I signed up right away. I know, I know. I can't keep up with my blog, how am I going to keep up with a block of the month. One block a month. One. Not 15 a month like that flag exchange. One.

When the email arrived saying it was coming I would have started right then, but no templates and no fabrics. And the instructions said hand piecing. Seriously? I've never done that in my life. Should I make a practice block or just go for it? One block a month. Remember? A practice block might be all I got done. Plus I had to cut out and draw seam allowances on 61 pieces per block. One block. Easy decision. Do it by machine or take a stab at hand piecing? What's life without learning? Besides how hard could it be? (Don't know yet as I haven't finished it, but it still looks like it could fit together.)

And, then I asked to join the Sue Ross BOM blog. Two blogs? That second blog will push me to blog AND finish the block each month. Playing psychological tricks on myself seems to be working. I've already posted twice today! And that other post has links to some great hand piecing tutorials I found online.