I Always Seem to Have So Much Fun

 

The other day I received a cute e-mail from someone thanking me for my blog  -  she enjoys it immensely and said it looks like I always do so many fun things, always have so much fun. Me?? You're kidding, right? My life is beyond boring I'm afraid and an exciting day for me lately is taking a walk with the dog and finding a penny, LOL. 

 

 

"Look, Mom, ANOTHER penny!"

 

Last week, however, I did make my own granola, from scratch. That was exciting and fun too. This week we have to buy a new dishwasher. That will certainly be a lot of fun. Last week I also burned the top part of my foot while refilling the steam vaporizer (ouch!). It blistered and hurt so much I couldn't wear a shoe for days, had to stay home, keep the foot clean and change the bandage often. But I read a few books and got caught up on some of my TV shows.  So maybe she's right -  depending upon how you look at it, I guess I DO always have a lot of fun.

 

Before the foot thing happened though, I took a quick trip to an antiques mall, just to look around, for fun.

 

 

Is this the coolest backing fabric? I didn't love the front of the quilt for some reason. Maybe it was the price tag.

 

 

I don't often see antique quilts that I love and just have to have.

 

 

 

 

(This reminded me of my little Feedsack Flower Garden quilt from American Doll Quilts.)

 

 

 

 

 

I walked past this one several times. It kept tugging at me and pulling me in for some reason. Can you see why? Maybe it was the cheerful prints on a gloomy day. So I gave in and bought it the 4th time around. It was surprisingly inexpensive and when I brought it up to the counter, they were giving something like 20 % off if you paid cash that day. Lucky me, I just happened to have some birthday money in my pocket. 

 

 

Isn't it adorable? The flowers almost seem to be dancing. Two of the petals were slightly frayed but still happy, not pathetic, and I love that in a quilt. I liked it better than the dark antique quilts I couldn't afford. And I love it even more now that it's home. Makes me want to dance when I look at it . . . .

 

(OMG, please forgive the corniness. Sometimes I cannot resist bringing out the silly dancing daisies, LOL.) 

 

Anyway, antiques malls are such fun. Sometimes you go 'round a corner and you never know what you'll find. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 - Till the NEXT time I have some fun to share with you . . . . 

 

New Book, Small Quilts

There's a new book coming out which will excite many of you. Hold on now, I know what you're thinking, don't get TOO excited. I didn't write it. It does have my quilts in it, however. The book is  called 101 Fabulous Small Quilts, published  by Martingale & Co. and will be out in February.

                                     

 

Even though it's not a book of new patterns, it will contain many of the patterns from my books. So some of the projects will be new to you if you do not have all of my books. Wow, 25 quilt patterns from my books will be included, how about that? Many of you already have most or all of my books and I know, I know, it's not as good as a NEW one from me but still . . . . it's nice for those of you who do not have any of the books. Now you can get many of my patterns in one volume. So it's a very good deal.

 

101 Fabulous Small Quilts contains wonderful patterns designed by many of our favorite quilt designers - Kim Diehl, Country Threads, Lori Smith, Little Quilts, etc. I cannot wait to get my hands on this myself. I see that you can view photos of some of the quilts and also pre-order from Amazon . Your local quilt shop will also probably be able to pre-order the book for you so ask for it there too.

 

As far as I know, however (I have not actually seen a copy yet), this new book will not contain any of the text, history or commentary from any of the individual books, just the patterns, and not all of them anyway. If you own my "real" books you will still be ahead of the game. For those of you who don't actually read all of that extra stuff, this one will suit you just fine. To the rest of you, this is NOT an excuse to stop buying my books, okay? Maybe there will even be another one someday.

 

So, it certainly looks like you will have even more quilts to choose from for next year's small quilt projects. One quilt per month again, perhaps. Let's see - 101 quilts, 12 months in a year -  that should keep you busy for about . . .  oh, 8 1/2 years,  LOL.

 

Meet Sue

I am trying out a new feature on the blog and thought it would be fun if I "showcased" a few of the quilters who have worked hard all year sewing the quilts from our year-long challenge to make one quilt a month. (Just in case there are some of you who thought it couldn't be done, LOL.)

 

 

Meet Sue Bennett.  Sue is in my Yahoo Small Quilt group and has made all of the quilts from the challenge so far. She sent me photos and I knew you would really get a kick out of seeing her versions of some of the quilts from my books. I love them all and can't seem to pick a favorite . . . . Which one do YOU like best?

 

 

January's quilt

 

 

February's quilt.

 

Sue lives in Wytheville, Virginia, with her husband Charlie and miniature schnauzer Zoey B and has been quilting for over 30 years.

 

 

Quilt for March

 

 

 

April

 

May

 

Sue claims she has no special talents, but I beg to disagree! Aren't these great? She loves reproduction fabrics and certainly has a talent for putting her fabrics together so nicely.

 

 

June

 

Sue has 2 sons and one grandson, Emory, and another grandchild on the way, due in April.

 

 

July

 

She tells me she's always made large quilts (including those for Quilts of Valor and quilts for cancer patients) and has only been making small quilts for about a year and a half. They total 34. Wow, that's a lot more than one quilt a month, Sue.

 

 

August

 

 

September

 

 

October

 

 

November
 

Isn't this fabulous? Sue, you did it so far - Congratulations! I have no doubt you will finish next month's quilt too. We're all very proud of you and loved seeing your quilts. I hope you had fun with the challenges this year and continue to make these small treasures for yourself and to give away to your sisters and friends. Sue's perseverance and determination to make one quilt every month is truly inspiring. I hope some of you have become inspired by seeing her collection too. I'm so glad I encouraged this challenge with the idea of a specific quilt every month and nagged all of you to death, LOL.

 

 

 

Take a look at the archives on this blog beginning in January or the individual challenge files in my Yahoo group if you're interested in doing your own small quilt challenge. There's still time to get them all done before 2013 begins. (No, there's really not. But who am I to discourage you? )

November Small Quilt Fun

If you are following along and making one smalll quilt a month with us, the quilt for November is the little Amish quilt from my first book, American Doll Quilts. Many of you have this book and perhaps have already made this quilt.

 

It's a very simple quilt to make and it will not take you long at all. If you do not like my color or fabric choices, choose other fabrics. I think it will look cute in any color scheme. And it’s a perfect quilt for using up all those small scraps you have lying around.

The blocks are made from 1 1/2" squares, pieced together with 4 1/2" setting squares. I used 2 1/2 " border strips pieced together with a four-patch block (made from 1 1/2" squares). How simple. Of course, the directions in the book are more detailed but you get the idea.

American Doll Quilts went out of print a couple of years ago but it is still available if you look hard enough. I have a limited number of  signed copies of the original book that I am selling in my Etsy shop .

In addition to the original, there are 2 other versions available now. You can buy the digital "e-book" and print it out yourself on your computer as a .pdf file (no need to buy a Kindle or Nook to be able to read it, honest). My publisher has the e-book  for sale here.  Amazon has copies of the book (printed on-demand) available here. 

You can check eBay too. There are almost always a few copies floating around there. Again, if you do not like the plain solid colors I used to make the original quilt, I think it would be a great choice to make it in your own colors, using a variety  of scrap squares to make your blocks. Here's an example designed with reproduction scraps.

My scrap basket is overflowing right now and I always have an abundance of 1 1/2" squares or strips so I am going to make this one in the scrap version too.

 

Just one of many baskets I use to hold my scraps, which  need to be organized AGAIN, can you believe it?

 

Play around with your scraps and have fun with this one!

 

                        

Happy Halloween, Still Making Hexagons??

Time is up. It's almost November and I hope some of you are still finishing up the hexagon quilt from The Civil War Sewing Circle for our small quilt of the month challenge for October. I'd love to see some photos.

 

In a day or two I will suggest another quilt for November from a pattern in one of my books.

 -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -   -  -  - 

 

Happy Halloween!

This year I did not make the mistake of buying Halloween candy too early. Yesterday, I asked my husband to stop and get a few bags on the way home from work and to please not pick up anything I really really liked so I would not have to be tempted too much. Wouldn't want to eat a whole bag before the kids even rang the doorbell today (like that's never happened before, hah! One year we bought candy early and went through it so fast I had to run out right before Trick-or-Treating started. Kids were waiting at the front door as I returned from the store waving my new bags of candy at them, LOL.).

 

Guess what? I hardly ever go for these particular candies but I discovered that Starbursts and 3 Musketeers are actually not too bad in a pinch when there is nothing else, LOL. I guess he forgot I love Snickers . . . . Don't worry, there's still a few left for the kids.

 

 

 

 

 

My little Pumpkin is all ready (she doesn't look too happy though. I'll have to remind her about the candy part.)

-  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -

 

On a somber note - My thoughts and prayers go out to those who are suffering from the recent storm on the east coast. The devastation is unimaginable to me and watching the reports on television makes it difficult to grasp the magnitude of the damage. Say a prayer and, if you have a desire to help, I encourage you to go to the American Red Cross to make a donation. Even a little bit can help so many of those in need right now.

 

 

 

 



Sewing Machine Mat

A few weeks ago I made this quick quilted sewing machine mat for a friend. It's made from pre-quilted fabric but you can always use your own fabric and quilt it yourself if you have the time. You lay it on your sewing table and then place your sewing machine upon it. The pockets hang to right above your knees and hold all of your essential tools.

I found the easy tutorial here. I had a hard time finding any pre-quilted fabric I liked. I found this at JoAnn Fabrics and thought the colors were sort of fall-like. I miscalculated and thought I had bought enough to make another one but it turned out that I did not. When I went back they were all out of this particular design. I find that I am constantly misplacing my ruler, seam ripper and scissors or knocking them onto the floor when I sew so I love the pockets.

A place for everything and everything in its place? Works for me.

Sewing mat's new home. Honestly, I hated to give it up, LOL. But it looks very comfy cozy under her machine. Now I guess I just need to go and make one for myself.

This did not take me long at all and if you can find the pre-quilted fabric it's a great idea for a quick, handmade Christmas gift.