Michigan Road Trip

I love road trips, especially when the weather is nice. I'm back from giving a presentation and teaching a workshop in Michigan. Workshops are so much fun and I know some of  you wish you could join me. Well, I'm showing you some photos instead. This time, we made the Peony Star quilt from Remembering Adelia. I had so much fun.

This is one of my favorite quilts and is actually very simple to make. A great project for springtime. If it were a small quilt, I'd choose it for the challenge next month.

Perfect for playing with your scraps!

I loved this large, spacious workshop room. Everyone had plenty of space and got some good exercise running across the room to press.

I  love seeing the different prints everyone uses to make their quilts.

Each quilt will be unique . . .

Several quilters made purple blocks for theirs . . .

I'm always learning something  new. Elaine brought some Steam-A-Seam fusible strips to use for the stems before appliquing them onto the blocks. Great idea.

On the way home, we stopped at a nice restaurant in the town of Marshall for lunch and then did a little browsing around town.

Always room for a few more pieces of fabric I don't have . . .

  

"Become a Possibilitarian!" - Anything is possible . . .

My first dog many years ago was an Old English Sheepdog. I rarely see sheepdogs anymore and I sure do miss her . . .  

Cute sign in pet store window to keep parents on their toes and remind them to look after their kids . . .

We needed to stop and stretch our legs for a bit, so made another detour to a small resort town on Lake Michigan that we used to visit when the kids were little. 

Deserted now before the summer season begins. Even if our "kids" are all grown up now, we decided that we need to go back here sometime soon.

~ Sweet Home Chicago ~

As fun as the trip was, after a long day and an even longer drive, there's nothing like coming home . . .

  

Winner

Congrats to Marilyn Robertson of IN for posting the winning comment on the Sew We Quilt blog last week. She won a copy of The Civil War Sewing Circle. Thanks also to all who entered the giveaway. Honestly, I wish I could send a book to each and every one of you . . . I promise I will try to do another giveaway later this month.

Keep working on your little nine-patch quilts for April's quilt of the month. This is week 2 and you should have your 2" squares cut at least.

If you don't like the pattern I gave you, make it your way. Do your own nine-patch doll quilt. Be creative. If you like borders, add borders. If you like applique, add some applique. Simple can still be good though. You know how I love my simple little nine patch blocks -

So, if you haven't started yet, get out your scrap basket and start cutting already!

Happy Easter

Look at my little Easter baskets quilt! It's actually cut down from a larger quilt but I thought it was so cute I had to have it.

How could I resist? Those baskets are so quirky and primitive looking! I'm going to make my own and turn it into a pattern . . .

Easter brings the spirit of  hope . . .

 . . . and is a time of reflection and joy for me.

A time to celebrate new life . . .

 . . . and rebirth.

Wishing you a joyful and blessed Easter.

One More Cup of Coffee

My favorite crafty blog Sew We Quilt  asked me to be a guest blogger again. Madame Samm told me that the topic of the month for April would be What's Cooking?  - sewing things for the kitchen. I tried my best to come up with something cute that would not be duplicated all month. My brain wasn't working to come up with anything good. Many of you probably use my quilts for place mats and table mats already and did I really need another apron?

Originally, I was going to do a tutorial on some pet dish place mats using that cute puppy fabric. Many of us keep our pet food dishes in the kitchen, right? That sort of counts as a kitchen idea, I thought. Ingrid said it would bother me to see my cute little quilt slobbered on, though, and that made me think some more. Then, when my daughter was home for Spring Break, we stopped at a Starbucks and she suggested - a fabric Coffee Cozy and I really liked that idea better.

So, if you go to Sew We Quilt tomorrow, on Thursday, April 5, that's what you'll find there - a tutorial for a cute coffee cozy, plus one of my favorite coffee recipes. AND a giveaway of my book The Civil War Sewing Circle!  How good can it get?

Have you seen all the wonderful and creative tutorials on this blog?? Please go check it out. There's almost always a good giveaway too.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~ 

For the past several months, I've been trying really hard to walk and work out and get myself back into some kind of shape and finally get rid of some of that "baby weight gain." Okay, okay, who am I kidding? Those of you who follow me regularly may remember that my baby is 18 and just went off to college last fall. LOL. So it's taken me awhile, so what. It's going very slowly and I have good days and bad days - days I don't want to but I do it anyway. I don't love it, I have to say, but so far I am sticking to it even if it's difficult. It has to get easier soon, right? Now that the weather is getting nicer it's a little easier. And any effort I make can only be good for me.

One of the things I've learned is that having a cup of coffee (and a few carbs too) before I work out really helps. And it's not just my imagination - studies show that drinking coffee before a workout increases your metabolism and boosts fat loss. That's what we all want to hear, right? Don't take it to the extreme, just a cup will do. And remember that coffee acts as a diuretic so you will need to drink water too.  I love coffee anyway so what have I got to lose? Except all this darn FAT . . .

You know I always have to tie the things I think about and write about into my quilting - hence the coffee cozy. You will love this - yes, they also drank coffee during the Civil War. More than one blogger suggests that coffee may have had a real impact on the outcome of the Civil War and that consumption of the drink during the war helped make it a national pastime after the war. According to CNN, "throughout the Civil War, coffee was as prevalent on the battlefields as it is in offices today. In fact, the Union army was fueled by the stuff to the point that, if there was no time to boil water, the Boys in Blue would chew on whole beans as they marched. And at night, Union campsites were dotted with tiny fires, each boiling a pot of coffee like a million miniature Starbucks. Beyond caffeine cravings, Union troops loved their coffee because it was, literally, the best thing on the menu."  I wonder if drinking coffee can help me win MY battle . . . 

Looks like she sure could have used a cup . . .

(Photo courtesy of The Library of Congress)

Stop by Madame Samm's blog on Thursday and leave me a comment for a chance to win a free copy of The Civil War Sewing Circle. The quilt we'll be working on for next month will be taken from that book. Don't drink too much coffee before you begin your quilting though - I don't want to hear about rotary cutters flying and everyone hurting themselves.

April's Small Quilt

Look! The quilt we'll be making for April is a free pattern and you can download it here.

I had fun a lot of fun designing this one and hope to get it finished this week. It shouldn't take you very long at all. No excuses!

First, pick out some scraps of fabric, cut  2" x  2" squares and 5" squares and you're almost done. Each block took me about 15 minutes. I'm hoping I can put the rest together this week.

 

If you don't like blue, or the scrappy look, make it your own. If you don't like those borders on the top and bottom only, make a border all around . . . You'll get quite a different look.

Be creative. I can't wait to see what you come up with. Send me a photo and maybe you'll see it here. Can you believe this is our 4th quilt of the month already?  If you're following along with me and making 12 little quilts this year, you're almost a third of the way there!

Cute Little Baskets

I thought many of you would enjoy seeing some of the little baskets quilts that quilters in my Yahoo group Small Quilt Talk made for my One Small Quilt a Month Challenge this month. They are all outstanding and I'm glad everyone had so much fun with this pattern from my book Remembering Adelia.

My version

Jan's quilt

Marian's quilt  . . .

. . . and her mini version.

Karen's quilt

Val's quilt

Sue's quilt

Look at Merilyn's cutie!

Sandi's mini-basket quilt

I love that they are all so creative and unique.

Making 12 quilts this year is going to be a real challenge I know but I hope you are having some fun too. And even if you can't make all 12,  join us for a couple of them and you'll still be ahead in this fun doll quilt game we're playing. My part in this challenge is easy, all of  my quilts are finished LOL.  Still,  when I see some of the ones you've all made I want to make more - in all different colors . . . .

Perhaps I'll add more photos of the group's quilts tomorrow. Then, on Sunday, April 1,  I'll give you the pattern for the next quilt we'll be making - for April. Stay tuned.

Little Orphan Blocks

I stumbled upon these little antique "orphan" blocks at a shop awhile ago and bought them to see if I could maybe find them a home in a simple doll quilt.

They're not "special" or fancy but maybe that's exactly why I fell in love with them. Kind of like the scrappy puppy that leaps into your lap and then your heart, licks your face and follows you home.

With the right setting and lots of love, I think they'll do just fine. At my last workshop in IN, I met someone who buys old quilt blocks and then carefully takes them apart and uses the fabric to make her small quilts. What a good idea.

The little four patches are my favorites.

They're so simple but so adorable, I think. I have to trim them first so they're all the same size. They almost look like they were made by a child so that's half of an antique doll quilt, right?  The hard part is going to be choosing the setting.

I immediately started fooling around with fabrics for settings and this indigo came out to play.  But I'm not sure if it will win or if perhaps something else will.

If you have any interest in using orphan blocks in a quilt, here's a great book by Tricia Maloney that will inspire you to begin.

Lots of great ideas. Hmm, wonder what I should so with my orphan star blocks?? I have this exact bench and a star quilt would look very cute draped on it.

If you only have ONE old block that you love and don't know how to set it, take a look -

Isn't this an adorable runner? The perfect setting for one special block.

*  *  *

Speaking of one-block wonders, I finished the handle on my basket quilt for this month's challenge but have not gotten around to quilting it yet. Isn't that always the story? If you still want to participate in my monthly challenge to make 12 small quilts this year, better get going. I've heard from some that you can make this one block basket quilt in a day. It took me a couple of hours over a couple of days, mostly because I played with my fabric for so long and couldn't decide on the borders.

All ready to quilt. Just need to sit down and DO it.

If you are resisting this quilt because the appliqued handles leave you feeling panicky -  never fear. I got my new (June) issue of American Patchwork & Quilting in the mail on Saturday. It has some solutions to help make this easier, including using rick rack or fusible web for the handles. Plus, a beautiful pink and brown basket quilt designed by Betsy Chutchian to go with those handles.

Remember, this is your last reminder to finish up the basket quilt from Remembering Adelia for March before we begin a new little quilt for April.

I will try to post the new pattern on Sunday or Monday.