What I Did Today

What a productive day!

**three loads of laundry
**grocery shopping
**unload/load dishwasher
**wash pots and pans
**talked with mom on phone while she was getting a blood transfusion
**cut, folded, packaged Block #6 Ode to the Blue and Grey
**answered emails
** played catch with Daisy
**went for my first swim in the pool this summer

Okay, so maybe not EVERYTHING on the list was productive . . .

. . .but finishing all the applique prep on this quilt was!  YIPPEE!! Just when it seemed like it would never get done.  I kept working on it because the alternative was going to the grocery store.  Now it's time for some sewing! 

Make it Yours

I love it when quilters show me the twist they put on one of my patterns or kits. 

Look what Kathleen Schumacher did with her Homeward Bound Kit.  She changed the applique border, making it all her own.  Don't you just love it?  And, on the blocks around the edges, she used the same fabric that is in the setting triangles to create a "floating" look to the birds in the air blocks.

Simply beeeuuutiful, Kathleen!  Thank you for sharing.

It All Begins With the Fabric

Fabric.  We love to touch it, to pet it, to stockpile it.  It's why we quilt.  It's why we keep starting new projects before finishing the old.

The fabric collection I am using for my upcoming book Away From Home: The Story of the Mill Girls is being designed by Judie Rothermel and Faye Burgos, two of Marcus Fabrics' designers.  I had to pinch myself several times this past week because I received the strike-offs (the pre-production prints) and was asked to give my input.  The package contained lots of prints, some in various colorways, and some in colorways so subtle in their variation that it was difficult to discern the difference.  There were FAR more fabrics than we needed.  The task was to narrow it down to 24 fabrics that I would use in the quilt.
Well, I stacked the swatches.  I sorted them.  I compared them to my illustration of the feature quilt.  I put some to the side.  Then others.  Then a couple made it back in.  The best I could do was get it down to 27.

In the meantime, across the country, Judie was doing the same.  We were to submit our choices to Faye who would compare our selections.  At this point, I don't know what Judie picked, but I do know that she narrowed her selections down to 32.  (I can't tell you how relieved I was to hear that!)
So here's just a little sneak peek of my choices