Currently Appearing In My Bedroom

I did my first round of Christmas decorating today and got out the Christmas quilt that goes on our bed for the month of December. Yes, a few days early, but I was changing the sheets this morning so it seemed like a good time to change the quilt over too. And we have such a short time to use our Christmas quilts.

This is one of my early quilts, made about 10 years ago using directions that appeared in an issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. They might have the directions on their website. It is fairly easy but does require a large stash to get the scrappy look.

Back in those days, I hand quilted just about every quilt I made (reserved for small quilts like wallhangings now). You can bearly see the stitching in this close-up.

Last year, I made another bed-size Christmas quilt so it may be rotated into use later in the month.

144 Blocks - Finished!

No 5 am doorbusters for me today! Oh no, I stayed home, at work in my studio, and finished all the blocks for my scrappy strip-pieced quilt. But my work is not done; I still have to sew them together into the quilt top.

An explanation for those who are not US residents - Yesterday was Thanksgiving here, an national holiday. It is on the fourth Thursday in November, and many people have Friday off work as well. As a result, Friday has become a big shopping day, as people get a start - or even finish - their Christmas season shopping. About ten years ago, some retailers began opening very early on the Friday after Thanksgiving, to lengthen the selling day. They also believed that shoppers spend the most at the first store they patronize. To help lure shoppers in early, they advertised outstanding bargains available only to early shoppers - things like televisions at 50% or more off the usual price. The bargains are referred to as "doorbusters" and the practice has escalated over the years. Often, the bargains are available in limited quantity, prompting shoppers to line up in the wee hours in order to be one of the first in the store. I love a bargain but this practice is not for me.

I did a little online shopping this morning - can't be too specific, you never know who is reading this - but Apple had some items discounted online.

Must get back to work. There is lots more to be done in the studio!

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks

This fantastic magazine arrived in the mail!





Don't be fooled by the fuzzy photo! The magazine itself is perfectly clear! And perfectly wonderful! It has instructions for making 100 different quilt blocks, each block designed by one of today's top quilt designers. All the famous ones, and so many that are new to me. It holds loads of quilting inspiration. I can't tell you how many ideas I've come up with while browsing through; too many to actually make, thats for sure. Look for it at your local quilt shop or newstand because it is well worth the $5.99 price.

And I didn't even have to pay for my copy. I won it in the blogging designers' giveaway, on Kay Mackenzie's blog, allaboutapplique.net. Thanks Kay, and thanks Quiltmaker, for coming out with this wonderful resource for quilters.

You've Got Mail!

"You've got mail," said Mr. Main Street on Saturday morning, as he carried in a large package from our front porch. It was the order I placed at Hancock's of Paducah last week. Inside was the color card I ordered, showing all the colors and shades of Kona Cotton.

There are so many colors! It is pretty cool to look at. When I need a solid, I'll know exactly which one to order. I have a quilt in the planning stages that rquires solids in two different colors to tie all the prints together.

Also inside:

A whole bolt of Kona Cotton in white. A year ago, I would have thought this was the ultimate in BORING! But I've been seeing a lot of quilts on blogs that use white as sashing or accents in a scrappy quilt and they have inspired me to try something similar. I have a few uses for this in mind and it is so reasonable ($3.60 per yard) when you order 15 yards or more.

TGIF!

On Monday, I thought this was going to be an easy week, with lots of time to devote to new quilting projects. I was so wrong! Events on both the work and home fronts conspired against any quilting. But my only obligation this weekend is to drive Miss Main Street and her gang of gal pals to the theater to see New Moon. So I anticipate spending many hours at the Bernina.

And I'll probably take a break to read this.

That's the October edition of Australian Homespun (No. 77, Vol. 10, No. 10). I took a quick glance through when it arrived yesterday and am intrigued by a project that uses many scrappy half square triangles.

Have a good weekend.

Pretty Reds All In A Row

I just washed and ironed all the red fabrics that are going into my next quilting project. I skip this step whenever possible but had a few reds in a scrappy Christmas quilt run on me a few years ago and learnt my lesson. (Fortunately, most of the red that ran washed out in the next wash and you have to look very close to see any problem now, but still, I don't want to go through that again.) And I was reminded to pre-wash a few days ago in a post from Nicole of Sister's Choice.

That crumpled up white thing on top of the red fabric is a Woolite Dye Magnet. Nicole uses a product called Color Catchers, which works similarly. These products attract and hold any dye that runs out of the fabric in the wash water, preventing pink or red smudges in areas that shouldn't be pink and giving you a good idea of how much dye ran when you washed the fabric. In this case, it was hardly anything. There are just a few pinkish smudges on the dye magnet sheet. So I should not have any problems when I wash the finished quilt.

I'm thinking I should wash the rest of the fabric I am using in this project. Not for color fastness but for shrinkage. So it is uniform. Oh boy, more ironing!

The Start Of A New Quilt

The pile of fabric you see here is the start of a new project. I got this idea and I'm so preoccupied with it that I can't work on anything else. So the strip/string quilt is being pushed aside for a time while I focus on this brainstorm. Oh, I'll go back to it but I have to get this one out of my head and down on fabric before I forget what I meant to do.

Has this ever happened to you? At least I'm using up stash!