Optimistic...

We spent two glorious weeks this month travelling to China to visit with my brother and his wife and do some exploring so, in anticipation of long flights and layovers, I pulled together a travel kit for Minnie thinking that I would get tons done. I was even concerned that I had not cut enough hexies to work with but had to settle for the amount that fit in my dollar store container. As it turns out I didn't have much to worry about.

With all the changes of venue and excitement of travelling I sewed very little in the airports or on the flights, managing only to finish up 3 diamonds and a bit.

I was a  bit concerned that my scissors might get caught up in the security scans but it turns out that they were more interested in my hair mousse! (Recognize your pink scraps, Jane?)

Anyway, 3 more is better than no more...

And since we have been home I finished off this one, so the count is actually 4 more to be added to the pile. Still loving how they look....M

Baskets Are Beckoning...

There is a basket quilt or two in my future - just not sure yet what style, or when. I love the traditional basket patterns for their graphic simplicity but the tiny little ones appeal to me so much, as do the more funky/strippy ones. I've started a board on Pinterest to collect ideas but have had a picture of this one pinned to the back of a chair in my sewing rooms for several months now and noticed how it has so many features that appeal to me, all in the same place.

It's a print from an old quilting calendar and is a great combination of structure and play. I think I need my eyes checked again, but, fuzzy as it is, this lets you see the whole thing.

Where do I begin? Love the funky little baskets, the pieced block backgrounds, the sashing blocks on point, the colours, the soft floral border, the hexies surrounding the centre panel of basket blocks, and then some fun appliqué around the edge. I'm thinking that the little border blocks on point would also be nice done in a 4-patch.

I don't know what the pattern name is but given the style I'm thinking that the designer is Japanese - it has a very Yoko Saito feel to it but somehow I don't think it's one of hers.

There are lots of little details to keep you interested and looking at it for a good long while. I'm not sure that I would do the fence but really do like the centre panel, and figuring how to incorporate a few interesting appliqué features could be fun.

And look at the quilting! OMG!!! So perfect, and so dense. Just love it....M

Dutch Treat

My sister Frances has resurrected a project that she started when she was 12 (she just celebrated her 50th birthday this spring and figured it was time to put this one to bed, so to speak). It's a pattern called The Little Dutch Girl. Actually, Anne made this one around the same time, but hers has been in use for several years now :).

With some help from mom - and she concedes a fair bit of help from mom - she appliquéd 12 blocks and now she's trying to figure out how to put it together.

She and Betty tossed around ideas to make the layout more contemporary and have found a second pieced block for the alternate blocks (the brown check is the carpet). Truth be told, this has never been one of my favourite patterns but I think that this is a brilliant idea.













This is the block that she has decided on (Pinterest comes through again!). Isn't it beautiful? She's doing it in hot, bright colours - pinks, blues, purples, greens - and a variety of white-on-white fabrics. The blocks are about 12" square so the pieces will be small, and the overall effect incredible. That little Dutch Girl won't know what hit her!....M

Jane's Adventure Into Quilting

My sisters and I grew up in a house surrounded by quilts and by mom and aunts and family friends always stitching and quilting around us, so I never think of myself as starting to make quilts at a certain age, I just think of myself as always having been a quilter. Our first efforts were by machine but we eventually moved to doing more and more of them by hand because it is so relaxing and portable. Jane, on the other hand, didn't come into the quilting world until the early 1990s

She had sewn for years and we had tried to convince her to make a quilt but she was convinced that she couldn't do it. Famous last words. Once she started there was no turning back - she became a quilting queen! She thinks that she has made about 20 full-sized quilts since then, about one a year, and they are hand pieced.









This is her first quilt, Tea Party, with 37 pieces to a block. Betty took it home from the cottage to freshen it up earlier this summer and decided to snap a few photos while it was on the line. It looks like a bit of a sampler but it's really only one block done in different colours.

Like most of us, she looks at it and says she would never pick these fabrics now, but it's still very pretty and gets lots of use. The rich fuchsia print that she used for the sashing is roses bunched up against each other - love it.

Not a bad start to a life of addiction, is it?....M