Snow in Central Park

December in New York City. A pre-Christmas snowstorm added a touch of magic to our visit. Our morning train was cancelled so we found ourselves with a free day. We took the subway to Central Park where we walked in a winter wonderland.

Cutting Home of the Brave Blocks

I have gotten involved through my quilt guild with making quilts for the Home of the Brave project whereby quilts are given to family members of those military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The fabrics are all Civil War reproduction.

Changing Leaves and Nine Patch

It has been rainy this fall in the nation's capital. The ivy on my fence is changing color but the maple tree is just starting to turn. The nine-patch quilt uses fabric from Fig Tree Quilts.

Fall Quilt

Well, it's September 1st and to me that means fall. The weather has definitely cooled off here in the nation's capital but my son hasn't started back to school yet so it still feels like summer. And Labor Day Weekend is still to come and we're going to the beach.

I made this this mini Amish quilt years ago. It was inspired by a quilt I saw in Little Quilts.

"No Flowers"

It is so gratifying to visit a family member and discover that they have hung the quilt you made for them. I made this quilt for my brother a few years ago and was pleased to see it displayed prominently in his home when I visited last week. It is called "No Flowers" because I tried to make it a masculine quilt and not include any flowered fabrics (although a few did manage to sneak in).

Feedsack Squares

I finally finished my feedsack top. It consists of 80 6" squares plus 3" squares used as cornerstones. The green sashing is a Moda solid. I've been collecting feedsacks for at least ten years and decided to put them into a quilt. I swapped squares with three quilting friends and a couple friends gave donations from their feedsack collections. The pattern is adapted from a Darlene Zimmerman pattern. I will send this off to be quilted

Antique Shop Find

This is a quilt my sister scored at an antique shop in Hannibal, Missouri, last summer. She spotted it as they were unloading it from a van into the shop! I thought you would like to see it :)

Patchwork Flag

This mini-quilt is the latest from the mini-club at Patches Quilt Shop in St. Charles, Missouri. I love making little flag quilts around this time of year. Happy 4th of July!

Summer Quilting Project

As you can see, the weather has finally improved here. Here is my summer quilting project. Conventional wisdom says that you are supposed to piece in the summer and hand-quilt in the winter, when having a warm quilt spread out on your lap feels cozy rather than hot and sticky. But that was probably said before air conditioning, right?

Rain Rain Go Away

After days and days of rain in May, we are getting more of the same here in the nation's capital. And it's June - no fair! The weather currently is 61 degrees and (what a surprise) lightly raining. I should take advantage of this lousy weather by staying inside to quilt but I want to be outside! I have a quilt on my dining room table ready to be basted and I will force myself to do it - today.

Feed Sack Hearts

I'm getting ready to start a new quilting challenge with a couple quilt buddies. It involves putting a serious dent in my collection of feed sacks. The pictured mini-quilt I made a number of years ago certainly did not use up much fabric although it is cute. Look how the fabric in the lower right has faded over time. Anyway, my feed sacks are no fun sitting in a box in a closet - their time has come to become part of a quilt!

Mothers' Day Gifts

Well, how nice is it to have a grown-up daughter who buys you fabric for Mothers' Day? The Amy Butler fat quarter packets are from City Quilter in NYC. And yes, I have already unbundled them, cut and sewn them into nine-patches for a quilt in progress.

P.S. And the flowers are from my son - sweet!

Doll Quilt - Spools

Sometimes, you just wanna make something small. I belong to the Mini-Quilt Club of Patches, a quilt shop near St. Louis, Mo. This is their most recent pattern.

Jelly Stars Unfolded

Finally, a semi-nice day and two helpers enabled me to take a picture of my Jelly Stars quilt, unfolded. Fabric for the four stars came from one Fig & Plum jelly roll. I bought additional yardage for the plum-colored sashing and green border and the light-colored background fabric came from my stash.

Intown Quilters

I was in Atlanta over the weekend and in between some family stuff was able to slip out to visit Intown Quilters, a delightful shop in Decatur, Georgia. No calicoes here, they specialize in "the bright and the bold" as it was explained to me. Tons of patterns for clothing and quilts. In fact, as I was shopping, a woman walked in wearing an Amy Butler skirt (I learned that it was the "Barcelona" pattern.) So cute!

Isn't this a bright and pretty shop? And people in the south are so friendly.

A medallion-style quilt using Kaffe Fassett fabrics

A pretty blue and yellow quilt using Amy Butler fabrics.
I bought some fat quarters and half yards and a bag pattern. Look for it in the next week.

Honey Bun

I was so excited to get the first comments on my new blog. Feedback is great! I have been wanting to take a picture of my Jelly Stars quilt so you can see what it looks like unfolded but it has been raining in the nation's capital for a solid week with no sign of letting up. Good weather for sewing but not for taking outdoor pictures.

Well, I liked working with the Jelly Roll so much that I'm gonna try to see what I can come up with using this Honey Bun - same as a Jelly Roll only 1 1/2 inches wide instead of 2 1/2 inches. This one is called Swanky Chez Moi by Moda. Maybe a Log Cabin?

Kaffe Fassett fun

Recently, our quilt guild had as our featured speaker, Liza Prior Lucy, who makes quilts for Kaffe Fassett. If he is a quilting god (and he is) then she is a quilting goddess. A delightful person, who told us the story of how she met Kaffe (rhymes with safe), and showed us many gorgeous quilts. I bought a half yard of her fabric - what restraint! - and went home and pieced this little top, using fabric from my stash. Now, the question is, do I stop, do I add a border, or do I go out and buy more coordinating Kaffe Fassett fabric, and just keep on going? Any thoughts?

Jelly Stars

This is "Jelly Stars," a very large quilt made from a Fig & Plum jelly roll, . The fabric and pattern are from Fig Tree Quilts . The pattern was very complicated and I honestly didn't think those diamonds were going to fit together but they did! You may not be able to tell but it is a four-block quilt. I am going to need to recruit an extra pair of hands to take a proper picture.

Vintage Block Challenge

Here is my entry in our quilt group's Vintage Block Challenge, due this Tuesday. We got the idea from Mary Kerr's Vintage Revisited...A Block Challenge Exhibit. I saw the exhibit at Quilt Odyssey in Hershey, Pa., last summer. Each participant gets the same vintage block and has to make a 24" square quilt using that block. In our challenge, the vintage block is the yellow star (middle right). I combined it with some "orphan" blocks from my stash. Some are old blocks and some are blocks I made using vintage fabrics. I also included some blocks made with reproduction fabrics. Everything came from my stash. The final touch was the blue jumbo rick rack in the border. It is an "interrupted border" so commonly found in old quilts. Probably because it is easier than figuring out how to turn the corner!



Look at this cute little mouse conversation print found in the Grandmother's Flower Garden block that I picked up who-knows-when. I appliqued it to the white background.

Yellow Bow Tie on Wall

My Yellow Bow Tie quilt is finished and hung on the wall. It certainly looks like it was made for that spot. And it was.

April in NYC

A quick trip up to NYC. The flowers in bloom are about two weeks behind us. Magnolias and tulips all over again. This is a park near City Hall.

Oops!


And another little park near Wall Street.

Socks

Well, learning how to knit a pair of socks has been on my "bucket list" forever. I took a class in January at my local yarn shop and, voila - socks! I bought this yarn at Purl Soho in New York City. It is a blend of mohair and merino wool from Shi Bui Knits. I finished these just in time because we're kind of moving out of the sock season and into the flip-flop season. But it is cold and rainy in the nation's capital so I am wearing my hand-knit socks today!

Binding

Quilting on the Yellow Bow Tie is finished. This morning I sewed the binding on and now I will hand-stitch it down. I love sewing on bindings. Maybe because it is the last step?

Yellow Bow Tie Quilt

Well, that wasn't a very auspicious beginning to my blog which is meant to be a quilt blog. So here it is, the first quilt - a yellow bowtie wallhanging that I am hand quilting in my favorite quilting design, the Baptist Fan. As you can see, I am almost done - yea!

View from my sewing room

This is the view from my sewing room. Aren't I lucky? On the right is a cherry tree and on the left is a magnolia. I think I just may just go up there right now!

No, this is not a cherry tree. It is a Bartlett Pear tree in my backyard. Springtime in Washington is truly a beautiful sight!