Too Muchery!

Another one done... This is starting to feel productive. It has been fun to revisit these quilts that I enjoyed putting together so long ago. I was so excited for this collection to come out. I had been hounding my fabric rep. about it even before he knew about it. This is Helen Dardik's second fabric collection for P&B and is my favorite so far! I wish that everything she did was available on fabric. I remember starting this immediately after the fabric arrived. I fussy cut the panel and added some of my new favorite solids, Cross Weave Wovens from Moda. Very simple, letting the vibrant colors speak for themselves.

Modern Meadow Quilt

I pretty much love everything that Joel Dewberry comes up with. Modern Meadow was no exception. This collection came out in spring 2010 and I just finished the quilt! It was actually so exciting to pull it out of the basket and find a quilt with no gray fabric in it. I have been over-using gray lately. Sometimes my horrible memory can be a blessing. I unfolded this one and had that little flutter of excitement that usually only comes when I see a fabric for the first time. I am so excited to see what other little surprises there are for me in the basket...

My goal of finishing an unfinished-quilt-a-week was a little steep for the holiday gift making season and I seem to be pretty far behind. Now that all my craft sales are done and all my items are safely listed in my etsy shop I am hoping to get back on track and actually finish everything in the basket. Then it will be on to the second basket of finished quilt tops that have not yet been backed or pinned. I guess it is pretty obvious that actually quilting a quilt is NOT my favorite part. I have a self-imposed ban on making (or starting) any more quilt tops until they are all finished. Nothing like a little motivation to get things done...

It's a Wonder...

Just after Quilt Market, someone mentioned this "great new product" to me. I don't go in much for the gadgets usually. I am really a fan of keeping things simple. I also LOVE hand tacking my quilt bindings. Over the years I have developed a system of hand stictching that has served me quite well. So...when I heard about Wonder Clips, it was barely a blip on my radar. When I won a pack of them in a raffle later that morning, my radar went off! I never win stuff. I really wanted to win a book, but I got Wonder Clips.

In an effort to keep an open mind and listen to what the universe is telling me, I decided to give them a try. What a surprise when I actually liked using them. They worked perfectly for holding my binding while I hand stitched. I just slid them along the binding and they kept everything tucked in nicely. The best part...No pins! I didn't get pricked once. I am excited to try them on other projects as well, but this old dog has a new trick for her bindings! Who knew?

And yes... that is a now-finished quilt from the depths of the "Basket of Doom". Yeah! It will get it's own post very soon.

Fabric Score...

I grabbed my coupon and headed to Joann's after all the Thanksgiving hub-bub was over to get myself some DS Quilts fabrics before they are all gone. I was quite smitten with the whole collection and had to limit myself. When the DS Quilts lines were first introduced, I was torn, like many others, about buying premium fabric at a discount store... Well, the prints were just too good to pass up. End of controversy for me. Not sure what the plan is for these beauties, but they will be perfect for something sometime. For now, they will live happily in my stash.

Wonky Maverick

Thanks again to my quilt guild for pushing me out of my box again. I gave the wonky star a try for our November Drawing. This was my first attempt and it was pretty easy. I didn't end up making it to the meeting for the drawing, but it was so fun to try something new. I used this easy to follow tutorial...

I'm looking forward to seeing what will come of the block drawing idea at our monthly meetings...

I Spy a Frog Prince

Well, it's little, it's simple and it's done. There is something to be said for "putting it out there". The unfinished quilt stack is shorter by one. I made this i-spy quilt top a loooong time ago and finally quilted it. I was going for a gender neutral baby quilt. Anything to make tummy time more fun!

The picture says it all...to me at least. In case it doesn't speak to you the way it speaks to me, let me explain. That is a basket of unfinished quilts. The tops are done. They are sandwiched and pinned, but they are waiting to be quilted. I haven't gotten to them because I am too busy with so many other things. I started a quilting business a while ago that has morphed and twisted into much more than that. I sew lots of little things (napkins, bags, eye pillows...) because they sell. They sell fast. My focus has moved away from quilts and I need to move it back. They sell too, just not as quickly. So, in an effort to keep myself to my word, I proclaim to blogland that I will finish a quilt-a-week. Wish me luck and stay tuned to see my progress!