It was a busy week here. Last Saturday, I helped my Mom with a project she's working on and reminded her again of how to use her cutting mat, rotary cutter, and ruler. It's not a process that always seems logical and she doesn't use it often, so she likes a refresher. We fussy-cut some blocks for her quilt (fussy-cut, for those of you who don't know, is planning where to cut the blocks based on something in the print). And that inspired me to cut out the fabric for another Grandma quilt, so Violet will get hers finally (then I'll be caught up on those again!). And I've got a few more quilts to cut on the docket, including one for me. But meanwhile, I've got some links to share this week. 

Cross Stitch at About.com
Connie made an oops with a stitching project when she laundered an item that wasn't colorfast. Have you ever had an oops like that? Vote in the poll and let us know.

About Family Crafts
If you are looking for a special, home-made gift for Mother's Day, check out Sherri's collection of 100 gifts to make for mom.

Craftside--A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside there is a sneak peek into the new book Mixed-Media Dollhouses, how to draw a Zombie Voodoo Doll, make 2 types of paper flowers from recycled book pages, and how to use white glue and tape as resists in fabric altering.

The Artful Crafter
This week Eileen is offering some free striking vintage photos from the 30s and a chance to win the eBook Altered Ancestors: 50 Techniques for Using Vintage Photos in Art.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy has added another charm discovery to her sterling silver charms and pendants sale page--2 gorgeous mermaids.

The Crochet Dude
Drew's crochet purse designs are super cute, and now he's got a crocheted Purse Pattern of the Month program? You've gotta check it out!!!

Aileen's Musings
Aileen has a wonderful Mother's Day project to help make it a banner day for mom! Find out what Canvasette paper is while you check out her easy background technique.

Mixed Media Artist
When dumpster diving fails you, here are some great online sources for cool stuff!

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
How to make recycled sweater tags inspired by the one in: Hand-Me-Ups By Lorine Mason
 
Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
A hot topic Facebook thread leads to a post about valuing your work. Madge ponders the problems of discounts and freebies.

The other night, I cut out a new quilt. WOO HOO! My cousin Lynette's second daughter, Violet, hasn't yet gotten her Grandma Paper Doll Quilt yet and she's got to be nearing a year old, or maybe a little older. Here's a photo of the pieces; I'll post updates of its progress, highlighting some of the fun tools and techniques I'll be using as I go.

I fussy-cut the border-strip fabric to use in the centers of the blocks so there were two of the dolls in each block and I have two of each doll pair. The sketches at the top are only the rough drafts--I changed the colors right before I started cutting, which is funny because I was shopping for a blue and yellow print at the Quilt Festival for the blocks and ended up swapping the greenish daisy print for the blue. So here are the fabrics cut for the quilt. I'm really excited to get working on it, but I think I'm going to cut the Storm at Sea quilt pieces first. I've found that if I have pieces cut, I'm more likely to work on a project but somehow making the decisions and getting them cut is the part that's been holding me up. So I thought I'd cut a few quilts out (the Storm at Sea and my sister's Stack n Whack) and then, over the summer, I'd sew and sew and get them all done. Then I can start working on the quilting part.

I shot pictures of several quilts last weekend at Quilt Festival in Chicago, but I've yet to sort through the photos and match them up with the names. I'll try to post them this weekend. I did, however, shoot some pictures of the fabrics I found for my stash (as if I needed more, right?).

Most of the fabric sold at quilt shows is precut--either fat quarters, half-yards, or bundles of some type. Some shops bring bolts of fabric, but in the past many years, I've been more likely to buy fat quarters than yardage. I'll need to be making some scrappier designs, since fat quarters are great for scrappy designs. And they're gonna be some very colorful scrappy quilts because I have a definite preference for brighter colors. And, of course, farm prints. This isn't everything--some of it wasn't all that interesting--but I thought I'd share some of the fun stuff!

Of course, there's always a little farm fabric that I need to bring home. On the left is a farm panel--it was just too fun to pass up. On the right are some fat quarters, a half-yard, and another very cute farm print from a newer line. I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but that's okay.






Feathers are up next. The one on the left was just too interesting in colors to pass up. The one on the right will match the fabrics in the Storm At Sea quilt I'm planning. The blues and purples will be perfect and add a lot of texture to the quilt.

The village print on the right was an interesting find. What I'll do with it--don't know. It would make a cool center for a quilt with several borders (plain and/or pieced) along the edges. I love that it has a New England village field to it. As for the rest of the fabrics, I loved the light lime batik, the dots were a fun color combination, and the ladies are already, I believe, part of the stash I have set aside for the someday decorating of the sewing room.

My Mom uses double-sided, pre-quilted fabric to make a thing called a potato bag--used to microwave baked potatoes to perfection. When I saw the parrot and tropical print, I knew it was the potato-bag fabric for me! The mushy print on the left just called to me, as did the farm-y one on the right. But the parrots....





And finally. There was a booth selling fat quarters for VERY good prices. It was jam packed in there, but people were being very generous by passing things back to others who had their eyes on something. Great source for stash-building, a little bit of everything, and I bought duplicates of the ones I was particularly fond of--like the soft green and pink on at the bottom. I don't know what I'll do with it exactly, but I am looking forward to having the chance.

What I don't have in my hands right now are the baby flannels I bought for me (that I offered to share with Rich's niece) and the fabrics I picked up for my Mom for a special project she's working on. So when I get the flannels back, I'll share them. I won't get all of the others back--I guess I did a pretty good job of choosing fabrics for Mom because she kept several of them. More to come on the display quilts soon!

I was out of town this weekend--Quilt Festival in Chicago, time spent with my Mom and my best guy, and a quick trip up to Sheboygan for a fashion show including one of my favorite teenagers. The Jeep saw lots of miles and the weekend flew by. But even with all that busyness, I've got some links to share with you from this week.

Crafty Princess Diaries
While doing some spring cleaning, Tammy made some interesting jewelry discoveries. You just never know what you might find when you try to get organized.

The Artful Crafter
Do companies offer free craft products to the general public for testing?
 
Aileen's Musings
Are you in need of a royal crown? Aileen has an oldie but goodie tutorial she's sharing with you.

About.com Cross Stitch
Connie's sharing a free pattern that was inspired by a piece of artwork she saw in an episode of Monk. You never know what the source of inspiration will be.

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
See how to make recycled thigh high socks inspired by the book Color Knitting The Easy Way.

About Family Crafts
Not knowing much about iris folding, Sherri rolled up her sleeves, gave it a try, and shares her step-by-step adventure and free templates with you.

Cathie Filian
Cathie is doing back flips over the release of her new book, 101 Snappy Fashions!

Craftside--A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside there are tutorials on how to crochet a "no-chain" foundation row, 17 ways to crop a photo, draw flames with Drew Brophy, change the color in a free cherry blossom print download and a call for entries for 1000 Steampunk Inspirations.

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Mother's Day is coming soon and Madge has you covered. Check out her mom friendly card project, recipe and jewelry design!

Mixed Media Artist
There's a lot to be learned about texture when you work with a monochromatic palette!

I'll share my fabrics and finds from Festival in the coming days. And I hope to start cutting into some fabric very soon!

The other day, I ran across a book from C&T Publishing called "A new light on Storm at Sea quilts" by Wendy Mathson. The quilt shop I visited previously, quiltfabric.com, mentioned the book on their site. In looking into it further, I noticed several things. First, it's a quilt I have considered making in the past, but the twist on this one is that there's a tool created to make the block easier to make and more accurate. I do love tools that let me piece a little less-than-perfect and still have everything fit together once you've trimmed the block. Then, after I bought the book, I discovered that my friend and former coworker Carol Zentgraf was a technical editor on it. And though I had always thought I'd do an off-center log cabin with the fabrics (like this one), I think this might be the answer to my newest quilt idea.

When I left McCall's Needlework, I'd just made a slipcover for a chair using a tulip fabric that I loved. It combined royal blue, purple, and a dark green with a teal blue tinge on an ivory ground with gold tipping. At that point, I started collecting fabrics to make a quilt based on that fabric's color combination. I've moved these fabrics from Birmingham to Northwest Arkansas to Chicagoland to Milwaukee to central Wisconsin and back to Milwaukee. And I think now might be the time to finally cut into them! Then, the remaining fabrics can be put in their correct color container and I can enjoy sleeping under a quilt that's been rolling around in my head for years.

I spent Sunday afternoon trying to finish up the cleaning and tidying and organizing of the sewing & craft & stamping & quilting room. (Doesn't that seem like a lot of titles for one room--maybe it should be more than one room....)

I put all of the beads into one big storage container from Plano Molding. Rich gave me four of them that he wasn't using a while ago. He thought they might help me get organized. (He's always thinking of me!) And he was right. I was able to organize most all of my jewelry-making supplies into the three large and two small containers stored inside the big ole box (which is stored underneath the dresser). And the whole containers is ORGANIZED! One small container has jewelry projects that need something or are already ready to be something (all the parts for a pair of earrings, for example), the other small container holds extra clasps, jump rings, head pins, etc., one of the big boxes holds strands of beads, another holds seed beads, and the remaining box holds miscellaneous beads. The only things that don't fit in the box are the flexible beading wires and other stringing materials and the tools. And the lunch-room trays that I use sometimes to organize things while I'm beading. And now, all of it is tucked away.

I also got all of my cross-stitch and embroidery supplies, floss, fabrics, etc. in the drawers of the dresser, so that dresser is full of great craft stuff! Smocking in the bottom drawer, embroidery in the middle, and jewelry in the top!

I was able to get rid of some things, making space to actually put away other things. I was able to clear off the rack and put the quilts on it. The three-drawer plastic container now holds things it should instead of random stuff poorly organized. And I threw away a big bag of stuff that needed to go. I can now navigate the entire length of the room without stepping over anything. The only thing I have to do still is set up the quilting machine. And then, its on to cutting out baby Violet's paper doll quilt, my sister's Stack-n-Whack, and my next quilt, a Storm at Sea. I'll talk more about that in the next few days.

Lots going on, and I've been thinking a lot about quilts. It all started with a newsletter that I got from QuiltFabric.com. They had an awesome sale last weekend, which I missed, but luckily, they had a follow-up sale THIS weekend, which I didn't miss! I'll share fabric photos later. Also, I've been thinking about making a new quilt and also cutting into and creating my sister's Stack-n-Whack quilt. I'll post more in the days and weeks ahead, but meanwhile, here are some links for this week.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Who better to craft for than the furry critters in your house? And they so appreciate it!

The Artful Crafter
Does your craft space need de-cluttering? Here are some ways to donate your excess projects and supplies.

The Crochet Dude
Drew thought he might have to freeze himself to avoid going bonkers while waiting to reveal his next full-length book!

Aileen's Musings
Aileen's cooked up a printable recipe card with her delicious Strawberry Spring cake recipe.

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
The Easter Bunny is almost here and Madge has a calorie free jewelry tribute to her favorite holiday candy! Get your Pretty in Peeps Pendant here!

Mixed Media Artist
Want to try doing gel glue resists? Oh, the possibilities!

About Family Crafts
April is National Volunteer Month and Sherri has some creative ways you can help others.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Craftside's got a bit of ballerina brilliance from the new book Mixed-Media Dollhouses, how to make shag on knitting, a fun recycled decoupage and office supply project and our author make and take schedule for Unique LA.

Cathie Filian
Enter to win a signed advanced copy of Cathie's new baby fashion book and $130 worth of goodies!!

It was a nutty weekend, and this morning, on my way to work, I had that "uh oh" moment--as in "uh oh, I forgot to post my links you'll love!" No real excuse except that I was all over the Chicagoland area, spending time with family, friends, and my main squeeze. I did get to go to a quilt show and saw some great quilts and actually stopped myself from buying any fabric. So before I keep you waiting any longer, here's what's in the roundup this week.

The Artful Crafter
Looking for canning jar art ideas and supplies? Let Eileen help you out with resources and tips.

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi wants to know: which of your new years resolutions are you actually going to keep?

Craftside--A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Craftside has a fun St. Patrick's Day necklace with a tutorial on how to make a flat coil head pin, instructions on how to make an adjustable lace up shirt alteration, a free round topped box template download and some cool Collage Lab stuff.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy has another book review. This one looks at Pretty Little Presents, a book about stitching up small gift items.

About Family Crafts
If you are planning a slumber party, check out this list of crafts projects that will help the time fly.

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
How to sew a recycled tank and t-shirt dress inspired by one of the projects from the book Twinkle Sews by Wenlan Chia

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Had your eyes checked lately? Madge did...and was she surprised to find out she needs glasses!

This organizing thing really does pay off. You have to look closely to distinguish between the baseball print and the pieced blocks, but I couldn't resist. If you recall, I posted a version of this quilt using teddy bear fabric in addition to the more subtle version that appeared in McCall's Quick Quilts.

This quilt was made for a very special newborn whose nursery was decorated in a baseball theme. His father is an avid Cubs fan, so the quilt was perfectly suited for the little slugger. The red and black fabric I used for the inner border and binding picked up on the color of the stitches on the baseballs. But it's possible that the black and white pieced blocks didn't offer the best balance with the large-scale baseball print.

I even went the extra step and made a really appropriate label for the quilt.

I do enjoy making quilts for babies and kids. Partially because they're easy and quick and a great way to experiment with a technique, a color combination, or a pattern. I made this quilt for the big sister of the girl who got this quilt. My theory, knowing their parents the way I do (their Momma was my college roomie), is that the colors reflected what I imagined would be their personalities. A quilt from 1999, I think, I think these fabrics came from the Fabric Center in Morris, Illinois, but I'm not 100% positive about that. The print fabric had the look of mosaic tiles, which I was drawn to, and the colors are some of my favorites. I do remember debating with myself over whether to use the purple and turquoise or substitute one of them for a midnight blue. In the end, I went with this and I do love it. This quilt was completed about the same time as the teddy bear quilt. I had both of them finished, and I think they sat for a while, just waiting for the binding to be hand-sewn to the back. One chilly winter weekend, I finished them both.

When my Godson was born, I lived in Florida and managed the quilt shop. His nursery had a fish theme. Fish fabric was something we had plenty of at the shop in Florida, so I had my choice. This project was a great adventure, inspired by several projects I'd seen come into the shop and classes we offered at the shop. Basically, I cut pieces of foundation, cut a fish from the print randomly shaping the fabric with at least four edges. Then, I cut my bright prints and black prints in various widths of strips, tossed them all in a bag, and whatever I pulled out, I used, sewing the strips on in a log-cabin-like method, working around the fish in the center and sewing it all to the foundation.

Once I got the larger blocks done, some containing several fish in the oddly shaped center pieces, I had to fill in the blanks with smaller blocks. That's when I had to start plotting the rest of it, since it was put together in no set pattern.

As for the side borders, I used several different blue fabrics. I wanted to provide the feel of being under water, so I used a blue underwater rock print for the bottom and lower side borders, a blue with water coral (is that what I mean?) up the sides, and then, at the top, dark fabrics that look like waves underwater.

I remember working on this project during the divorce when I went away, thanks to my bosses at the quilt shop, for a weekend at a hotel down the beach from where I lived. (A change of surroundings is always good!) I don't know if the hotel staff had ever seen anyone move into a hotel room with a sewing machine and rotary cutting supplies, but they had after that!

So you've seen cow quilt #1, dated 1997. Here's cow quilt #2. My sister's second son may have gotten the benefit of experience in his quilt. That and some fabulous fabric. I found this great print--the farm animals having a hoedown. I fell in love instantly. It was a striped print, with the barns in one row, the marching animals at the top in another row, and the dancing fowl in another row, from what I recall. The green print with the boogie-ing barnyard animals was a companion print. I included the same cow print and "moo" print from the other cow quilt in this one so they'd work in the same room, and grabbed a bunch of bright fabrics to make the paper-pieces stars. I still love the way this quilt came together!

As for the words embroidered in the golden box in the center, it was from the striped print and it reads, "Hey diddle diddle, the pig had a fiddle, the cow played a groovy new tune. The others joined in and had a fine time, as they jammed by the light of the moon." Love it!

My sister lives away from the farm she grew up on. But she always seems to want to have a touch of farm in her home. So when her first son was born (maybe not RIGHT away...), I made this cow quilt because she had found the perfect bandanna bedding for the nursery. It was from a magazine, though I can't remember which one because I just happened upon it on the newsstand. I made it in residence #3 in Arkansas, so probably sometime in 1997. The border fabric looks like a black and white print, but it's actually the word "moo" in black type on white fabric. The cows were machine appliqued and their tails are braided embroidery floss just attached at the rump. The cows are actually cut from a cow-print fabric, which kept the spots random. And the tabs that hold it on the rod are secured with buttons shaped like ears of corn. The backing is a farm print--that's also what I used to bind it, though you can't tell that from the picture. Alice painted the rod and brackets to match and did a fabulous job.

Coming soon, the second cow quilt. Stay tuned.

My friend Julie's son arrived home from Iraq today, so she and her family have been on my mind. In a wonderful love story, Julie, a divorcee, and Scott, a widower, found each other through their faith and got married several years ago, merging families and households and serving as a living example to relationship success after loss and healing, a model for me and I'm sure countless others.

Before the wedding, I was visiting Julie and  reverse engineering a sweater for her to give to Scott as a wedding gift (yes, I do sweaters in addition to quilts), we stopped by Scott's house. I mentioned that I might stop by the neighborhood quilt store on my way home and he asked if I used batting in my quilts. This seemed like a strange question to me, so, with trepidation, I said "yes...?" Scott excused himself to the basement and returned with a large bag of batting pieces in assorted sizes. I turned out his wife had been a quilter. He shared her fabric with her quilting friends after she passed away, but had found this bag of batting later and graciously passed it on to me. I did promise him that I'd let him know what I did with it. As I was getting a tour of the house, Julie mentioned that they had purchased bedding for what would be their room, that they planned to paint to match it, and that they needed throw pillows.

As an aside: I'd always wanted to make a lone star quilt and had looked at the beautiful wall-size version featured in the book The Joy of Quilting by Joan Hanson and Mary Hickey. (Incidentally, this book was open to this article the day a distracting telephone conversation and a runaway rotary cutter caused me to require my first stitches. And no, I didn't bleed on the book! But I digress.)

Fast-forward a week. They were coming to town for Easter the next Saturday, so I asked Julie to bring me a pillow sham, because an idea had been rolling around in my head. There was a bridal shower within the month and I needed a gift for that and the wedding. After picking up the sham from them, I zipped over to the quilt shop and bought some fabric, filling in with some from my stash. And over that Easter weekend, I created this wall quilt for Julie and Scott. Of course, I used batting from the bag that Scott had given me. The colors were pulled from the pillow sham (shown in the background of the lower picture, see the photo below for a more realistic version of the bedding colors). The pillows were made from the fabrics in the star. For the green pillows, I backed the pillow front with batting and fabric, then did the embroidery through all three layers to add a little dimension, and then constructed the pillows. Both Julie and Scott were touched by the way that I used Ellen's batting in these pieces, customized to their decor.

I've been lucky to be involved in many of the special events in this family's life. I made the jewelry for the bridesmaids at Julie's wedding and also made the jewelry for the bride and bridesmaids at her son's wedding. And now her son is returning to his wife and their baby boy after a safe tour of duty. I have plans to make the new baby a present, but I don't know when that will get done.

Strangely enough, I think I followed the instructions correctly, but I ended up with two sets of diamonds for the star. So I made one set with green on the inside and purple on the outside and flipped the other ones around so the purple was in the middle. I very often put my projects somewhere I can see them, walk past them, catch a glimpse of them, when I'm trying to make a decision about something. In this case, I brought the two stars to the office and laid them on the sham so I could see which one I thought worked better with the bedding. As it turns out, Melanie, a dear friend and coworker whose daughter scored the doll clothes a while back was offering feedback and mentioned that the colors matched her dining room. So once I decided which one went to Julie and Scott, the other star had a home. Lucky break for me--joy all around!

A footnote, so to speak. As an anniversary gift I believe, Scott made Julie this beautiful headboard. She sent me this photo and there's the quilt I made. Talk about making my day! From this picture, you can see that the bedding really was more intense in color than how it was shown in the photo above. But what an amazingly talented woodworker Scott is--that's a beautiful headboard!

I had mentioned that the quilter of my cousin's king-size quilt did a wonderful job. Well, here's are the photos to prove it. I knew I had them somewhere and I ran across them in the reorg that's still going on.

So here are some close-up photos. I tweaked the colors and contrast a bit so you could see the quilting better. In the borders, she quilted lines using green thread and bobbins, which is why it shows up so well on the backing. In the little pieces inner border, and yes, I pieces those strips from the leftover strips cut for the blocks, she quilted those too with ivory thread and bobbin. In the red border strips on either side of the little strips, she quilted a vine pattern. And in the corner blocks of the little strips borders, there's a mini-block--I think it's a mini version of the bigger block used in the center of the quilt. THAT'S the type of detail the quilter put into this project! She did a scrolly square motif in each block using variegated green thread, so it showed in the off-white strips. As you can tell, I was pretty impressed with the quilting--I photographed the back, after all.

To see the quilting better, double-click on the image.

And since I found these old photos, I thought I'd scan them in and share them here. Over the next few days (maybe even weeks), I'll show you some interesting things I've made over the years and post some additional previously mentioned shots of projects I've blogged about in past posts.

To start, the bear quilt. You might recall that I blogged about the baby blocks quilt in early December. As mentioned in that blog, I've made several versions of this quilt over the year. One was this teddy-bear-in-sailor-suits version (too distinctive for publication, of course, but cute none-the-less).

I really love this quilt! First, because it's so darn easy to shop for! For a 44" x 56" quilt (roughly), I start by choosing 1-5/8 yd. of the print for the border and the big blocks (because I prefer to start with the border print, but you don't have to), then select 5/8 yd. of each of the two colors to be used in the 16-patch blocks, and then something like 7/8 yd. for the inner border and binding. (All of these measurements have room for error and shrinkage built in.)

Second, I love this quilt because it's so easy to construct. For the pieced blocks, you cut eight 2"-wide strips across the width of each of the two fabrics and sew them together in sets of four, alternating light and dark. Then the pieced strips are cut 2"-wide, flipped top to bottom, and sewn together so they make 18 checkerboard blocks.

When you're cutting the borders (which you need to do before you cut the blocks), you have to pay attention if you're using directional fabric. The side borders are cut at 6" x 47", and the top and bottom borders are cut 6" x 44" (basically, across the width of the fabric). And this is the important part. Use your fabric as a guide--if it's only 43" wide sans selvedge, cut your borders a little bit narrower, because you don't want to have to piece the bottom and top borders. Then, once you have the borders cut, cut the 17 solid blocks 6-1/2" square. The inner border is cut at 1-1/2" wide--cut five across the width of the fabric and piece the side borders as necessary. And the binding is cut however you want to do it--I usually cut mine 2" wide and do French fold binding.

Then you just sew the center blocks together in rows, alternating the checkerboard and solid blocks. Then sew the rows together, then add the inner and outer borders. Quilt it, bind it, and don't forget to add a label (something I'm terrible about remembering to do), and you're done!

Do you have a favorite quilt pattern that you can create in a short period of time and you do, over and over again? Or are you going to tackle this one? I'd love to hear about it. If you've blogged about it, post a link in your comment so I can check it out.

I designed this quilt a while back and have made several of them in my quilting years. I made one with these fabrics, obviously. I made one with a teddy-bear-in-sailor-suits print with royal and tan blocks and a red border (Randy and Michaelle's baby, I think). I made one with a black-and-beige baseball print; the blocks were black and beige and the inner border and binding being red (Baby Boy Blum who is now 11-year-old Boy Blum). There may have been others, but I can't remember right now. Again, somewhere in my photo files are pictures of those projects---I'll look soon.

The Baby Blocks quilt was published in McCall's Quilting Quick Quilts March 2000 issue. I believe I still have the materials list for this one in my checkbook, so I can quickly pick up the fabrics for this quilt if I get inspired on-the-fly!

Now comes the part that I'm almost embarrassed to admit. The quilting that I did on this was minimal. When I got it back from the magazine, there was much more quilting on it than I'd sent it with. I just put diagonal lines through the 16-patch blocks, forming an X in each block. They added triangles in the plain squares in each section of the X. Then they worked meandering in the borders. These are things I'd like to have the chance to practice on my quilting machine.

Sometimes you mess up. There's no excuse for it, there's no fixing it, and there's no way to ask for forgiveness. This quilt would be the example I keep with me as my mess-up. I tried a new technique with this quilt and every time I look at it, I think "wow, I did not do a good job on this one." I used that flip technique where you cut blocks, sew diagonally across the block, then flip the triangle back. I had a lot to learn, and accuracy was one of them. Even now, I feel like I should go back and fix things, both on the quilt and somehow in my reputation, but both things would be virtually impossible. I've thought about adding a lot of quilting to it to secure the not-well-secured blocks, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

But that being said, I still love the colors and fabrics in this one. It still screams "Florida" to me. The deep teals, greens, and purples offset the very light, sweepy patterned background and the spiral-y darker border fabrics. So despite my disappointment in the execution, I still love this design. And I'm proud that it appeared in the September 1999 issue of McCall's Quilting Quick Quilts.

I was really working on doing a lot of designing at the point when these quilts got published in the July 1999 issue of McCall's Quilting Quick Quilts. I must have been, because I'm looking through this issue of the magazine and I have three quilts in one issue--the Sea Breeze quilt I blogged about earlier was in it (p. 62), Fishy Fishy (shown here) on p. 48, and the Precious Posies wall quilt (p. 18). It was a stroke of luck to be sure, having three in one issue.

Don't let the size of these images fool you, these quilts aren't the same size. Fishy Fishy measured about 64" square, while Precious Posies was about 30" square. Both of these quilts represented the color assortment of the quilt shop in Florida much better than some others I made during that period of time. I think I used a cookie cutter for the flower shape in the Posies quilt and I fused and blanket stitched the leaves along the border and the leaves and stems on the flowers (see the closeup image of the corner motifs).

I always thought Fishy Fishy would be a great play-mat quilt for a child, with the bright colors and shapes. And when I was at home with my folks and showing the Precious Posies quilt to friends of my Mom and Dad, one of their friends wanted it if I were ever to part with it. Problem is, I can't remember which one of their friends wanted it, so I still have it and they don't (and if you're reading this, leave a comment)! I finished these quilts in the cold winter months (Jan. and Feb.) of 1999 while living in the farmhouse where I grew up. As was my MO from living there, I remember setting up my sewing machine on a card table in the living room so I could watch TV while sewing.

So there it is, my pinnacle of quilting success--three projects in one issue. And as I look back over my blog posts over the past year, I don't think I've finished a single quilt project. That's got to change in 2010--I really miss designing and making quilts.

What a great Thanksgiving weekend! Visits with friends and family, doing a little surfing on the web, and, of course, doing a lot of the cooking. I found a new site this week: FaveCrafts.com and their blog: FaveCraftsBlog.com.

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
See a necklace and bracelet made from the same Blue Moon Beads pendant with a how-to video with me.

The Artful Crafter
Whatever the holiday, make cute pop-up place cards to organize the dinner table and delight guests of all ages.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy is making her first crocheted hat for herself. Now, hopefully it will be done by the time it gets cold down South!

Cross Stitch at About.com
The 2009 Holiday Ornament Collection is ready! Whip up some super quick back stitch ornies or cross stitch some more colorful ones.

The Impatient Crafter
Madge is ready for Christmas so bring it on! Check out this retrolicious frame she designed for iLoveToCreate

Mixed Media Artist
Mixed media artist Nicolette Anderson shares her lovely work!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Craftside's got yummy pumpkin cookie and biscuit recipes, an inside peek into Bead Quilled Jewelry, eco friendly recipes for casein glue and an all-purpose cleaner, and starting Monday- The 19 Days of Holiday Goodness Giveaways starts, answer each day's question and you are entered to win a free book every day!

Aileen's Musings
Aileen invites you to join a creative challenge with her called the Erosion Bundle Project. Take a peek at her pictures and find out exactly what erosion bundles are!

About Family Crafts
Does your family have any creative Thanksgiving traditions. You can read about other people's Thanksgiving traditions and then share your own.

And here on Farm Girl Roots, City Girl Style, I blogged about how creativity can prosper even in dark times.