Sunday, September 22, 2013

Last free BOM link is open!

The Fan Flower link is now open.  This is block 42 and is the last in the Vintage Sampler series.  Whew!  It has been a blast to design and share this pattern.  One would think writing 42 block patterns would be a real task, and it was.  But I action wrote 126 patterns because I did three versions of each block.  OMG!

Thanks to all of my great followers and newsletter readers who have faithfully followed this BOM.  I am going to start a new one next month, and no hints will be given as I am still working out the details.

Once this BOM closes the whole Vintage Sampler quilt will be available for purchase as a complete pattern only, and the 12" and 16" versions of the block, available only to my subscribers, will no longer be available at all.

I am introducing two new patterns this month which will be available from my publisher: Quiltwoman.com.  They are made featuring the Jo Morton fabric line Dovetails I from Andover Fabric.

The first pattern is called Pave the Way.  It is actually pretty simple as it features plain background blocks and all the design is fusible applique!


The second pattern is called Temple and is a combination pieced and applique quilt using the same line of Jo Morton fabric.



If you are interested in being a pattern tester -- and have a high level of piecing and applique skill AND the time to complete a top in a relatively short time frame -- please let me know.  I have a lot of patterns which need to be tested before they can be published.

Stay tuned for more new designs.

On the home front, the kitties are as crazy as ever.
Clear evidence that they are possessed!

Buffy is sitting on Buster's tail and Buster is sitting with his feet on either side of Buffy giving her a back rub, looking like a total dweeb.
And Rockie, our yellow lab, trashed my office yesterday while I was gone in an effort to climb onto the table behind a set of boxes where the cat food is hidden.  We had just filled the cat food canister and Rocky ate the whole thing.  When we got home his stomach was bulging and the cat food was GONE.  The most damning evidence, however, was the complete chaos he made of my office knocking things down in his attempt to get at the highly ingenious secret location of the cat food. . . not so secret anymore.  Damn dog!
Rocky eating watermelon.
This weekend I had a great time vending at the Nightime Needlers Quilt Show in N. Kansas City, MO. What a great group of quilters and wonderful quilts.  Here is my booth:

And here are a few of the great quilts in the show:





Ok, hope your weekend is going great and you are enjoying this wonderful fall Kansas weather!



Saturday, September 7, 2013

Vintage Sampler BOM Complete this Month

It has been nearly 2 years of working on this applique quilt and I am so ready to get it assembled and on to the quilter.  My blocks are done and I am doing a bit of embellishing and will assemble the complete top in the next few weeks.

I just marvel at the productivity of several of my blog and newsletter readers who have been making some amazing renditions of this quilt.  Check out these quilt by Betty King:

 This fabulous quilt is made using the 16" blocks which were available for free to my newsletter subscribers.  I love your colorful frames around the block and simple setting triangles to finish it off.

 What a great way to use 15 of the blocks.  Notice she made 2 different versions of the basket block  and set them on point across the top as a pillow fold.  Very creative, and some great quilting too!

 This is Betty's most recent quilt suing some of the last series of blocks.  She sure love those green borders!  But what a fun way to showcase just 9 blocks in a great lap quilt.

 This adorable on-point setting using the 12" blocks from the newsletter.  They are just adorable and the cross-hatch quilting really is nice with the motion of the blocks.

Those 16" wreath blocks just really pop in this setting.  Notice how she used different color backgrounds in the blocks.  So creative and beautiful.  So far Betty has 5 completed quilts from this BOM!!  That has got to be a record,  and I bet she has more coming since she made all 42 of the blocks in all 3 sizes for a total of 126 blocks + several duplicates that appear here and there.  And she wan't afraid to play with different colors than the ones I selected, and I just love her choices.  Way to go Betty!!

I am done with the top for my version of Flower Dance which was featured as a Block of the Month and my local quilt shop.  I am pleased with the final quilt but it turned out HUGE.  They have kits available for this quilt (all batiks!) if you want to make this quilt.  It includes all the fabric for these 16" blocks plus all the sashing and border fabric, and the binding fabric for a 101" x 101" quilt!  You can contact Quilting Bits & Pieces in Eudora, KS at 785-542-2080 or bitsnpieces@sunflower.com




OK, here is the latest kitty update.  Those dratted cats are just about as crazy as a siamese can be, and they are pretty much working on all 9 of their lives!







Happy Quilting!