I heart aqua...

My laundry room color needed a little pick-me-up. I decided to paint it one of my current favorites ~ aqua.

Then I added my red and aqua wall quilt...

Definitely picked things up!

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While you were shopping...

Instead of experiencing the crowds, I was sewing on Black Friday. A Christmas pillow case for my favorite three-year-old.

I can only show you a "sneak peek" of my project for the STLMQG "Brown Bag Exchange".

Some "Mug Rugs".

Two are gifts.

And one will be for Bound Together Quilt Guild's gift exchange.
Really, I didn't miss the crowds!

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Winner!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I have much to be thankful for. A wonderful family, great friends and a little fabric to play with every day. Makes my heart smile!

The winner of the Fandango layer cake is commenter #7 ~ Anita. Congratulations! I'll just need your address, Anita.

Two of my favorite designers have just released new lines and I couldn't resist. This is Patty Young's new line Sanctuary. I think I've dabbled with a bit of every one of her lines, including Flora and Fauna to make this wall hanging.

And this is Parisville by Tula Pink. Another super talented designer, the line is so colorful and yummy!
See, I do have a lot to be thankful for. Have a blessed holiday!

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Blooms and Bowties

My little wall quilt just hit the news stands in McCall's Quilting. It's simple, fun and you could have it done before the tulips really start popping through the ground.

It's featured in the January/February issue!

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Give Away!

Sometimes I feel a little nutty with what's happening in my corner of the quilting world. I certainly can't focus on one thing, but flit around from project to project, fabric to fabric and idea to idea. What's happening this week? This one is bound and hung!

I'm playing with a simple version of my block inspired by Martha Stewart's magazine cover with those cute pillows. Grays, whites, blacks and golds.

I can't wait to make this "Birdbath" pattern using colors inspired by my dining room curtain fabric, from The Practical Guide to Patchwork.

More progress on the Zig Zag quilt.

And I cut up my "Modern Meadow" to make simple square in a square blocks.

I want to thank you all for hanging out with me in my nutty little corner of the internet. I'm a big fan of Kate Spain fabric (in fact someone has nominated me president of her fan club!!) and would like to share some of the gorgeousness. Next Wed. I'll draw from the comments on this post for a Fandango layer cake. Thanks for being here!!

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Weekends...

This weekend I got to attend my first meeting of the Saint Louis Modern Quilt Guild. This is turning into a wonderful group of quilters filled with talent and enthusiasm. So many of us start quilting because we love the craft, but find the friendships it creates are more valuable than the quilting. I'm so excited after quilting for so many years to make new friends, get inspired and learn something new. I'm following all the blogs of our STL Modern Quilt Guild members. You'll find them here if you'd like to also.

I also finished up the quilting on my Root Beer Float this weekend. I used 2 of my favorite and easy marking methods. The first is painter's masking tape. It comes in several widths and is perfect for marking straight lines. I used the 1 1/2" width to make straight lines on the outer border. (Use a walking foot or a dual feed).

I have widths from 3/4" to 2". I love the look of parallel lines unevenly spaced. Having different widths is perfect for marking that.

I used my Quilt Pounce (aka Swipe) to mark a design in the small stars. You can make your own templates using Golden Threads paper. After drawing the design on the paper, perforate the paper by stitching it with no thread in the machine. Lay the paper rough side up on the quilt and slide the Pounce over it. The Pounce is filled with chalk that will iron off when you're done. It's so quick! Love it!
The block quilted:

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Zig and Zag

I got inspired by this...

To make a Zig Zag quilt. There are lots of tutorials on the internet, but I chose to go my own way and used quarter-square triangles. 6" finished, so 10 across would make 60" and 13 down would make 78". Perfect. Until I cut them all out, checked for color on the design wall and realized they are 3" tall. So back to the cutting table I'll go to cut 13 more rows.

I did have to sew a few rows together to get some zigs and zags.

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More red and aqua

A little quilting and a red binding will finish this up.

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Another One

Sorry... it's another Root Beer Float quilt.

This one's going on the quilting block next...

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Happy Chic

Happy Chic = 95% Chic + 5% Happy.

Browsing in the bookstore this week I came across this fun book, On Happy Chic Colors by Jonathan Adler. It's so full of inspiration, not only for decorating, but also for quilting.

My favorite part is where he takes each color and gives you ideas on what to mix it with and how. For example, in the classic blue and yellow combo he says, "Keep one soft, the other one punchy".
And I love all the colorful, graphic designs, like these...

And these...

Remember this baby? Well, it's getting quilted!!

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Organizing

I did a lecture for a guild a couple weeks ago on Organizing your Sewing Space. One of the things I talk about is folding your fabric for shelf storage and the fact that fat quarters are too small to store folded on a shelf. They tend to get lost in the pile. Since I wasn't following my own advice, last week I went through my piles of fabric and separated the FQs. I also found I had been lazy about washing my new purchases, so I washed loads of fabric.

Shout Color Catchers are invaluable for catching excess dye as you can see by my pink sheet.

I know it's a controversial issue, but do you prewash? and why or why not?

Does anyone know what line this print is from? Love it... found it in my stash... don't remember buying it and I have no printed selvage. I might want to find some more!

So here are my washed, folded and neatly stacked FQs.

In drawers by color for easy retrieval.

Another great tip I have is using a notebook to store all your specialty rulers WITH instructions. (This cute one found at Target).

I slip the ruler and instructions in a page protector and store in the notebook. I was having trouble finding the directions when I wanted to use one of the rulers.

Recently purchased new books - full of fun, modern patterns - I'm putting those FQs to use!

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