Summertime

Even though it's Fall, I'm in love with the new line, Summertime, by Barbara Jones of Quilt Soup. I saw this collection in May at Spring Quilt Market and have been waiting impatiently (I've told you, I'm very impatient when it comes to quilting stuff!). Barb is not only as nice as can be (every time I see her I feel like we've been friends forever), but she designs this fresh, fun colorful fabric. I love the graphic, somewhat modern look...

And the colors - aqua, grey, and coral (my current favs)...

Haven't seen this graphic before...

Great pieces to use as basics with lots of other lines...

Or together to make a stunning quilt...

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More Root Beer Float

My friend, Pam made a great Root Beer Float table runner. This is the first pattern I ever did and it never seems to get old. I love it in these bright colors!The fabric is from the Hickory Stick and this sample will be in the shop soon.

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We have a Sunburst

Progress on this quilt. I've got all the rows of diamonds sewn together. I ended up with diamonds along the edge, so I simply trimmed them off leaving my 1/4" seam allowance.

Here's how it looks so far. I've decided to square off the corners with triangles. I actually saw a similar quilt on someone's blog where the corners were one piece of fabric rather than all those diamonds. I liked the look and heaven knows it will be easier!
You'll notice that it's a little different than a Lone Star. The points are oriented up and down and left and right. There are no set-in squares or triangles since it's just half a diamond. Thanks for your suggestions on the origin of the pattern. I've looked at all the suggested names and found "Sunburst" #4006 in Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns to be the closest. The picture in the book looks a lot like my top photo with all the diamonds on the edges. Not sure how they coped with that!

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Will it work?

Back to the sewing room after celebrating some important birthdays - a 3 birthday...

And a 1 Birthday... By the way, we were invited back for the 4 birthday and asked to please bring presents!

I picked this up at Rosie's Calico Cupboard in San Diego. A great shop with TONS of fabric. I'm going to do the new Schnibbles pattern, Paganini. There are several versions in the pattern and I'm having trouble deciding which to do. I may have to do a couple!

So after some food shopping, lots a laundry, a little housecleaning and a visit with the girlfriends (Dairy Queen included), I cut into my Innocent Crush. I'm going to attempt the Pottery Barn quilt I showed you here. Never found a pattern, so I'm winging it. The quilt is made of half diamonds. Pieced kind of like a Lone Star, using half the diamond shape. I'm strip piecing it and was able to make 8 rows with the yardage I had.

After sewing the strips together, you simply cut the diamond shapes using the 45 degree angle on your ruler.

It's really pretty easy.
In 3 hours today, I drafted the design, figured my fabric order, cut and sewed several rows of strip sets and went from this...

To this... I have 3 more rows to go before I can sew them together into half diamond shapes. The biggest problem with this quilt is that I really don't know what it's going to look like until it's almost done! I'm hoping it will work - keeping my fingers crossed.

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Fancy bag holder...

Out with the old, stained, country blue bag holder

In with the new, clean, modern bag holder. It was too cute to put in the pantry!

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Quilts on Beds?

My friend Anne from Batiks by the Bay recently had an interesting dilemma. She doesn't make large bed quilts, so she needed something to put on her bed that went with the cushions (pillows in the US) and the wall hanging she had made. I had to comment because I also don't make bed-size quilts. {I'm way too impatient to stick with a queen/king size quilt}

I thought I'd share what I do on my beds. They all have some kind of neutral bed covering and I fold the quilts at the bottom. This way I can change out the quilt at whim. This is a simple white quilt I found. It has horizontal straight lines quilted on it. My Mid West Modern Amy Butler quilts looks great...

As does my Stacked Coin quilt.

In this bedroom I have a white matelasse coverlet. I love those because they have the texture of quilting. Here is my Star Struck quilt on it...

Or I can switch it to Root Beer Float.

This bed has a pick-stitch quilt from Pottery Barn. I got it on sale at a really good price. At the foot is my Red Velvet quilt made from French General fabrics.

I love the texture in the Pottery Barn quilt.

So what's on your beds?

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My quilts...

It's really amazing to see your quilts hanging in public. I have to pinch myself sometimes. A trunk show from my newest book Flowers All Around is currently hanging at Jackman's Fabrics. Pictures never quite do them justice ~ it's great to see them "in person".

I also got an email from Cheri in Victor, NY who just completed "My Secret Garden" in Gathered From the Garden. It's it beautiful? I love that she changed it around a little bit!

And her quilting is amazing!

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