As pretty as a quilt...

I finished sewing my Dresden blocks together today, but I'm adding a small white border. Once that's done I'll have some pictures.

In the mean time I thought I'd share some photos from the Flower Fields in San Diego. Not a large garden, compared to our Missouri Botanical Garden, but certainly breathtaking!


That's the ocean in the background!
The kids even had a great time. They were given a "map" and told to find the stamping stations to mark their maps. Along with a maze and a playground - there was fun for everyone!
It made me want to put my Mother's Day gift to use when I got home!
We also made a trip to Maisonette and found not only some new fabric, but some new friends and bloggers. As we were shopping I overheard a customer talking about a great modern quilt shop in Kansas City. My ears perked up and when I asked her about it, I learned that the 2 ladies in the shop were modern quilters from Kansas City. Yes, it's a small world and you can read about it here. There are also some great pictures of the shop here.

You really need to drop in on my new Kansas City friends ~ Shea from The Empty Bobbin and Mary Anne from Quilt Logic: It's a Process.

Speaking of new blogs, Shannon is blogging at Fabric Nosherie as she plans on opening a modern quilt store in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis. I'm so excited and plan on keeping her in business!!

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Focus...

I've got several projects in the works and this week I decided none will get done unless I focus on something. So I chose my Dresden quilt and worked on coming up with a setting.

After rejecting a few ideas, I settled on this - scrappy Nine-Patch cornerstones and simple sashing.
I'm doing 12 Dresden blocks and I've only got 1 1/2 left to applique.
It's amazing how things move along when you focus!

If you're local - don't forget the quilter's garage sale at Bindings, Borders and Squares this Saturday. I've got some fabric bundles, quilt tops and finished quilts to sell. Hope to see you there!

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Welcome

If you've been hanging around here for a while, you may remember my determination to make a Starburst quilt here and here. And you may have thought it didn't work because I never spoke of it again. Until now. That's because it's now hiding in the lower left corner of the cover of a special issue of McCall's Quilting called America Quilts for the Home.If you look close, you'll see it on the editor's page.
But on page 12, you can find out how to make your own! It's really a striking quilt and the magazine is filled with many more!
Here's my shot of it, dutifully held up by the hubby. The center 2 rows of diamonds are from Amy Butler's "Love" line and the remainder of the prints are from Anna Marie Horner's "Innocent Crush" line. The background is Kona Coal.
And a little close up of the quilting.
The issue is at news stands now!

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A finished quilt and more...

This week was spent finishing up the quilting on my Marmalade quilt.

I won a layer cake of "Bliss" and decided to use the pattern exactly as pictured (a rarity for me).
The quilting took a while - lots of custom feathered wreaths and leaves.
And I'm happy with how it turned out!
I'm headed to CA tomorrow, so the blog will be silent for a bit. I put some UFO's up on my design wall. I'm going to make some progress on these when I get back.

"City Lights" from City Quilts. I'm making this for my urban son who'll be moving to a new apartment this Summer.
I've got 8 or 9 Joseph's Coat blocks done and I've decided to put them together into a small wall quilt. Just need to read the directions carefully and figure out how to put these together.
My Soul Blossoms Dresdens are multiplying. These go pretty quick and I'll be putting them together soon!
I pieced some of my leftover triangles into Zig Zag rows. I'm not sure I'm really loving this. I did it because I had triangles I wanted to use up, but I'm not sure it's worth my time if I don't love the result. Mmm, waste time or waste fabric? What do you do?
I got a Stylish Blogger Award this week from Natalie at Threaded Mess. When I get back I'll be sharing 6 of my favorite new blogs to pass on the award. Thanks Natalie!

Of course I'll be watching the reports from Spring Quilt Market. Always an exciting time. You can find who'll be blogging from Market with all the scoops here.

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Monday Morning Musings...

The second one should be 2x easier, but it's actually 10x easier...Kool-aid is really good...
You can't go to Paducah and NOT come home with stash fabric...
You have to buy what your friend's buying or you'll regret it when you get home...
I never thought I'd use gray in a quilt and now I'm drawn to it...
It's a good day when you get home from a fabric buying spree and there's more in the mail...
A good motto to live by...

Lisa Leonard Designs

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Backpack...

I'm off to see the grand-kids next week and I have to bring something cute! I used the tutorial from Sew, Mama, Sew to make this backpack. It was really easy! The fabric is Sugar and Spice by Riley Blake.I was a little worried about doing the straps, but they were a breeze!
One down and one more to go. Even at 1 1/2, Maddy needs a backpack. She's familiar with backpacks thanks to Dora and she has to have whatever her big sister has, including wearing underpants over her diaper!

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More Info...

Issue 5 of Fat Quarterly Magazine (an e-zine; electronic magazine) is available on Wed. I'm thrilled to be featured in this issue - I even broke down and sent in a picture of myself. I thought it would be fun to take it in the sewing room. Four pictures of my quilts are also included in the feature.

There are also a lot of great articles and patterns in the magazine. For a sneak peek, you can visit the blog. The e-zine can be purchased here.
I had a few questions about how I did my block in the last post. I used a Kaleidoscope ruler that I've had for a while - there are other rulers you could use. The top needs to be a 45 degree angle. The background triangles were cut from a 4" strip and the colored triangles were cut from a 6" strip.

Simply sew the triangles together like you would a pinwheel. Notice that the colored triangles are bigger than the background triangles. Then trim the block to a 6 1/2" square.

Here it is all trimmed up.

In my quilt, I alternated white and gray backgrounds. I had to carefully lay out the colored triangles so I'd use the same fabric in adjoining blocks to make the stars. That was the tedious part!
Hope that helps!

April 27th - oops! This post was updated today with some corrections on the block. In my original post the background and colored triangles were switched. Hope nobody made the whole quilt incorrectly last night! Amazing how clearly things look in the morning after a cup of coffee. ~C

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