Practice, practice, practice...

I'm working on a few little quilt tops for the "Weather Creek Quilts" google group I mentioned a couple of posts back. Designer Trudie Hughes is conducting a series of quilt lessons and suggested that we have a few small quilt tops saved for pieced border practicing a little later on.

The photo above is a top I made to practice the "Birds in the Air" piecing. Fun to make and only took a couple of hours at most.

The fabrics next to it at the bottom left of the photo are ones I was auditioning to see if I have anything that I can use in the pieced border later on. (The colors are off but my photos usually are :-)

Love this fabric with the animals in the park that I used for the alternate blocks...




Some patterns being produced these days try to make things so simple that there's no longer any expectation of accuracy. Am I the only that's getting tired of nearly all the recently designed patterns instructing you to "sew and flip" and whack off the extra fabric? They've even termed it "bonus triangles" to make you think you're getting something out of that fabric you just wasted! It's so common in fact, that quilters are making little quilt tops just to start using them all up!

With fabric creeping up to the $10 a yard price range... and the economy in the tank.... I'd rather not waste a yard here and another there because the pattern designers assume we can't sew accurately!?! I'm all for quicker and easier methods... I work a full time job and my quilting time is limited. But, I don't want to get so absorbed into finding them that I avoid using the skills that I've worked so hard to accomplish.

I love patterns as much as the next girl. I buy many just to put in my binder and look through when I'm too tired to sew, or need a little inspiration. But, I don't want patterns to be the "be all, end all" of my quilting. I hope as I continue to fine tune my skills and add to them, I'll be more inclined to blaze my own trails and less likely to just clone what I see!

I want to learn as much as I can, while I can. How often do you find a designer willing to take quilters by the hand and work to make sure they learn the fundamentals? Although I do have some 20 years quilting experience, it's good to step back and practice a few skills that are a little rusty. It's even better to learn a few new ones!

I splurged this week and bought a cute brightly colored fabric panel... Lots of possibilities with this one! ;-) I give most of the quilts I make away and making quilts for children going through tough times is rewarding beyond belief.

I don't think I could ever sell one of my quilts, could you? There's a little bit of my heart in each and every one. You give your heart away, you don't sell it.

Scrap Twist quilt

This is what I've been working on this week while waiting for my quilting machine to get repaired. I can't wait to see the magic happen when the blocks are sewn together!

This is a fun pattern to make! I was asking some friends for scrap quilt suggestions when one of them suggested I check out Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville website. I know she has many free quilt patterns there so I went to take a second look and decided on "Strip Twist". Click on the previous link to see how the diamonds sparkle when the blocks are pieced. Diamonds are a girl's best friend and these are no exception.

I had the 2 1/2" strips pre-cut and I was able to use up quite a few oddballs that always got tossed aside when I'd go through my neutral strips. The ones that are a little too "noisy" to put with the neutrals and a little too "blah" to put with darks and mediums. Now they've found that "just right" place to call home.

I have two large hampers full of Thimbleberries scraps that I really need to turn into quilts. I think I can use most of them up just by trying out more of Bonnie's patterns!

The next photo shows the orphan fabrics that I'll be using for the Scrap Twist borders. A couple of non-descript fabrcis that I decided to take out and use. I generally don't pre-wash Thimbleberries fabrics but these were stored in a bin in my garage for quite a while.

I think I'll go hunt for my spray bottle of water and spritz these pretty good to get all these wrinkles out! Black and a deep burnt sunset orange... pefect fall colors, don't you think?

The retirement life of a quilting icon...

I neglected to mention the Rail Fence quilt below is the result of one of the first quilt lessons on "Weather Creek Quilts." A relatively new Google group I've joined. There is a slight charge to belong to the group, $60 per year (cheap at only $5 per month!) The proceeds go toward the children's shelter La Causa.

My own sister works as a counselor in children and family services so I'm familiar with the great need of children's shelters.

Trudie Hughes, the group owner of Weather Creek Quilts, is a familiar name among quilters. She's a retired quilt shop owner who's written 14 quilt books, many patterns and designed the rulers I've used for over a decade. It's the only brand ruler my local quilt shop would carry! My very first quilt was from one of her books. The Scrapaholic quilt is now available as a single pattern. I still have it in my living room and it's been well loved, let me tell you!

I'm a fairly experienced quilter but I'm going through the group lessons from the beginning. If there's a more accurate or time saving method of doing something Trudie knows how to do it! I hope to learn all the tricks she's willing to share. This isn't a chatty group but rather more of a classroom setting.

This week we're making a mystery scrap quilt. I have my blocks done but I won't post the photo because others are still working on it. It's really been a lot of fun to put together!

I've heard some quilters recently comment about being bored in retirement. I suppose retirement is just like other stages of life... it's up to you what you make of it. Trudie makes 25 quilts a month... and donates them. What an amazing inspiration!