Potholders and Snippets

Since I'm still on this scrap kick, I zipped up these potholders with just some left over blocks and strips. The problem is they are too cute to use. (I'm still using my old ratty ones.) And since I really like the quilting stitch I used on these, I was anxious to do something larger that I could use this on. (I call it a funky zigzag. The other times I have seen this stitch it has always been done on a Bernina. Although I could very well be wrong.)





I put this Snippets quilt together last weekend and I thought it would be the perfect project for this funky zigzag quilting. While I think this kind of quilting is fine for this type of quilt, it is a little uniform form me. So, I will probably save the funky zigzag for my future potholders. (The next set I make won't be this cute so I won't want to not use them.) Happy quilting!

Ahhh, Monday

Ahhh, It's just another Monday, or is it? I had every intention of sitting down to post this picture and talk about the mini sewing retreat I went on this weekend. Instead, the school nurse called me at 9:00 am this morning to tell me my son had thrown up and to ask me to come and get him. Absolutely! I went and picked him up, came home, got him settled on the couch. The phone rings again. The school nurse calling to tell me that my daughter had just come to her office complaining of a stomach ache. So, at 9:20 I was at the school signing her out. After I got back home and got her settled, I called my mother to tell her all about my morning and she just laughed and laughed like something was funny. So here I am making chicken noodle soup and jello and I'm hoping (probably against hope) that the little rascals haven't given their little stomach bug to me. Happy sewing!

Free piecing finish on a glorious day!

It is a glorious day to be alive in Austin, Texas! Sunny, 74 degrees, and clear blue sky as far as the eye can see! Yipee!
A perfect day to show some free-piecing finishes. If you've got fingers that are itching to sew and no project in mind, pull out those scraps and make a little something.



And of course, I pieced the backs! Cause what's not to like about a pieced back?



Makes a cute table runner or wall hanging. And it eats up those scraps. Yeah!
Happy quilting!

Quilting while pondering quilting

While sewing together these little stars today (from my scraps), I pondered a question I was asked earlier in the week. "What is "modern" quilting? Is it rectagular shapes and minimal pattern? Is it "free piecing? What about the intricate and innovative? And what about color and texture?
Jaquie @ Tallgrass is doing work that I would consider modern but she uses traditional blocks alot. What about Victoria? That Kitchen sink of hers is certainly funky but that type of quilt has been made before. I'm not saying Victoria isn't doing her own thing. She is! I've seen her in action in the flesh and she's awesome. And me? I may not have reinvented the wheel but I'm certainly rolling it down a road I paved myself. (And I'm singing my own song while I'm doin it!)
So, I guess "modern quilting" is really like pornography. You may not be able to "define" it, but you sure know it when you see it!
Happy quilting!

Quick and cute

Isn't this the cutest table runner? And when I tell you how fast it went together, the cuteness factor will go up another notch or two. Monday, in between folding many loads of laundry, I pieced these log cabins (from scraps of course). Monday night I did a little stitch in the ditch quilting. Tuesday, in the hour I had free before I had to make dinner, I did a little free-motion quilting on it. After dinner was over I put the binding on and I tacked that binding down (by hand) while I was watching The Good Wife.
It is one of those pieces that just make me smile. And tomorrow I'm giving to my friend Ann (cause it looks like her and I luv and appreciate her).




And of course I pieced the back.
Happy quilting!

Brrrrrr! It's Cold!

Brrr! I's stinkin cold outside! And if you want to complain about the cold, and you are in Austin, Tx, you might want to be careful who you complain to. For instance, if you are calling your friend up to tell her you are sending her something and the cold just happens to come up (Mostly cause you just can't comprehend how people live in this kind of cold) make sure she
A) doesn't live in New York City and B) isn't from Minnesota.
Not that she wasn't perfectly sympathetic and lovely, until she realized that it wasn't under zero degrees and there was no wind chill. She even asked me if we had coats here. (Of course we have coats here. Well, they are actually more like jackets.) The good thing about the cold is I've been home sewing all day. Yipee! There's always a silver lining! And the sun is out and it is above freezing! Double Yipee! (I know I sound whiny, but if it were a hundred degrees outside and I had a little patch of shade and a glass of iced tea, I wouldn't even break a sweat.) And because I adore my friend Victoria, I'm sending her all these little half-square triangles for her Kitchen sink quilt. (I'm also sending these cause I need them gone.) Now I think I'll go sew a little more.
Happy Quilting!

New Year, New Project

There is something about the beginning of a new year that makes you want to start a new project. My first project of 2010 is another collaboration withVictoria. It will be our 5th. She sent me some fabric. I then added a few solids and made these blocks.




After trimming the triangles off the snowball blocks I sewed these little rascals together. And made these little blocks with the rest. Next, I'm sending these blocks to Victoria and they are hers to do with them what she wants. She will then send the top back to me and I'll quilt it.
Have you got a friend you like to sew with? Y'all divvie up some fabric, agree on a few basic guidelines and make something fun!
Happy quilting!