Of course a holiday weekend has to be remembered by a little quilt, I made this little quilt today. These are 3" nine patches , the quilt will finished at 15 1/2" square. Any chance I had over this long weekend I made nine patches!

While I was cutting and making nine patches I cut extra 1 1/2 inch squares, those 1 1/2 in squares are for my postage stamp blocks, I hope to make 3 this week and then I will put it away again for a month or two while I collect more squares. The key is variety for this quilt in mho. I am repeating fabrics but not in the same block.


On the wall now is 1,000 squares! Yes 100 squares per block.
Here is the block I will sew together tomorrow! hopefully some day this quilt will be 10 blocks x 10 rows, yes thats 10,000 squares right? I try not to think about that!

If you decide to make a little quilt like mine
I would love to see a picture.
I love making little quilts like this to use during a holiday and be able to use it anytime during the year. What's better then a red, white and blue quilt for Memorial Day remembrance?
I plan on binding it in red.
Thank you so much for all the nice comments about my quilt on the cover of AP and Q magazine. It truly is an honor.

What an honor! I was so surprised when I was told that my scrappy quilt, Weaving the Rails, would be on the cover of American Patchwork and Quilting August 2011 issue. This issue is now arriving in mailboxes , quilt shops and your favorite book stores!

There are a lot of nice quilts in this issue, a few little quilts too that I know I will be making! Love the hexagon tote bag in this issue as well...please check it out! let me know what you think.
don't you love the trip down memory lane looking at these fabrics?
some of my favorite fabrics are in this quilt from the past few years....as I always say its all about the fabrics!!!

I love making nine patches! these are 3" finished.I started making these over the weekend, guess this is my next quilt to make! Nine patches seem to be the go to block for me. I have always wanted to make a queen size quilt with 3" nine patches, just think of all the fabrics I can use in one quilt! I will be using 2 of the primitive gathering muslins, maybe 3. This will give my quilt that instant aged look I like.



I decided to use the utility stitch on this little quilt I plan on donating. ( have to admit I put this in the closet and forgot about it till I found it the other day, I feel so bad its taken me this long to finish it,) I bought this ruler because I knew I wanted to use it more like a stencil to mark the wavy lines to hand quilt some of my quilts. My plan is to quilt it going vertical as well, lucky for me it has those lines on the ruler that line up nicely with my seams I keep moving the ruler so the hills and valleys don't line up.
After trying to keep my stitches 5" to an inch I decided next quilt I will try 7 stitches to an inch, its the pearle cotton look that I like the bigger stitches not so much!

I just wanted to let you know that my quilt is not the quilt pattern that is in the book Gone to Texas, Betsy quilt in the book is based on an antique quilt her great great grandmother Lizzie could have made as described thru her journals. Betsy's quilt pattern is very creative and now it looks like I am going to have to make it again using Betsy's pattern!

check out Sew Unique Creations blog post (note her new blog address!) and you can see Betsy's new fabric line!
Check out Pam's blog for wonderful pictures from Spring Market in Salt Lake City Utah this year.
oh my so many quilts I would love to make!!!!

As you can see I listened to the quilt it needed the cornerstones! Plus it gave me an excuse to use even more fabric!!!
It was fun to make the quilt using different sashing fabrics. One quilt looks fresh and more modern to me and the other is aged and antiquey! which look do you like better? Pattern information here.

I am utitilty stitching one of my quilts and it was the perfect one to start with. Preprinted lines just makes it so easy!
Hopefully it will be done this weekend then one of these will be next! If you click on the pictures you can just about see the stitches it was hard to change from little stitches to big stitches even with this bigger needle that is needed for the Valdani threads! I am getting better and enjoying the process.

TA DA!!! 9 days later all the blocks are made and it will be a quilt top this week. Next time you will see this quilt ( I figure you must be tired of seeing it already!) it will be bound and ready for use! For some reason I felt like I was on a mission to make this quilt, I couldn't wait to come in here and sew every minute I had! I started this quilt with the pattern from Betsy Chutchian's pattern in her book Gone to Texas. Now back to my multiple projects and my passion for little quilts! So I wanted to share with you what's on my cutting board this morning a little quilt from the new book by Kathleen Tracy The Civil War Sewing Circle. If you like little quilts you will love this book like I do.
When I bought this book earlier in the week this was the first quilt I said oh I have to make that! I cut for it while I was cutting for my blocks.

I can't decide if I like it without the little cornerstones or with. Maybe I need to make them both!
Lucky for me I have a box full of little squares so I can play a little bit more and find just the right ones for this little quilt if I decide I want them in there. Which do you like better?

I cut squares from every fabric I take out for my postage stamp quilt, now that I have a lot in my storage box I will make a few more. Hopefully later in the week and I will share them with you.

Here's Kathy's quilt in the book...as you know I hardly ever make a quilt from a pattern just the way it is, I tend to use it for inspiration and make it fit my needs or likes :) Yes I changed the size of the blocks too! I wanted smaller for my wall! Yet it still LOOKS like her quilt that I just really liked!

Hard to believe a little over a week and I only need 27 more blocks and this quilt top will done! I decided on a 13 x 13 setting, 169 blocks! gives me the size I want. I like that it starts and stops with nine patches (probably my favorite block!) So many of you have asked about this pattern, here is the info again...I started this quilt with the pattern from Betsy Chutchian's pattern in her book Gone to Texas.

my blocks all ready to just sew when I start sewing this am...a great way to just get started next time you can sew.
I love taking out some of my older books and looking thru them for inspiration. This is one of my favorite books its the state documentation books of quilts from New York. New York Beauties Quilts from the Empire State by Jacqueline M.Atkins and Phyllis A. Tepper. Just look at that Log Cabin quilt on the cover, isn't it amazing the designs you can make with a simple block like the log cabin, its all about the fabric choices....

I was thrilled to find this quilt in the book....

remember my blocks inspired by Lori, I think this may be the next quilt to make....

I also love the quilt Sue Garman made and Liz from quilterie blog made! OH make sure you take the time to look around Liz's blog, wow!

making progress!!! I am more than 1/2 way done with making the blocks I would say another week and this quilt will be done!

Yes I prepped some drunkards path blocks after seeing how many Vicky made the past few days! I have to keep up with her now!

Hope your all having a productive sewing week as well!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

making progress on my quilt, having fun matching fabrics for the blocks. Isn't that what its all about the fabric? speaking of fabric

I fell in love with this fabric as soon as I saw it, I knew I needed a bolt of it, I have plans! It arrived on Friday just in time to say Happy Mother's Day to me! I think we are all entitled to buy ourselves a little present for Mother's Day don't you? The fabric is from Barbara Brackman's Civil War Reunion line by Moda. Barbara writes a blog called Material Culture. I learn something new almost every time I read her blog, she is a wealth of information about textiles and quilt history.

If you like antique quilts this book is for you! YES it has patterns for some of the quilts too. This book is a treasure trove of wonderful quilts inspired by antique quilts. If you go to KCS and click on the book you can see a preview of some of the quilts.

Here is my little quilt I whipped up yesterday from the fabrics I showed the other day. I wanted to play with utility quilting using valdani pearle cotton I have heard so much about. These are the ones I bought at the Lancaster quilt show , luckily one of them works ! Carolyn is writing a book on utility quilting, you can bet I will be first in line to buy one! I am fascinated with this type of quilting now. I have seen it used in so many antique quilts.


This is my friend Patty's Nine Patch and Crossroads quilt.
She made this quilt using a pattern from Betsy's book, Gone To Texas.
Patty was able to go shopping where Betsy works, Lone Star House of Quilts . She offered to send me her left over fabrics when I said oh now I have to make this quilt too! I am thrilled to start this quilt as it is one I have wanted to make from the book! How lucky am I??? Thanks Patty!


oh and yes I am still working on the drunkard path blocks, its nice to have a piecing project on the go now too!
too bad I didn't have two design walls though.

I gave in and have decided to start collecting wool! what wonderful colors and textures...looking forward to having a nice collection someday of assorted wools. now to find a place to store them!
I picked out a little quilt project I will start with soon that has a bit of wool in it.

I found these Robert Kaufman fabrics from the Marbleous line, oh Victoria you will love these! they look like silk but they are cotton! I am going to add them to a few of my applique projects, can't you see them as leaves and rose buds? a bit bold for me don't you think? I thought so, I only bought fat quarters a little of these will go a long way in my quilts!

120 drunkards path and still counting! ok, I will stop showing these after today for a while you must be getting tired of seeing them. I love looking at other quilters fabric choices so I happen to like pictures like this! don't you????

Turned the American Patchwork and Quilting 2011 calendar and there was one of my favorite little quilt designers quilts!
Kathleen Tracy's Scrap Box quilt, so glad the pattern is included in the calendar, I am going to have to whip this one up soon!


I was folding fabric this past weekend and these 3 fabrics just looked great together in mho! I will have to whip up a little quilt using them have to come up with a great block to highlight the red and green, any suggestions?