this is how I spent the last two days getting ready for Sandy... the storm of the century (hmmm didn't they say that last year too?) ....I made and sewed the binding on 5 quilts   and basted a little quilt to hand quilt when and if the power goes out.  Chances are SLIM the power will stay on the way they are talking it could be at least a week without power.   Yes I went to the grocery store and stocked up too but you can see where my priorities were!

Its going to be great getting these quilts bound finally.  I hate to admit how many more quilts I still need to bind.  I may go ahead  make the binding and put the binding on a few more quilts today as long as the power stays on.
One thing I learned make the binding when you make the quilt so you don't have to go searching for the binding fabric in your stash, spent way too much time yesterday looking for the one fabric I put aside to keep it safe, yes it was safe and LOST for a long time!
To everyone on the east coast stay safe and lets hope Sandy doesn't turn and stays out to sea...I am still hoping .

 My friend Lorre gave me this antique quilt top, its actually a piece of what was a quilt top.
She bought the top and divided it into little quilts to preserve it. I am the lucky owner of this one
Its perfect for a little quilt.  the hst are 1.5" finished

For me I just love looking at all the fabrics  and recognizing ones that have been reproduced over the years, look at that pink and the green I have ones that are really close if not exact to them.

Its fun to find a fabric and think wow why did she put that one in this quilt?  The red and black check I would not have added.  Once again they used what they had and maybe that was her favorite fabric and it was the last piece she had....isn't it fun to wonder why?

Here look she used a lancaster blue as a light!  (I have been looking thru my antique quilt books and noticed this a lot this past week or two in antique quilts)

 Love that light white fabric with brown and red flowers it is so pretty.

The quilt was hand pieced look at those stitches.  Now to decide do I leave it like this or do i hand quilt it and make it into a quilt???  What would you do?

this past week almost everyday I went to Marisa's blog, Quilt Otaku, and linked onto her flicker pages for the Pacific International Quilt Festival and looked at her pictures from the show this year 

and then went and looked at the previous years too.  Talk about inspiration, WOW  so many amazing quilts  Thanks Marisa for sharing them with us, I have now added this quit show to my bucket list of shows to attend.  FAIR WARNING go make a cup of coffee/tea your going to be on the computer for awhile!  enjoy.

yesterday I decided to play around with some blue and white fabric and whipped up two little quilts
I already had the strips cut 1.5inches so making nine patches (my favorite blocks!) just seemed like the perfect choice.

Decided to lay them out differently really like the way this one came out a bit different, think I will be doing this again....

Then I decided to frame this one with a white shirting , love how light and airy the quilt still looks.

I thought about adding my favorite blue fabric right now from my friend Betsy 's, check out her blog Betsy's best  quilts and more,  fabric line Wrappers
after looking at it for a bit decided to keep the quilt light and airy and just bind it with this blue
The goal today is to baste the quilt and start hand quilting it.

yes my blue and white phase has started.....but the turkey red from yesterdays post just may have to be made into a little quilt today :)

NOTE:  a lot of you emailed and asked where to get the wrapper line by Betsy Chutchian
great purples, grays and love this blue there are some great blues in this line
you can see it here  , this line has been out for a bit , finding it hard to find now. I went looking for more of this blue print in the picture above and was thrilled to finally find more of it , yes I ordered more of this blue.  I blogged about this fabric line, Wrappers,  back on this post if you want to read about it...

Incredible....can't you just see so many possibilities with this fabric?  don't you LOVE the colors???
A piece of this big print fabric arrived in my mail box and all I can say is WOW!
If the rest of this line is as good as this print I am in big trouble.  I preordered a 1/2 yard bundle of the line, Square in a Square by Andover its a collection from the IQSC by Kathy Hall and Jo Morton
I am going to have a hard time waiting for this line to arrive!

great bold print with amazing colors...

I know I am going to need YARDS of this one....ah yes I have plans!!!!!
and I have learned you have to buy these turkey red fabrics when they become available and hide them in your closets for future use as well.
The scale is big!  the big feather below is 9" long the little one above is 2 1/2"
so much potential in mho...

so tell me what do you think?????  don't you just love it too!

How I love shirting fabrics and great color background fabrics look what I found!  A new line out by Marcus Bros  19th Century Backgrounds  I never seem to have enough background fabrics!  I was so happy to see this shop, Homestead Hearth has bundles of fabric lines!  YEAH!!!  I know I will be adding a few more bundles to my fabric collection over the next few months just in time to put under the Christmas tree?  (like this one  and this one  and this one and this one

you get the idea :)

when it comes to fabric isn't it hard not to want it all!

don't you think this would make a great appliqué background fabric???

Charming Addition Quilt is now available as a block of the month from Homestead Hearth 
How exciting is that!  so many of you emailed me about how could you go about collecting all the fabrics for this quilt here is another solution !  I think for those of you who don't have a large stash or large variety of fabrics this is a great way to go and even if you do have the fabrics in your stash who doesn't love to get fabric in the mail?  I love that they are making it available for multiple sizes as well.  I would love to remake this quilt even larger and use it on the bed, this one is already going on a wall in our home!

Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2012
Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

For those of you just looking for the American Patchwork and Quilting  magazine to buy they have that for sale as well.  I am finally seeing it available for sale in stores in my area.

repro's go a little wild?

 Here is the first quilt from my basket of strips!  I fell in love with the umber lotus fabric I am using as the panels and just had to figure out how to use in a scrappy quilt.  I really had to challenge myself to use this fabric.  I admit I had doubts a few times and almost changed it out.

Here is my FIRST finished quilt top from the basket of strips I wrote about here....
All of the coins are reproduction fabrics, the only modern fabric is the long strips/panels.

So what do you think?  I do believe this is the first time I ever mixed fabric styles together.  Have you?were you happy with the results?

just in case your wondering there about 1,650 coins if my math is right 

I think I am still too much of a traditionalist  I am not sure I will do this again. (ok maybe yes if the right fabric came along again, I have learned never say never!)

I love the result here, it works.

INDIGO REVIVAL BY LAURIE SIMPSON AND
POLLY MINICK

Ever since I saw this quilt I have looked at it every day.  I love the trees and the birds as the border , I have seen this on so many antique quilts and just love it.  Laurie and Polly now have the pattern available on their website here.

Don't you just love downloadable patterns, I am becoming a fan of them.

Now I just have to wait till the beginning of 2013 for the fabric line , Indigo Crossing to become available for purchase....thats going to be hard!  I found it on here at Green Fairy Quilts available for preorder and on sale already!  I love a sale.  No affiliation at all .  

did you notice this is a blue and white quilt, ok , ok, ok I am officially a blue fabric fan now!  Its still not in my stash in any large quantity but I think this fabric line is going to change that!  I know what I want for Christmas a  few fat quarter bundles of this line, maybe even a few yards of a few of them.  ok not maybe YES I do want a few yards of a few of these prints.  Just Beautiful!

you can preview the line here at Moda's website.

so don't you agree, great pattern and amazing fabric line?????  Job well done Polly and Laurie and Moda, I am excited to be able to buy a few good indigos and great blues, shirtings with blues, every year a few really good lines come out in mho and I think this will be one of those lines for 2013.

isn't this what a laundry basket is for????

I have been cutting strips for a few weeks now , I have plans for a few quilts using them!
you know its all about the fabrics so I wanted a good variety
looking forward to whipping up a few quilts soon.

I took out my Flower Garden appliqué blocks and decided its time to work on this project again.  Something about the fall makes me want to do hand work , appliqué or hand quilting .  I know my quilting is influenced by the time  of the year whether it be the colors or the weather, isn't yours?

my current block and some of my favorite appliqué tools....

Quiltings, Frolicks and Bees
100 years of Signature Quilts by Sue Reich

 I bought this book recently and thought I would share it with you.  There are some amazing antique quilts in the book.  I was surprised at some of the quilts that were made as signature quilts.
I guess any quilt can really be a signature quilt if you think about it.   Here are just a  few of the ones that inspired me....

just beautiful 

this is one that surprised me , doesn't it make you think of Lori Holt?
check out Lori's blog here.

I am sure you know this is one of my favorites, LOVE this color combo I just may have to whip up  one for myself!
oh isn't this such a great quilt?

this is a sampler quilt from NJ it is amazing,  a beautiful collection
of wonderful blocks.

If you love antique quilts like I do this is a book that belongs in your library.
I am still reading it but have learned a lot about signature quilts already....another great book by Sue.
There are so many wonderful antique quilts in this book Quiltings, Frolicks and Bees 100 years of Signature Quilts......so much inspiration.

Have you seen a unique signature quilt and if you have what was the pattern?  what made it unique to you?  

just a little quilt I whipped up after I started cutting up the fabrics in my scrap basket
so many have asked about my scrap basket, it sits under the ironing board near my cutting table.  Convenient to just throw the pieces in but when it gets full I know its time to start cutting it up into strips that I will use in my scrap quilts OR just make a few little quilts with whats in the basket!

here is the scrap basket! I know its big :)

yes its overflowing!  sometimes I have been known to just empty it into a priority box and mail it to a friend this time I have a few ideas for little quilts so over the next week or so I will cut these pieces up and whip up a few!


Ok so do you have a scrap basket ?  when do you empty it and what do you do with the pieces, cut them up or refold them and put them back in your closets?    do you pull from it as you work on projects?  

THANK YOU for all nice comments about my quilt in the previous post I  really appreciate each and every one of them.

What an honor and surprise to have my Scrappy Plus quilt on the cover of the Nov/Dec issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine!

Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2012
Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2012
Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

how it all started I was cutting up my scrap basket and just started putting the squares on the wall randomly and then realized wow it could be another tessellation quilt a plus sign.. I love tessellation quilts  after all math was always my favorite subject in school/college.

so fun to see it grow and grow I just kept cutting from the scrap basket I was amazed at how many different fabrics were in the scrap basket!  next it was onto the fat quarters in my fabric collection... 

adding that last row was such a milestone!  

one of my favorite quilts I have made...
Charming Addition.

This was such a fun quilt to make and a great way to use fabrics in your stash....I cut from my scrap basket, cut strips off my fat quarters and before I knew it I had a quilt top.
In the magazine they give a great gift idea suggestion using your scrap basket your stash to give a starter kit to a friend for a gift.  I can see buying the magazine and wrapping it up with strips you cut in 1/2,  this way you can make the quilt and give the other 1/2 to a friend for her to make the quilt too.
another suggestion is to trade strips with a friend for more variety...variety is the key here!  like I always say its all about the fabrics! 

metropolitan fair
by barbara brackman 

I knew I had to buy this bundle of fabrics, oh just look at those colors!  The red paisley just caught my attention as soon as I opened it up...  here are a few of my favorites....

that border print has so much potential!

this green is such a great color, will be wonderful for a few of my applique projects...

I really miss having Tara's shop , Sew Unique Creations I was able to buy a lot of fat quarter bundles there  that were just perfect to add to my stash.  I find buying fat quarter bundles a way to add to your fabric collection colors/prints/scale you normally would not choose.   I make a lot of scrap quilts and fat quarter bundles just makes it easy to replenish the stash :)  for me.  its also a great way to see what fabrics you like that you need a few yards of for borders/sashing/etc!

and of course, just because you love it.  

yes that red paisley I do need a few yards of!!!!

The winner of my halloween little tumbler quilt kit is Luann

from Loose Threads Blog , just send me an email and I will mail you your quilt kit Luann.