A few weeks back, I pulled these Heather Bailey Up Parasol prints from my stash to make the Four Winds Quilt by Amber Corcoran of Fancy Tiger Crafts after seeing it on the store's blog. (Whoa! That's a lot of links in one sentence!) I immediately loved the over-sized flying geese and the simple, graphic punch that this quilt carries. I also loved that it would be a good pattern to use some larger scale prints that don't lend themselves to small piecing. I don't know about you, but I have a tendency to fall hard for those prints, especially florals. In the end, they linger on my shelves longer than their small scale counterparts. This quilt pattern is a great opportunity to let them shine! I found an unknown blue solid in my stash and was super excited to get cutting. Unfortunately, the blue ended up being about four inches too short for my purposes. No matter! I went out and bought a longer cut of a lime-y green and like it just as much, maybe even more.

I cut the fabric one night watching TV and then sewed it up the next morning in the matter of a couple of hours. It's fast to come together and the instructions are easy to follow. The geese are pieced using the no-waste method and you need an equal number of each print. I did find that the cutting instructions called for the setting squares in the corners to be slightly larger than necessary so I trimmed them down before I sewed the top together. I'm not sure if that was intentional or errata, but better larger than smaller! The pattern contains three sizes. I made the large throw size and the top finishes at 64 1/2" square. I'm looking forward to quilting it in the next couple of weeks. I think it'll be a great opportunity to practice my free motion skills.

What other quilt patterns have you used successfully with large scale prints? I'm also wondering about cutting fabric...do you tend to cut everything you need for a quilt and then start sewing or cut as you go, mixing the piecing in? Maybe it depends on the project? And am I alone in loving to cut fabric at night so it's ready to go the next day? I think that may be a weird quirk of mine, but would love to hear I'm wrong.

Happy sewing!

I consistently carry some kind of project in my purse or my car with me for the down moments when I find myself sitting and waiting. It is almost always some kind of portable handwork - knitting, embroidery, needlepoint. I like having something to keep my hands busy, but that allows me to talk and interact with others while I am doing it. I find it especially nice to have something to work on when I travel. Besides being portable, it needs to be easy to pick up and put down. I always used to have a book on hand because I love to read, but when the girls were little, I found that I never got around to reading the books because they talked so much. (Understatement.) That is when I started carrying some kind of stitching. I could work along and listen and converse and laugh all the while.

Presently I find myself waiting alone more than I do with one of my cohorts, but I am still stitching along. I love the sense of accomplishment I get from completing a band of ribbing on a hat or two needles worth of yarn on my needlepoint in the thirty minutes of a guitar lesson or the fifteen minutes before play rehearsal is over. Plain and simple, it's just a good use of my time.

My newest project is Carolyn Friedlander's Alturas. I have wanted to make this for a long time and bought the pattern from her last spring at SewDown in Nashville. And, of course, I was heavily inspired by Cheryl's version. It is just so beautiful! In searching for my *perfect* palette, I consulted my stash and settled on Liberty. Just that, Liberty of London Tana Lawn in all of its floral goodness. I'm not worrying about the colors or the scale or how in the world I am going to hand applique all. of. those. pieces. Instead, I gathered 70 five-inch squares and cut a handful of backgrounds from my very favorite Kona Snow. I took eight prints from the top of the pile and packed them in my handwork pouch (complete with thread, needles and embroidery scissors) for a quick day trip to Chicago a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to a five hour delay at O'Hare on our way home, I had all eight blocks prepped and ready for needle turn applique by the tie we landed.

I'd be lying if I told you I had gotten further than that. I haven't. I am so very, very close to finishing my other traveling handwork project started almost exactly two years ago. Anna Maria, you are going to be so proud of me.

There is something magic about this time of the year. While I have always touted autumn as my favorite season, spring is right up there. The anticipation of warm weather after months of gray skies and frigid temperatures seems to be constantly on my mind. I watch the weather forecast and delight in predictions of anything north of 50 degrees, silently sighing when consecutive days of rain are ahead. The evening light that comes with the one hour forward push of the clock is so welcome. I find my spirits brighter, the witching hour shorter and the general mood of everyone elevated so slightly that the tiniest of shifts add up to a great sum. In short, it's lovely.

This spring is later than in years past, making it all the sweeter. I have photos in my archives of our magnolia tree in full bloom on St. Patrick's Day. As of last night, I noticed just the faintest touches of pink on the tippy-top branches. Soon. Likewise, Fatty and I walked the dog on Saturday morning, noting the daffodils that were inching closer to blooming. On Sunday, those very same bulbs had gone and done it - yellow blooms everywhere! I saw forsythia flaunting its golden self roadside yesterday and was amazed at the tiny leaves sprouting on my sole lilac bush. One day soon, I will be driving down a particular stretch of road that I travel multiple times most days and I will be overcome with the season - trees in bloom, all the green leaves and green grass, sun shining and warm air. It sneaks up on me, but it is a moment that I look forward to all year. The overwhelming feeling of joy and being alive always surprises me, but I soak it in and carry it with me for weeks and months to come.

I want to remember how we ate dinner outside on Saturday night, drinking the bottle of wine that Caroline and Jeremy brought before they left. And how I got up on Sunday morning, grabbed my coffee and a quilt and sat outside with a magazine, even if it was for a short time. And that yesterday was 77 degrees! I drove around town, doing my errands with the windows open. I wore a skirt, no tights, short sleeves and flats. I spent the remainder of my day in the studio sewing, just like I did the day before. At the moment, I have an incredible need to see some projects through. I have finished three quilt tops and am very close to finishing a fourth. I have a gazillion ideas running through my head and I am ignoring all housework and just sewing, sewing, sewing. I want to remember this - the frenzy, the excitement, the energy all directed at making things.

One of the quilt kits that I have been working on is Traincar by Alexia Abegg. I was immediately drawn to the graphic nature of this design. The block is unique - simple and complicated at the same time - and definitely not something I have seen before. Also, who's kidding? I am a little bit in love with Alexia's Hatbox fabric that the quilt is made from. I love these Cotton and Steel prints in navy, coral, aqua and green - my kind of colors! It was really fun and liberating to just place an order and have everything I needed for the quilt top arrive on my doorstep without having to make any choices.

It's a very straightforward pattern starting with some easy strip piecing that is cut apart and sewn back together to make each individual block. While simple in concept, that is a whole heck of a lot of seams! 40 per block! (Yes, I counted.) And there is no room for error as every piece needs to line up when it is sewn together. I think my piecing is pretty accurate and I managed well enough, but if I were to make this again, I would make one big change. Namely, I would cut the pieces for each strip set 1/2" wider. I think there was sufficient fabric in the kit to do this (I haven't done the math, but I had big leftover pieces) and having this little bit extra would have allowed me to trim the sets evenly for a perfectly straight line. Instead, there were a few instances where the piecing was a teensy bit off and, as we know, a bunch of 1/16" mistakes will add up along the way. I made it work so the only thing it cost me was some time. No big deal.

The kit instructions say that it will yield a 60" x 76" quilt and that math is off. With the 12 blocks shown, each finishing at 15" x 19", the quilt top measures 60" x 57". I do have enough of the background fabric in my stash to make another four blocks, but I haven't yet decided if I want to do that. All those seams! But the bigger size would be more useable so I just may jump back in. In the meantime, I am going to admire what I have done so far and dream about how to quilt it. I'm leaning towards straight lines, but am very open to suggestions. Feel free to chime in!

Mini quilts are a thing.

I knew this, but I didn't realize just how crazy people are for mini quilts until I started seeing all kinds of swaps pop up on Instagram. (And I'm giggling now, because I never thought that I would say people were crazy about mini quilts or even quilts for that matter. But they are. They really are.) I never joined in for various reasons - too little time to spend making for someone else, deadlines looming, and, let's be honest, I didn't get it. The mini quilt craze, that is.

But then my book blew up. I spent my time knitting a dozen winter hats. I made my mom a quilt. I made two dresses, a sweatshirt and a blouse. I cut three kits worth of quilt tops and sewed 1.5 of them back together. I stitched on my needlepoint in the carpool line. All of this done in an attempt to keep my hands busy and my sanity intact. Makers gonna make and all that. What it boils down to, though, is that for the last four months, I have been going through the motions without feeling creative at all. AND I WAS OK WITH THAT. Really. Truly. OK.

What prompted it, I will never know, but when I saw that there were signups for a Cotton & Steel mini quilt swap, I didn't blink. I jumped in, reservations and nervousness aside. I got my partner pairing and began to think about what I would make. I had more than a few moments where I wondered why the hell I had done this. I wasn't feeling inspired at all. I was doubting every single idea that I had. But the deadline isn't until June so I decided to give it time. I went to Quilt Con. I participated in some classes, went to lectures, took in the quilts on display, hung out with other quilters. I came home overwhelmed, with a lot to process. I gave myself space. I returned to piecing the quilt kits. And then I saw a pattern that was promising. I started to plan how to piece it into a mini quilt and realized it wasn't very suitable. That gave me another idea. I revisited part of a pattern that would have been in my book. I adapted it, added a little improv and immediately I knew I had landed where I need to be. I got busy sewing.

I made a mini quilt. And I loved every second of it. I now totally get why people go crazy for these things. They are small, manageable and really fun to make. Maybe it is something about the small scale that makes them so fun? I don't know. But for me, every step was a delight. From searching for the right look for my partner to sewing the final stitch of the binding, it was joyful. I loved picking the fabrics and putting them in pairs. I happily cut a bunch of pieces, sewed them together, cut them again and pieced them into a top. I was giddy to applique a perfect circle to the center. I fearlessly tried a quilting pattern/method that I had never attempted. I didn't even get too upset when I had to rip some of it out. I fixed the quilting and I savored every single binding stitch.

For the first time since the book business, I enjoyed quilting. I felt like I could actually design something decent. That I had something good to say and that I could make it a reality. That my design had legs. That the creative spark was back. That I was actually good at what I love to do.

JOY.

Making a mini quilt gave me joy.

Silly, maybe, but true.

While this mini was made for a swap, I have decided to keep it. I cannot let it go. I have hung it up on the wall of my studio as a visual reminder of why I do what I do. I want my eyes to take it and remember that I am good enough. I want to walk by and have the memory of making it spark even more creativity. I want to see it and push myself to create, to play, to experiment, to take myself less seriously, to think less and do more, to stretch my creative muscles. Most of all, I want to look at this mini quilt and remember to CHOOSE JOY.

I do think my partner would probably like this mini. I'll just make her another one.

This one is all me.

I went up to the studio yesterday morning for the first time since I returned home. The first thing I did was vacuum. Right before I left for Quilt Con, I had a choice: make lanyards or vacuum. There really wasn't a contest because sewing (almost) always wins. Looking around, clean floor and all, I couldn't figure out just where to start, what to work on. Although I felt like sewing, I wasn't sure what I wanted to sew. Directionless, I went back downstairs to wait for a FedEx package that required a signature, telling myself that I would never hear the doorbell on the third floor (a very likely scenario). Later in the afternoon after the package had arrived and the kids were home from school, I saw Meredith ask for some help with a quilt on Instagram. I immediately went up to the studio and made quick work of the block she requested. It was the perfect gateway project: she specified the fabric and the block, I just had to do the sewing. And it was fast! And gratifying! Now on a roll, I pulled out one of the quilt kit projects and began working on it. Not as quick to sew up, but still very satisfying to take fabric and thread and make something. Or in this case, sew something, cut it up and then sew it back together. I'm anxious to work on it more today.

I spent the better part of this past week's sewing time making new pillow covers for this little window seat nook on our front stair landing. It's been on my mental to-do list for the better part of a year and I have looked at home dec fabric from time to time with this project in mind. I wasn't sure how I was going to combine the soft blues and greens that I love with the yellow in our stained glass until I saw that bird fabric. The colors are just what I wanted, the aqua and teal, soft green and the gold and bonus points for raspberry!

I had the cushion recovered by my upholsterer. She did it so quickly - about a week! - that I wasn't really ready to jump into the pillows, but I did anyways. Smartest move ever. If you follow me on Instagram, you saw the progression: fussy cutting the birds, making the aqua welt, moving on to the aqua pillows, layering and sewing down the flat trims, putting the brush fringe on the polka dots. What you didn't see was the good 40 minutes I fussed with an invisible zipper on the first pillow that just would not work. After a ton of wrestling and some swearing, I ripped that sucker out, threw it in the trash and decided to sew the pillow shut by hand. And I kept on hand stitching them shut as I realized that I had never once removed the covers on the previous pillows in 10+ years.

The result makes me happy, happy, happy! I smile every time I walk by. It was such a simple project - I am not sure what took me so long to get to it. But now that I have started, I may not stop. The family room pillows are looking a little worse for the wear....

(My tutorials on how to add a lapped zipper to your pillow and how to make piping for a pillow can be found here and here. I swear the zipper thing is easy - I just had a bum zip! Happy sewing!)

If you follow me on Instagram, maybe you saw a photo of my honest craft room earlier this week? A hot mess, for sure. I've been busy cutting and sewing and have not put a single thing away since the beginning of December. As I started to clean up, I noticed that the pile of quilts in progress contains more than I realized. I even woke up in the middle of the night and realized that I forgot about the Proverbial Quilt and another mystery block of the month I have going! It's a little out of control.

1. Foxtails quilt. This is from one of the kits I bought on Craftsy in 2014. I finished piecing it over the weekend. I am hoping to finish it up in the next two weeks for our school's auction. It doesn't need much, just time to get it all done.

2. 8th grade auction quilt. My friend, Jill, and I taught a group of 8th graders sewing this fall. For the school auction, they pieced this quilt top. On Monday, we basted it as a group. I will quilt it and then hand it off to Jill for binding.

3. Virtual Quilting Bee. This just needs the binding sewn. It's pretty small, too, so it shouldn't take much time. (Quilted by Laura Capello at Thread Up Studio - she does great work!)

4. This was one of the quilts for my book that won't be. I don't have a name for it, but I need to come up with one because I plan on releasing the pattern for it. It just needs to be squared and bound. (This one was quilted by Natalia Bonner - she did an amazing job!)

5. Speaking of Natalia....This quilt was made in a class I took with her this past fall. I want to add some large white borders and then it will be ready for quilting. It's a really cool pattern from her book, Modern One Block Quilts. (affiliate link)

6. This is my version of John Adams' Pacific Crest from his book Beyond Neutral. (affiliate link) I made this last summer in a class that John taught. He even pressed my half square triangles for me - what a guy! I am on the fence as to whether I am going to add some more solid aqua to increase the size or leave it as is.

7. Liberty feathers. Still a little bit to go, but I am anxious to finish this up. Liberty. Feathers.

8. Boxcar. Another kit purchase, I just started piecing this earlier this week. It's a fun one and should be pretty fast to sew up. This will go to our church carnival for raffling this summer.

9. Mustang (left) - also a kit purchase. This is all cut, but not sewn. Also slated for charity.

1o. On the right, another book quilt. This one I love, love, love, but am having a hard time going back to it right now. Some day.

There are also a couple other quilts for the book that are in progress, but I am not sure if I will finish them or not. One is out being quilted. And, realistically, if I am going to get all of these done in the next year, I will be sending more out.

What about you? Do you have a big pile of unfinished projects? Or are you a finish one before you start another type of quilter? I'd love to hear.