Playing with Quilting Modern

Every time I hit a bump in my quilting plan, I tend to

stall...

procrastinate...

wait...

I don't know why I find it so easy to loose my momentum. When I hit the bump on my A Stitch in Color Quilt, I decided to pull out Quilting Modern and some of my scraps to play a bit.

There's a whole section about the Stitch and Flip technique so I just picked one and jumped in to make a few blocks.

Then I tried a layout.

And another. I like how this is going and I think I'll play a bit more until I get the white fabric I need for the other quilt.

As fun as all of these are, I have a third quilt in my head that I can't wait to start. I can picture it completely except for the fabric choices. So much fabric and ideas but only so much time! Anyone else with that problem?

Reading...

My sister and I had a long chat on the phone yesterday and we eventually got around to books. We both love fiction, cookbooks and sewing books and I can hardly wait until she comes to visit so we can flip through some of our recent favorites together.

I've always been a huge reader but lately my fiction reading has slowed waaaay down in favor of quilting blogs, magazines and books. This is just one of several growing stacks around my house.

This series of books is a favorite lately for keeping little hands busy in the studio while I'm sewing.

The sewing machine has been quiet for almost a week but I've been working through a stalled project (gathering information, asking questions). I have some chicken blocks on the agenda for tomorrow night. Yes, chicken blocks :)

I'd love to hear your suggestions for some good books to check out and activities to keep a 5 year old happily occupied.

A little of this, a little of that....

I made my very first pinwheel the other day and it was so much fun! I never thought I'd be able to do triangles and pinwheels. Rachel Griffith is hosting a Pinwheel Samper quilt along on her blog p.s. i quilt. If you've never tried these before this is a great way to jump in. I hope I can get a couple more finished this week.

I'm using fabric from Moda's Three Sisters line called Aviary. I fell in love with it last spring when I saw it during the local shop hop. And when I say love, I mean LOVE. When I went to visit my mom early in the summer she had the whole line in her quilt shop and I was trying to figure out how to fit a fat quarter of each into my budget. Then I was trying to figure out which prints I could live without. I was so surprised when my mom brought fat quarters of the whole line to a family dinner for both my sister and I that I just squealed with delight! I had no idea what I would do with it but I had a lot of fun going through my patterns and trying to decide. When I saw Rachel's quilt along I knew that this was the project perfect this fabric. Never, never feel guilty about growing your stash (to a reasonable amount) because its so wonderful to have just the right thing to pull when you need it. Thanks Mama!

I am noticing a little puckering along some of my seams. I've been playing with my tension on my machine to try to fix it. So frustrating when you can't just sit down and sew. Hopefully I'll get it worked out.

I got started on a couple of blocks for my red and aqua quilt. So, so easy! I think I may save the rest for an upcoming retreat. It might be an easy thing to start on that first night to get me in my groove.


I picked this book up from the library a while back. I was drawn to it because I knew that my mom had submitted a couple of our family quilts to the Kansas Quilt Project back when I was in high school. It didn't really go into great detail about most of the quilts discovered in that project bu used some of the data collected to discuss the history of quilts in Kansas. I planned on just browsing this book but I ended up reading most of it. The excerpts of diaries were really interesting as well as the photos. "Kansas Quilts & Quiltmakers" is by Barbara Brackman, Jennie Chinn, Gayle Davis, Terry Thompson, Sara Farley, and Nancy Hornback.

Hopefully I'll be back soon with some more pinwheels!