"Bricks Around The World" 2

I put the first 8 rows of "Bricks Around the World" on the design wall last night so that my oldest could see how it look since he chose the order of the fabrics. I did not want to start sewing until he had a chance to see it up on the wall just in case he wanted to make some changes. He is very happy with the order and I think he is looking forward to taking his quilt back to campus with him.

"Bricks Around The World"

I finally started on the flannel frayed edge "Bricks Around the World" quilt that I bought the fabric for over a year ago when I knew absolutely nothing about making a quilt. I had signed up for my beginning quilting class and on the sign up day I noticed a frayed edge quilt on the wall. I immediately found a book in the used book store and went and bought fabric to make one, along with the special scissors my quit instructor mentioned when I asked her about the quilt on the wall. Of course, then I became intimidated by the idea and the fabric has been sitting on the shelf ever since then.

Now that I know more about color, prints etc., I wish I had waited on purchasing the fabric, and ordered it from one of the quilt stores up north that have larger selections of flannels. I bought mine at a chain fabric store here in Texas, and they did not have a very good selection in a range of light and dark prints.

Since this quilt is for my oldest son I thought I better get started on it since I am hand quilting the one I am making for my youngest son. I decided to make the bricks a little larger so I can have a bigger quilt for the size of my son, and he helped me work out the ratios. I began cutting the fabric Sunday night, and I did the sandwiching last night while watching television.

The pattern is from "Frayed Edge Fun: 10 Cozy Quilts" by Evelyn Sloppy. Here is a picture of my stack of rectangles and squares (my youngest always reminds me that a square is a rectangle), and the page from the book. I am hoping to start putting the fabric to the sewing machine tonight.

Sarah's Patchwork by Stephanie Grace Whitson

Very enjoyable book. Sarah's life story is told through the different fabrics in her patchwork quilt, starting with Sarah's journey with her brother on an orphan train.

Hand Quilted Wallet

My aunt gave me a new green purse for Christmas, and I love it because it is an organizer, and very light weight. When I went to transfer all my stuff from my other purse, I realized that there was a problem with the new purse. It would not hold my cash money without folding it up. I don't like to carry my money that way. My wallet would not fit into the new purse, so what to do? Easy solution. I made myself a light weight quilted money holder. I used it today when I was out with my new purse and I love it. I also had many compliments on my money holder.

I used material from the turtle quilt I am making for my youngest. When I quilted the design I made a cool discovery, the bulk of the design made block C's which is my first initial.

Hand Quilted Money Holder

New Purse

Gypsy Quilter Gripper

I often have trouble with my grip in my hands being weak which makes it difficult to hold a ruler while using my rotary cutter. Several times my ruler has slipped and I have made a miss cut. Last week I purchased the Gypsy Quilter Gripper, and it has made a huge difference in my being able to hold my rulers in place. I went back today and bought one for small rulers.

http://store.quilting-warehouse.com/085807.html

Fabric-Connection

The New England Quilt Museum is hosting a exhibition of contemporary quilters from Switzerland. Their work is unbelievable.

http://www.fabric-connection.ch

Christmas Gifts

I have spent the last 2 weeks making gift card holders from a pattern in Fon's&Porters Easy Quilting -Winter 2008.

I have always been very timid when it comes to starting something new with my fabrics because I do not like to cut things up (pretty funny that I would choose quilting as a new hobby.) However, my friend Kathy has given me box after box of fabric that she no longer wanted and there are many beautiful pieces in there that are not really to my color tastes, but work beautifully for gifts, so I started with those pieces. I used some of my fabric for the lining since Kathy's boxes did not have a lot of solids, and for two particular friends I bought fat quarters because I was looking for something very specific.

Each gift card holder took me about four hours to hand quilt and complete. I know that they would have gone a lot faster with machine quilting, but I enjoyed thinking about each recipient while hand quilting each one and while not particularly praying over them like you would when you make a prayer shawl, I was thinking about their lives and wishing them well.

I forgot to take pictures before I gave them all away, but L did put a close up of hers on her blog.

I am already thinking about what I will make next year. I think I already know what L and M will get. I actually got the idea from a newsletter that M gave me when she gave me my Christmas gift.

"A Single Thread" by Marie Bostwick

I saw this book advertised in one of my quilting magazines and put it on hold at the library after reading an excerpt on Amazon.

I really enjoyed this book. It is about a woman named Evelyn Dixon who moves from Fort Worth, Texas to New Bern, Connecticut to complete her dream of having a quilt shop as she is still reeling from her divorce.

Evelyn makes friends through her quilt shop and the story follows Evelyn's first year of having the shop and the life of a friend made through the shop.

Whereas this book does not go into a lot of quilting details like some I have read, it has enough quilting in it to make it a quilting novel in my book. It was a very nice story, and left me wanting to meet these "book friends" again.

Marie Bostwick has a website, www.mariebostwick.com and when you become a reading friend you can get into her forums, which includes a quilting forum, and read her blog, etc.

Her next book will be called "Cobbled Court" and will be out in the summer of 2009.