April mini quilt - Spring Strings

Spring Strings. 

I love strippy quilts! Since I have been following along with Lori’s (Humble Quilts) string quilts sew-a-long I thought it would be fun to make a mini with some spring green and colorful strips. I know most people associate Spring with pastels, but I lean more toward the bright and bold colors! I adore the peachy orange tulips positioned next to those dark delicious purples. Yum! (sorry - no photo - nothing but the early tulips out yet).

Once again, I raided the orphan block box and started chopping strips. 

The backing is the last of a piece of fabric that my husband found for me in 1986. It was the first and last time he bought me fabric!

I have cherished it and the last little scrid will now go into the "pieces too small to use but too special to throw away" box. Yes, I am crazy, but I'm guessing some of you do the same thing!

Click on these blog sites to see the many marvelous minis of April. If I have overlooked anyone, please let me know. They are all sensational this month! I love them all!! Barbara's quilt is adorable, but her story makes it even more special! And Janet actually made two small quilts this month. 
Wow! 

Quilting Babcia (AmityQuilter)

Randy (Barrister’s Block)

Cathy (Big Lake Quilter)

Barb (Fun with Barb)

Barbara (Quilts, Gravestones and Other Elusive Ancestors)

Janet (Rogue Quilter) 
Kyle (Timeless Reflections)

Pat (Taylor’s Outback)

Shasta (High Road Quilter) 

It's never too late to jump in! We'd love to see your minis too!

Humble Quilts Doll Quilt Swap

This is the 5^th time I have participated in Loris (Humble Quilts) mini quilt swap. This is the one I made for Debby in Washington. I hand pieced and hand quilted the center. Due to time constraints this month, I machine quilted the rest. I used some of my favorite early reproduction prints. Love those indigo prints and the border fabrics are designed by Petra Prins. Once again, all the fabrics in the quilt came from Busy Thimble. Thanks Cyndi!

Here's a picture from Debby after 

she received it.

And I am over the moon about the quilt Louise made for me. It will hang behind my “red” chair in the living room. I love it!

And, the extra goodies she packed inside are delightful. 

 I have already used the little thread cutter.

Thanks for another great swap Lori!
Lori (Humble Quilts) will be linking these up in a little while so you can see all of the little gems in one place.

Quilt Folk and Whizz Bang!

Issue #10 of the wonderful Quilt Folk magazine came to my house last weekend. I just adore this publication. It is well written; the photographs are sensational and it even smells good (I have a thing for paper and ink!).

 

Each issue features Vermont. You can’t go wrong with subjects like the Vermont Quilt Festival and the Shelburne Museum. They captured the true spirit (and I do mean “spirit”) of Richard Cleveland, one of VQF’s founders and showman extraordinaire!

But, the thing I like most about the magazine is that they keep coming up with wonderful new stories of quilters that are new to me. If you haven’t seen an issue, I highly recommend taking a look. You can find them (here).

Another treasure that arrived in the mail was Racheldaisy’s (Blue Mountain Daisy) new book, “Whizz Bang”.

I am such a fan of Rachel’s work. She takes color and texture to a new level. It is pure eye candy from page one to the end! And, she is just the sweetest person I have (n)ever met! 

I have limited my book purchases for the last few years. I am so happy that I did not resist the temptation to buy this one! You can order your copy from Quiltmania (here).

Signs of Spring!

Mud season is almost over  

and we are starting to see signs of spring.

My local group had scheduled a trunk show and class with miniature quilter extraordinaire, Leslie Muir Volpe for our guild’s April meeting. Unfortunately, she had to cancel so I filled in with a few of my mini quilts. I have posted most of my minis before, so I will share this little gem.

This lovely strippy was made for me by a dear sweet friend! She used one true antique fabric and challenged me to find it. Sue has a tremendous collection of reproduction prints. I had fun poring over each piece until I found it! Thanks a million Sue!!!

the antique piece is the one with the strawberry on the light background

I've been working on my April mini. Here's a sneak peak. Have a great day! 

Hospital Sketches - Love Apple

Block #3 in Barbara Brackman’s (Civil War Quilts)  “Hospital Sketches” sew-a-long is done.I adore the Love Apple block and I always enjoy making it. This was by far the largest I had ever done (18" finished), but it was a lot of fun. 

Once again, I am having trouble capturing that sweet pea green background fabric. 

My friend Meliss Swanson brought hers to our last meeting and we had fun showing them off. These two photos are a better representation of the color of my background. Meliss is machine appliqueing hers and they are spectacular! I love how she pieced 4 blocks together for her background.

You can see more of Meliss' work on the Hospital Sketches Facebook page (here). 

It's not to late to join in the fun!

A quick trip

Last weekend we went to Florida to visit this little guy (and his parents).

We took him to the MoteAquarium in Sarasota because he loves watching the sharks.

Imagine my surprise when I spotted this fabulous quilt in the foyer. It was a fabulous example of texture and color.

If you are ever in the area it is worth stopping by just to look at this interesting quilt!

As for our boy, I miss him already!!

String Fling & Pam Buda pin cushion update

I’m making progress on my potholder style string quilt sew-a-long with Humble Quilts. Check out Lori’s blog (here) for links to all the fun string quilts.

back - so far

I put all the bindings on at a recent quilt-a-thon and now all I have to do is machine stitch them down and put them together. 

The jury is still out on how I am going to like the machine zig-zag stitch, but this will likely go to our local Hospice and the recipient will love the colors and probably won’t notice the stitching!

And here is my monthly project from Pam Buda’s Vintage Patchwork book. April’s project is called “Walden” (you may remember Pam has titled all the projects in the book after 19^th century books) and was a real cinch to whip up.

You just can’t have to many pin cushions! I think that is just what Randy (Barrister's Block) said when she posted her little pin cushion (here).

Cathy (Big Lake Quilter) finished her adorable little pin keep as well. Check it out (here). What fun!

Happy Spring!