From My Design Wall

My last post was July 2nd and I can't think of anything interesting in my life since then. In fact, was there anything then? Doubtful. But the wheels have been spinning and the sewing machine has been whirring away. Ideas are on their way to becoming quilts. I finished the one I showed last time, but am holding it in reserve for a bit. This one is currently on the design wall.

 I have been working on this design all week and am really enjoying it. I was the happy recipient of a box of fabric from Marcus Fabrics last week so I happily selected some "choice cuts" to include in the star blocks. The beautiful fabric lines are from two great designers, Paula Barnes and Pam Buda. Check out Paula Barnes Companions, and Heart of the Prairie by Pam Buda. Both these lines are fantastic! I totally fell in love with the background shirting type prints in Heart of the Prairie. They look like they are tea washed and contain subtle shadings that are very nice. 

If you go to the Marcus website you will find that for each fabric line they have a free quilt pattern that you can download. Also, you will be delighted to know that you can click a link to download the whole fabric line to your computer. It comes in a zipped folder so you just unzip it and use the fabrics in your EQ program. To use them, open EQ, begin a project or go to one you already have begun, open the Library to Fabric and then Search. Scroll to the file where you stored the fabric line (ex. Marcus/Heart of the Prairie) and click the fabric, then click Save to Sketchbook. As far as I know you can only add one fabric at a time to the Sketchbook, which is kind of a pain, but still worth it. 

On the family front I have to bring on our youngest granddaughter for a bit. I have spared you that for a while, but we all know that babies take center stage in every family. The photos below are of Ellie. She turned one year old in June and wow, do I ever miss her! Her mom is the great photographer!

 Those rolls on her legs are not original with her, if you get my drift. The quilt in the back is the one that was in McCall's Quilting recently. They called it Teaberry Stars. But let's face it, Ellie is the star of the show! 

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are finding a cool breeze now and then, even if it means standing in front of a fan!

 

What's Cooking?

Heat wave sweeps the United States and everywhere I turn people are feeling the heat. It has hovered close to 100 degrees here in Virginia Beach, and we are getting lots of rain too. And that begs the question, what's for dinner? If you have any cool suggestions please leave a comment. 

Meanwhile I have been sitting under the a/c vent in my sewing room stitching away on a nice bright quilt. You saw the geese I was making a couple posts ago, well they have been stitched into fine little blocks. Well actually, 12 inch blocks, not so little. But very pretty I think!

 These hot colors just seem to feel like I do lately. Hot but happy! One problem, after I got the sashing all in place I decided that cheddar squares would look better than the pink since there is pink in the border as well. So I have been picking out pink and restitching cheddar. A little tedious, but not bad. Plus it makes me happier with the end result. And this is why it takes me so long to make a quilt. It is always a work that changes as I go. I have never been known for my decisiveness. Maybe this should be written on my quilt labels!