GOOD COOKIN' 19: MANGO SALSA

A couple of great recipes for mango salsa, a party plan for a quilting girls night out including the free pattern! Go HERE for all the goodies ...

SUN COMPASS FREEBIES

... read more ...

BABY QUILTS & A FRENCH BRAID

I am always amazed at what a difference fabric choices make when we piece our quilts. Simple changes in color, value, and scale can make a quilt look completely different. My husband contends we could just make the same pattern over and over with different fabrics ad noone would be the wiser. I don't think I would go quite that far. I can barely stand to make more than two samples of each pattern I design. But I will confess to being pretty tired of a pattern by the time I've gone through all the steps getting it print ready.


Two of my friends used the free baby size Bebe Bears quilt recently for new babies soon to arrive in their family/neighborhood. I wanted to share their pictures with you today so you could see what I talking about.


What a difference the fabric makes! I love the softness of Ann's quilt. And Juanita chose to use just two fabrics and add two columns and two rows to her version because she wanted a larger crawling floor mat size baby quilt for her new great grandson. By the way, adding two rows/columns makes the quilt finish at about 45"x45".

Ann's expectan friends are lovers of horses and are using a "horse theme" in the nursery so I didgitized a rocking horse pattern to go on her quilt. Isn't this simple little rocking horse just the cutest pattern to go on a baby quilt! Rocking Horse is a new edge-to- edge pattern now available at the Mntop webstore.

What else has been on the machine? Sunday was a quilting day. I love it when I have time to devote to the quilting machine with no interuptions and Sunday just happened to be that day this week. Marilyn brought in her newly completed French Braid quilt. I used an elegant falling leaf pattern as an all-over pattern with a mustard colored thread. What a rich combinaton - the combination of the rich colors with this fabric line, her great piecing, and a beautiful quilting pattern in a wonderful thread. GREAT JOB MARILYN!

CATCHING UP

Oh my! New grandbabies, getting very sick with a repspiratory infection, and then playing catch-up really does put one behind. But, we should be back on schedule now. So let's get to the fun stuff .. what have I been working on?

Digitizing and Designing seem to be the task of the day. I have several new digitized designs for you Statler Users that will be posted soon into the online catalog. And, of course, International Spring Market is here in Portland, OR starting this afternoon with setup and the show floor opening to buyers on Friday. I have 3 new patterns to present to shop owners and then the public this spring.

MQS 117 TWISTING RIBBONS: What a great pattern with a traditional look and using only four fabrics. Piecing techniques include strip piecing and sew-n-fold corners making this pattern quick and easy to piece, and you will be able to make a "free" small throw quiltlet from the left-overs after trimming away "waste" triangles.

MQS 118 PEEK-A-BOO: Another quick and easy pattern to piece! I can always tell which patterns are favorites for me and are quick to piece because I will have multiple samples of that pattern. This pattern is one of those quilts. Only three fabrics needed - work for contrast in value and scale to create the light dark affect as the blocks form strong diagonal lines. To help stay within the designs lines of the pattern, I've included mitered borders as a part of the quilt pattern. (More about piecing mitered borders later.)

And finally, MQS 120 BEBE BEARS! Remember the baby quilts I made for our new expanded family ... I decided to include the multiple sizes into a complete pattern. We have a queen size quilt for the Moma and PaPa Bear, the baby size quilt for the baby bears, and we mustn't leave out the Grandma and Grandpa Bear. There is a throw size, as well, for snuggling, cuddling and loving at Grandma and Grandpa's house, too.

As promised two long months ago, the free pattern for the baby quilt can be found in the "FREE IS GOOD" folder on my yahoo newsletter site.

It's good to be back! Have a wonderful day and come back soon to see pictures and read all about Spring Market here in beautiful Portland Oregon.

Lots of Fun Stuff to Check Out

What a fun-filled great day ... work sandwiched in with play is a good balance. We had two students play their trombone solos today for league competition and they did so well. They have 5 more weeks to polish everything up before district where they compete to qualify for state.

Lunch out with my hubby is a very rare happening and is always a great treat ... followed by a quick but careful drive through the snow to get me back home and Mike off for his afternoon trombone students.

After a quick chat with my friends Al and Barb in NC I spent the rest of the day at the computer getting all the pdf's written and uploaded to my yahoo newsletter site so you will all know about the SALES, NEW DESIGNS, and FREEBIES I just uploaded to the "store" and my yahoo file sections.

I didn't want any of my blogger friends to miss out on the good deals, so I'm posting the list with links here, too. You'll find ...

All the new designs I've created over the last month in the CATALOG 1 folder

Two new wholecloth designs complete with directions and tips in the WHOLECLOTH folder

Two free patchwork projects that are great for stash busting and using up batting scraps in the FREE IS GOOD! folder

A free Statler pattern in the FREE IS GOOD! folder

A sales flyer in the SALE!SALE!SALE! folder ... and you might want to bookmark this link to have handy while you go through the sales ads.

And yes, I did have way too much fun creating my little valentine guy with AutoSketch.

HAPPY FEBRUARY!

SNOWDAYS

How full of the creative genius is the air in which these are generated!
I should hardly admire more if real stars fell
And lodged on my coat."
--Henry David Thoreau, 1856

Hasn't this been the strangest winter for weather here in the Pacific Northwest? Snow, rain, and then snow again! Areas of our state getting lots of snow that usually don't have much snow while other areas of a regular winter snow event get a mere skiff! Strange, indeed.

I love the snowy weather. It gives me a great excuse for staying inside day after day and quilting the day away or getting some much needed computer work time in without many interuptions. While at the computer I took a break and googled "snowflake." Wow, what a lot of fun sites come up with all kinds of activities for kids, adults, quilters, knitters, crocheters, photographers. To share just a few of my favorites...

First, you'll want to be sure and visit Quilt Design Northwest and check out Marje's website. Follow her advice for brightening a gray cold wintery day with her easily pieced pattern for snowflake decor. With many options regarding size, excellent instructions for easy painless paper piecing, and even a free bonus snowflake block offered online at her website, you can't go wrong.

This last December I found Ken Libbrecht's book The Art of the Snowflake and spent way more time than I should have browsing through all the beautiful photographs and absorbing the information about different kinds of snowflakes. You can get a sampling of his wonderful artwork and information at his website.

Amazon has a great book out for kids. I would have loved having this book when I was teaching school. I think kids of all ages would have fun creating snowflakes for all seasons. It reminds me of a favorite of all my classes when I was teaching ... If Snowflakes Fell in Flavors. Don't forget the recipe for growing your own snowflakes, and did you know that the man-made snow used on the slopes to beef up the snowbase for winter activities doesn't form real snowflakes? It may look like snow but it is really ice droplets.

For the people who love to crochet I found a free on-line pattern for creating snowflakes with pearle cotton. Creating a virtual snowflake on line is a fun thing to do ... good practice for controlling your mouse and you can even hear the sounds of the scissors snipping away as you cut out the snowflake. Better Homes & Gardens also has a similar activity. Want to create the "real" thing using with beads? BHG also has a free online pattern for easy-to-make pretty beaded snowflakes for hanging in the window. Many times snowflake decorating falls within the holiday decorating scheme but I always feel so sad when all the Christmas decorations come down so I save my snowy wintery things for the month of January.
This next discovery was a big surprise in my snowflake searching. You may be familiar with Paula Nadelstern's beautiful book on snowflakes and quilts. Check your bank balance before purchasing. The asking price for this book is now for as little as $80 and as much as $175! Great investment if this book is in your library of quilting books.

A snowflake quilt that is a little more within my budget is Terry Martin's Snowflake Follies. I'm seeing lots of quilts in different picture galleries using a variety of settings for the traditional carpenter's star block. In fact, I even have one I pieced in the early 90's still waiting to be quilted. I think I need to pull that top out of the closet and finish the quilting before all this snow goes away!

BATTING SCRAPS AND CHARM PACKS

There isn't a one of us quilters that doesn't have bags (lots of bags, usually) of left-over batting scraps from our quilting projects. What to do? What to do? Oh, What to do with all of these scraps that aren't the right size for any of our projects. Too small for lap quilts; wrong fiber content for baby quilts; not the right shape for a pillow sham; too puffy for a place mat or wall hanging. What to do? What to do?

I've had an idea kicking around in my head for quite some time thinking it through just how best to do this project. And the best part about this project is that is combines the use of two problem areas in my stash room - charm packs and left-over batting scraps. So, today was the day to as they say, "get 'er done!"

First, I cut up several left-over batting scraps into 5 1/2" squares. There's lots more batting scraps left yet, but I did fill the box.

Second, I pulled out the charm packs that I was least likely to use in the near future for any pressing project. The collection I used today was a charm pack from the 2008 Thimbleberries Club Lodge and Lakeside project for this year. I decided not to do this year's project since I still have last year's project, and the year before that, and ... well, you get the picture. The UFO list is for another day. If you don't have any charm packs waiting to be used up, this is a good stash-busting project. You need squares cut at 5 1/2".

Third, I sorted my squares into sets of six. One square will be used for the inside lining. You could substitute a plain muslin square for this patch if you're wanting to conserve fabric. Another square will be used for the backing. The remaining four squares are folded in half and woven together creating a four patch.

Fourth, I layered the squares/batting into a stack ... inside lining on the bottom - wrong side up; batting square; backing square; woven four patch unit. I pinned the stack together and then I was ready to sew.

Fifth, I sewed around the stack 1/2" from the edge.

Sixth, I trimmed any excess batting from between the seam allowances.

Seventh, I trimmed the corners on the diagonal to eliminate bulk.

Eighth, I reached inside the center of the 4-Patch and turned everything right side out so the raw edges of the seams were inside. I used my bamboo stiletto to gently poke out the corners trying to get them a square as possible.

Ninth, I top stitched around my new project ... a coaster ... 1/4" from the edge.

Not bad for a day's work! Well, I did complete more than four today and, I took time to get the process down in picture form in my photo album Free Pattern Charm Square Coasters with abbreviated directions in the captions. You'll have to watch for a posting announcing the free pattern available as a PDF on my website when we get it up.

I've seen this technique used in different ways. It makes a charming decorative ornament - skip the inner lining and batting - add a ribbon tie. A friend of mind follows a similar process to create the coasters in terms of layering, but hers are in the shape of a circle. It is part of her welcoming package to all new-comers joining in her private retreat.

I have some other ideas about how to use left over batting scraps, but I'd like to hear what some of you readers are doing with your batting scraps. Drop a line in the comments and share your ideas about great ways to use up those pieces of batting we just can't seem to just toss in the garbage.