Quilt Therapy

Many of you know that I love cookbooks …. I have an entire (small) bookcase full of them.  I love reading them, I love imagining myself eating the foods listed and I love experimenting to find recipes that my family will eat with glee.

This year, there’s a new cookbook on the horizon — and I had to get me one! 

The 2007 Cotton Spice Cookbook is not just delectable to read … the recipes were all submitted by friends of Cotton Spice Quilting Magazine!  To me, it screams QUILT LOVE when I see something like this put together!  And it’s here so you can enjoy some new cooking fun for the upcoming holidays!

Go check it out … I can assure you that my mouth was watering as I read through the recipes — it’s THAT GOOD!

I did it.  I went to Houston for the International Quilt Market.  I love the atmosphere there.  The quilts, the fabrics, the notions — everything I saw sparked more and more inspiration.  Not just design inspiration but creative imagination.  I could have walked those booth rows a few dozen more times (well, not sure my feet could have, but my mind wanted to!) just to breathe in all of the creativity that surrounded the event.

I didn’t buy much and really didn’t get a lot of information about much … but, I did come away with a renewed sense of what I need to do and where my quilting talents need to go.  For that, it was all worth it.

I couldn’t stand it, I had to make more pumpkins!  These are inspired by Eleanor Burns’ “Fall Pumpkin Patch” from Quilt in a Day.

I love to decorate for whatever holidays are coming up.  Well, you know, with kids … they do projects in school for the holidays and then you are forced to decorate around their creations when they bring them home!

See how much fun having a fabric stash can be?!

YES, I tell ya!  That IS a TP Pumpkin!  Ain’t it just so cute?!  I’m not the designer or the inventor of the idea.  I walked into a quilt shop a couple of years ago and they had one of these sitting by the register.  I asked where the idea came from, the owner said she heard it from so-and-so at guild … who heard it from so-and-so over coffee one morning … and on and on. 

It’s made up of 1 roll of toilet paper, 1 fat quarter of orange fabric and 1 fat quarter of green fabric.  There is NO sewing, no glue, no anything except folded and finger-pressed fabric rolled around the outside of the TP roll … and the stem is rolled up green fabric.

Go ahead, ADMIT how cute that simple decoration is!  Even if it is TP!

Don’t you just *love* surprises?!  There’s a new sewing tool in town, and I have one!  My dear quilt shop pal, Linda at AbbiMays.com sent me a loverly surprise this week – the new Side Winder bobbin winder!

Granted – I have a Bernina machine and it has the capabilities to wind my bobbin without me unthreading my machine.  The only problem I have with it is that my machine thread sometimes gets twisted with my bobbin thread, when I’m winding a new bobbin.  But, when there’s a new toy to be had, why not enjoy it?!

Click HERE to Get Your OWN Side Winder

I had one of the most optimal Saturdays yesterday for quilting that I found myself at 10 pm with nothing to do! 

First, we got up way too early to attend the local “Sell Main Street” activity.  I watched people sell more junk than I’d care to show the public.  I knew I’d turned a life’s corner when I realized that 10 years ago, I’d be loving all the junk.  After living in a camper for a year, where junk was prohibited, I just gasped at all of the crap that one has and sells to others.  We got 2 older VHS tapes for the kids – neither of which are working yet.  They were bummed, I’m just disappointed in myself – buying junk is just that, junk!

JD and the manly man were selling their Boy Scout popcorn so we left them and came on home.  GM had one breakdown after another, so she ended up in her bed – screaming intermittedly for things she couldn’t have.   She’d gone to bed too late and you can bet, lunch and nap were on the horizon.

But, I still had time to finish piecing the TT 25 Days Until Christmas quilt!

By then, the boys were home and I whipped us up some grub….made plans for who was doing what during nap and sent everyone in the appropriate direction.  I sat outside and read for about 10 minutes and by the time I returned, GM was in the middle of our bed, fast asleep.  I’d say she was definitely needing more sleep.

On Monday, I’m semi-teaching (said because I’m not really an expert) a class for our little quilt group on applique techniques for quilters.  I have a few applique projects that I’ve done to show off, but I wanted something a bit different – so, I found some flannel that I had and made a 3-dimensional wall hanging!

By the time the kids were down, I decided to throw a little more creativity onto the cutting table and work on some quilted postcards.  Our quilt group is hosting the 2008 holiday something-or-other and the gal who’s in charge of the event is a bit retentive about making sure we get our projects done ahead of time.  You know, because life gets away from you and time runs on without you realizing what you missed.  A year ahead of time.  Right.  But, not being one to cause undue stress on someone if I don’t have to, I made three more postcards — bringing my total up to four.  One left to make – before next year.

I designed and pieced a beautiful baby quilt out of the Quilt Pink II jelly roll and charm pack fabrics from Moda.  Then, I sent it off to my long-arm quilter.  And Mary Kate SURPRISED me with her talents!   For all of the quilts I’ve sent to her, MK does a meandering stitch.  I love it, it’s safe and simple … though, there have been times when I wished for more fun with the quilting, I was happy with the work and the short time-span it took for MK to finish my projects.  But, she’s in trouble now as I’m surely going to want this LOOPY LOVE quilt pattern over and over again!

The quilt will be announced on 10/12 to my BOMquilts.com subscribers and on the website … but, I just *had* to show off the quilting:

Spent a few hours yesterday finishing up the TT 25 Days Until Christmas quilt blocks – now, all that’s left is adding sashing & borders before sending off to the quilter!

Block 1

Block 2

Block 3

Block 4

Block 5

Block 6

Block 7

Block 8

Block 9

Block 10

Block 11

Block 12