Million Dollar Smile!

Orthodontia Phase One is complete and my beautiful daughter got her braces off yesterday - isn't that a gorgeous smile?  Now she'll wear a retainer and her headgear for a while (I'm guessing until all her permanent teeth are done emerging) and then - well, I don't even want to think about Phase Two ($$$$$).  But seeing her teeth, it's so totally worth it!

My First Quilt

Carrie at LaVieEnRoise and Camille at Simplify have challenged readers to show their first quilt along with their most recent quilt.  I've shown this once before, but here again is my very first quilt, in all it's mismatched points' glory.

I started making this quilt in 1993.  It was a pattern from Quiltmaker magazine called Winkin' Blinkin' and Nod.  From this project I learned that templates are not for beginners, and that cardboard does not make a suitable template for rotary cutting.  What difference does it make if you slice off a little sliver of cardboard with each cut?  A lot, apparently!

Notice, if you will, the intersections of the pinwheel blocks in my second photo that don't come anywhere close to meeting!  Click the photo to get a closer look.  Go ahead.  I guarantee it will make anyone feel better about their piecing skills!  (and you can probably see my wonky attempt at machine quilting as well)

My quilt guild did a "Then and Now" feature at their show in 2008 and my first quilt was displayed along with a sampler quilt that I finished in 2007.  Yes, I do feel like I have grown a great deal in my technique since 1993.

For this blog post, I'm going to show another picture of my most recent finish - the Paisley Parade top designed by Laurie Simpson that was on the cover of Quilt Sampler magazine last summer.

Införa Eva

In case you don't speak Swedish, that translates to "Introducing Eva."   This is my new quilt project using Carrie Nelson's pattern Sweet Escape and the 2 Eva layer cakes that Carrie sent me from Spring Market.  The fabric designer is Basic Grey, who designs scrapbook papers and now also designs beautiful fabrics for Moda.

A couple of things - I know these blocks look very unbalanced.  This is just over half of them completed, and I will work on a more pleasing color arrangement after they are all done.  Also - the white fabric around my squares is the flannel on my design wall - I'm still trying to find a suitable fabric for the setting triangles (and pink was not a good choice!).

A little side note - when I was in high school we had 4 choices of foreign language study - French, German, Spanish and Swedish.  While my parents tried to discourage me from taking Swedish (so impractical!), I signed up anyway (it's that stubborn Taurus thing).  We had a great teacher - Frau Johnson - and boy was it ever fun, but sadly the program was dropped and I was only able to take 2 years of high school Swedish.  Even sadder, I have retained NONE of it.  The funny thing is, I remembered as I started this blog post that the Swedish name I chose for myself in class was Eva.  I think this fabric was somehow meant to be mine.  Thanks again, Carrie!

8 Tiny Reindeer

I finished the second shop sample using the top portion of the Crazy Eight panel.  Just a couple of pieced borders and you have a cute holiday wallhanging!

My baby boys graduated from elementary school last week.  No photos to share - I definitely need to look into a new digital camera that actually WORKS in low lighting situations like the school gymnasium.

We're Number 2!

My daughter's basketball team won just 2 of their regular season games, but they did well enough in the end of season tournament to bring home the second place trophy.  Way to go girls!

Christmas Windows

I finished this sample for the shop using the adorable Crazy Eight panel designed by Sandy Gervais.  Nobody makes panels as cute as Sandy, and this one is no exception.  The pattern is called Christmas Windows and is a quick and easy Churn Dash.  Look how cute the little ornament man is!

I'm making another quickie sample with the top part of the Crazy Eight panel and I'll show you that one soon.

Ready for the 4th!

I finished my Paisley Parade top this weekend and no, Nicole, it's not at the quilter quite yet.  I just love the way this turned out - Prairie Paisley is by far my favorite Minnick & Simpson fabric collection.   No struggles piecing this beauty, not a one!  It went together flawlessly.  And I have a good supply of the fabrics left and intend to make another Minnick & Simpson design, Chippewa 9-Patch.

But next up are a couple of samples for the shop using the new Sandy Gervais fabrics, Crazy Eight.  I promised to get them done before our Shop Hop starts on June 24.