Eeek! Spider!

Sorry - I'm just being silly. No, I don't like spiders. AT ALL. Still, I picked this project from Monique's book because the block really intrigued me. I've never seen one quite like it!

I struggled a bit with getting the first block done. Totally operator error, not the fault of the instructions. On page 34 when it tells you to "Make sure it looks exactly like the diagram, with the main light on the left and the
dark on the right" - I suggest following that recommendation or your block will not turn out. Nope, not at all....

Thelma talked about 'bending the rules' last year. Well, I'm the defiant one this year. First, although this is called Fat Quarter Traditional Quilts, I wanted to use a fat eighth bundle of Fig Tree's California Girl. I was able to get one block from each fat eighth (with some left over), so if you want a scrappier look, you can use fat eighths for the Spider blocks, too.

I made 3 test blocks and then decided to go into assembly line mode for the rest of the blocks. I had all the centers done and started to put them together side by side. I really liked the blocks, so I made a little baby quilt from just the centers of the Spider block. If you cut carefully, you can make 2 "center" blocks from one layer cake square and some background - how's that for frugal?

Be sure and leave a comment on this post for a chance to win a copy of Monique's book, Fat Quarter Traditional Quilts and one of her fabulous rulers. Tell me what your favorite precut is and why. I'm a huge fan of fat eighth bundles - not as expensive as fat quarters and you can get a decent sized quilt just by adding a little background fabric!

Be sure and stop by to see what the other participants have to show you. The line up of participating blogs includes:
Monday - Thelma from Cupcakes 'n Daisies
Tuesday - My Turn!
Wednesday - Denise from Quilters Window and Monique from Open Gate Quilts
Thursday - Sherri from A Quilting Life
Friday - Carrie from La Vie en Rosie and Nicole from Sister's Choice Quilts

Thanks for visiting!

Welcome to the Blog Hop!

I'm glad you have joined me for a week dedicated to showcasing some great quilts from Monique Dillard's new book, Traditional Fat Quarter Quilts. Get it at your local quilt shop or preview and order the book from C&T Publishing.

The line up of participating blogs includes:
Monday - Thelma from Cupcakes 'n Daisies
Tuesday - My Turn!
Wednesday - Denise from Quilters Window and Monique from Open Gate Quilts
Thursday - Sherri from A Quilting Life
Friday - Carrie from La Vie en Rosie and Nicole from Sister's Choice Quilts

Be sure to stop by and comment on each blog on their featured day for a chance to win prizes!

Please come back tomorrow to see the project I've been working on - here's a preview from the book of my project, Spider.

What are you doing next week?

A new release from C&T Publishing is this beautiful book written by my friend, Monique Dillard.  Next week we're having a Blog Hop to showcase some of the projects from this book.

Please stop by the following blogs next week and see what we have to show you.   There will be inspiration, fun and prizes!

Monday - Thelma http://www.cupcakesndaisies.blogspot.com/
Tuesday - me http://the-stashmaster.blogspot.com/
Wednesday - Denise http://www.quilterswindow.com/blog/ and Monique http://opengatequilts.blogspot.com/
Thursday - Sherri http://www.aquiltinglife.com/
Friday - Carrie http://lavieenrosie.typepad.com/lavieenrosie/ and Nicole http://sisterschoice.typepad.com/sisters_choice_quilts/

A welcome visitor

Our school district has a series of concerts every winter that coincide with my daughter's birthday. A perfect time for a visit from Grandma and some accompanying silliness.



We had a very fun visit, but no sewing going on here.


We were so struck by how much my son Owen had grown since Grandma has seen him last fall. I had to go digging in my photo albums to show how much my tiny baby boy has changed since Mom stayed with us after the twins' birth.

Proud Mom

My sons competed in their first high school solo/ensemble festival this weekend. The top players for each instrument go on to compete at the state level. Both got wonderful feedback from their adjudicators, and Owen was selected as first alternate in the clarinet solo category. His teacher wrote "This is a huge accomplishment as this category had a huge number of entries and is very competitive."

They are 14 and both started playing when they were 10. I could not be any prouder of my kids.

Ball and Chain

Do you ever have one of those quilt projects that you can't wait to get back in your sewing room to work on? The quilt I'm working on is NOT one of them.

Don't get me wrong - I love the quilt, but this has been a very difficult project from the start. I already owned the pattern when I discovered an online quilt shop offering it as a Block of the Month. I signed up and chose the reproduction fabrics option. I was thrilled with the first package of 3 blocks that arrived and made them immediately. Then the blocks got stuck in a box as I moved on to another quilt and Golden Memories became a UFO. That was in 2007.

Fast forward to 2011, which became a year of finishing some UFOs for me. Since I was working on a couple of other BOM projects from 2007, why not this one? One big challenge were the log cabin blocks. Those are 1-1/4" strips, people! I don't really like repetitive blocks like these, so I decided I would finish them first, and then I would treat myself for finishing by doing the more fun sampler blocks.

I finished all of the log cabin blocks and started in on the sampler blocks. I finished the first 3 in 2007 and couldn't wait to make more. Number 4 went off without a hitch. Number 5 had some fabric issues and as I later discovered, so did most of the rest of sampler blocks. I spent many, many, many hours pawing through my stash to try and come up with pleasing fabric combinations. It was exhausting!

I spent most of November and December working on this quilt and was so overjoyed to get all the blocks done. When I started to sew the rows together, things weren't fitting together very smoothly. Some of the sampler blocks were a bit too big, but I tried to fit them in. I knew if I had to struggle with sewing them together, I wouldn't be happy with the finished quilt.

So, I put the quilt aside, worked on some kaleidoscope blocks and then decided that Golden Memories was wrecking my mojo. I didn't even want to go in my sewing room. I had to tackle the quilt top and I had to win! I ripped out 2 rows of blocks and then put the blocks back up on my design wall. I measured every sampler block. There were 7 of them that were 1/4 inch too big. Too big! You might think I would have noticed this sooner, but since they fit together in the first place, they had to be the right size, right?

The worst offenders were the blocks that had many pieces - some had almost 80 pieces. So I spent the last week homebound because of the snow and I've slowly been remaking the blocks. I'm still avoiding the sewing room because it's not been fun for me to find 7-1/2" blocks to replace the ones in the pattern and also to make that many more fabric choices.

But I will persevere. This quilt will not get the best of me!

Three Day Weekend

I love having an extra day at home, and especially since the roads are covered with snow and I really don't want to be out driving anywhere.

What better time to work on a new quilt! I'm still smitten with my Kaleidoscope Smart-Plate ruler, and decided to try something with some brighter colors. I grabbed a stack of leftover Ruby scraps and set to work.

I made 56 kaleidoscope blocks, so this little cutie is 22" x 25." I'm going to add a couple of borders, but need to get some more Ruby since I used up all my scraps!