Kansas City Star publishes my book: A Bountiful Life

My book, A Bountiful Life, is now available for pre-order on the pickledish site!  A Bountiful Life is an adaptation pattern of the Bird of Paradise quilt top which as we all know is in the collection of the American Folk Art Museum.  It is one of my favorite quilts ever, one that I used to admire long, long before I ever began to quilt, back in the 70s in fact.  


Here is the cover!

And here is the quilt!

The quilt is 69x83, quite close to the original.  The blocks are square as the original blocks are (blocks are 14" square, borders are 6-1/2" wide).

Dear Readers, did I make this quilt all by my lonesome?  Nay, I did not.  I would have had a coronary in the attempt.  Eleven friends made blocks and borders (thirteen blocks and two borders); that leaves seven blocks and two borders by me :-).  If I counted right; I'm too excited to think straight :-).  

You may notice that Block Two, instead of being the (certainly delightful) floral display that is in the original, is the Bride's Suitor (since men are just as delightful if not more so than floral displays).  

I loved designing these blocks and borders and also loved working on the book.  I hope that you will also enjoy the book and the quilt patterns.

Wow, what a New Year's Eve 2011 turned out to be!  Happy New Year to us all and may we get lots of quilting done in 2012. 

BB CW Quilt: Fini

I am so fond of these blocks and the setting with the blue plaid on the bias and the gray weathered fabric for the border.  I gave this to Timothy for Christmas and he really likes it, especially the printed pictures.  Once I get it quilted, I hope there's enough blue plaid to bind it with as well.  Again, a hearty thanks to Barbara Brackman for posting this incredible series!

I still haven't figured out what to put in the four empty signature areas in the corner blocks, though; help!!

The last two blocks: 

I actually emptied two clear plastic boxes with the completion of this quilt, hooray!  It's nice to have a quilty finish in the closing days of the year as we tend to think about what we have gotten done during the year and contemplate what we would like to finish in the next and what new projects might evolve.

Merry Christmas (Jigsaw)

Stark but true, it is a dark and rainy Christmas Morning here in Atlanta. Timothy is home, however, sleeping off three days with no sleep that included working his own 24-hour shift, 24 hours regrettably playing video games, and 24 hours working part of a shift for the young man who drove him home; maybe later I can figure out how we can both work on this Christmas Jigsaw. Click here, open the zipped folder, click on the game, begin play.


Merry Christmas to All!

Free Jigsaw: Christmas Shelf

Dark and rainy here in Atlanta; this calls for a Christmas Jigsaw.  Click here, open the zipped folder, click on the game, begin play.

Free Jigsaw: Marty Young's Gift Swap

The Little Quilts employees and teachers exchanged gifts yesterday at our party; I received Marty Young's embellished tote, thanks, Marty!

Marty's creation had to become a jigsaw, so click here, open the zipped folder, click on the game, begin play.

I forgot to take a picture of the gift I brought, sigh, but everybody's were really wonderful and will be on display at the shop sometime soon.

December

Mercy, we're almost half-way through December already, and Christmas rapidly approacheth.

I have had this in mind throughout the year while making the Civil War blocks, and I believe I will give this quilt to Timothy. I have no idea if the somber colors will look dull to him since he is color-blind, but I think the historical aspect of the quilt will interest him along with the several printed artifact sections on the blocks. Meanwhile, BB CW #50:

We have a big evening tomorrow night at Vintage Design Group. Each of us will talk about a certain type of fabric, then we will each go home with a sample of each fabric type as a souvenir.

I worked on the 6th and final edit of my book last week, and now it gets a final correction and heads off to the Kansas City Star printer. Publication is scheduled for February. It is such a strange feeling to think that I can't make any more changes on it even if I wanted to! The book is just beautiful. More on that later.

Thursday

I may have to join Online Jigsawers Anonymous, but not until I have done every textile jigsaw from needleprint :-).

This and That

Lotsa DJ triangles, Saturday's BB CW, and I'm still trying to figure out what to put inside this:

BB CW #49

oh, worked on another jigsaw

I now have two triangles rows completed; this is the second

I drew a design and ordered fabric from Spoonflower, so am looking forward to seeing that.

BB CW #48 and more DJ▲s

Still chugging along on the DJ triangles. I think I'm afraid that if I stop, I won't get back to them, but really there are other things that need doing :-).

The Day Before

Oh boy, I got a few things done, including three Dear Jane triangles and two BB CW blocks:

Got the next row of BB CW blocks sashed along with all of the cornerstone rows. All that remains is doing the final row of blocks and final assembly. I have a gray Stonehenge set aside for the borders.

All of the right side triangles are done, so I may put all of those together. Dear Jane is happening again!

Also, this wicker chaise lounge has been sitting in the carport for months, waiting for me to repair the broken supports underneath and the sprung reed coverings on the legs. Somebody threw it out and of course I dragged it home, thinking that it has just that right shabby chic gray patina. Out came the gorilla glue, the duct tape, companion supports to lash on next to the reglued broken ones, and the fish line and it may be fixed. Sit down slowly and carefully :-). I scrubbed it and sprayed it with Lysol, bought it a nice Poang cushion from IKEA, and inside it came:

Online jigsaw puzzles. Fun and pretty!


Finally, here is a quilt top that I got on eBay:

There's lots of nice fabric in it.

Friday

Hi, I hope everybody in the U.S. is having fun gearing up for Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving vacation begins at end of work day today, to last for an entire week. Huzzah! I hope to get a lot done.

After a severe struggle, Dear Jane Triangle RS03 is finished :-) :

Next on deck is RS05.

Timmy and I managed to hike Raven Cliff Falls again last week-end when he was unexpectedly home; that was great! And of course, we couldn't leave Helen without eating at the German restaurant Hofer's once again.

BB CW #46

BB CW #46; I love it! I know, I haven't made BB CW #45 yet! First time I got behind.

Blustery Day / Wonderful eBooks / Show and Tell

The weather outside at 6am is so uncharacteristically blustery and delightful; wish I could be out in it today. I woke up to an email from the ebook purchaser at the Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library saying that she had purchased books from the list I emailed her and that they were already available! I instantly checked out three. Thank you, D.M., what a wonderful gift!


Wonderful show and tell from last night's Prairie Women. Here are just a few of Becky B.'s incredible BB CW blocks:

The beginning of a wonderful quilt by Becky:

Oh, I wish you could hear the wind blow outside. This is SO not Georgia :-) . Still more lush Show and Tell:

And now. Our group leader, Muriel P., was giving one of her Women in History talks to a quilt guild in Gwinnett County. A woman came up afterwards and gave her an enormous stack of antique quilt tops! Please excuse my poor photos but you can get the gist of the tops anyway:

very large Ohio stars...

the best of the lot, a very early "dressmaker's scraps" type of quilt top. Unfortunately, you can't see how interesting so many of the prints are:

Aren't they beautiful. And finally, our project for next month, should we choose to accept it lol: