… to get back to this place! Too long!! However, I've been gearing up and moving in the direction of getting back to work on some quilt projects. This is not to say I haven't been thinking about quilting or looking at quilts. When I'm not sewing I'm usually following blogs on Bloglovin' which leads to surfing for new project ideas or discovering new blogs (btw, have you visited Diane Harris' "Stash Bandit website? Lot of great stuff there!). Along those lines there's been a few:
 |
| Piecing the Past Quilts - A Great Source For All Things Repro!! |
Piecing the Past Quilts has been running their latest free Block of the Week called "Double Irish Stars". It's the pattern for the bottom center quilt featured in their website header above. After getting so many requests for it, they're finally releasing it. If you're a reproduction fabric lover like me, this is a great shop to know about. I purchased some stuff from them to fund yet another new repro project (which I'll report on when I hopefully get it started later this month) and they were the source of the kit for the mini baskets quilt I made last year.
11/13/18 Edited To Add: Just got notice today that Piecing the Past Quilts has a new free Block of the Week called "Delft Blue" starting in January! If you are an applique or blue and white quilts fan, you'll love this one! You can sign up to get the pattern notifications here!
Have you read Quiltfolk magazine? They have been out since 2016 with Mary Fons as Editor-In-Chief and Barbara Brackman is their Historical Adviser. Each issue focuses on regional quilting --- the latest issue (#08) covers Michigan. Lately they've been offering special bundles of their back issues. The most recent offers have been bundled with books but back in October, I snagged one for a reprint of the first two issues which covered Oregon and Iowa. I've long wanted to check out this magazine so decided this was a great way to sample it. The issues just arrived the other day so I'm still trying to find a moment to settle in to review them.
Back in August, Pat Sloan started hosting a quilt along using Joanna Figueroa's (of Fig Tree Quilts) book "Christmas Figs". Admit I fell in love with this on first sight! I sooo want to do this one!! Pat's quilt along will be running until next June so I figure there's still time to get involved (rare is the BOM that I've started on time anyway!). Joanna's inspiration was an antique sampler quilt she owns. I loved the look of the quilt and realized that I was attracted to most of the blocks because almost every one represents an interest I've tackled in my own quilt journey. So first step was to get the book --- check!
This is a really nice one with one of those soft heavy matte finish covers and is published by "It's Sew Emma", the publishing arm of The Fat Quarter Shop.
One ding -- the book was designed around the block of the month concept so the yardages are only given in the book block by block. However if you go to Pat's site here she has a printout with yardages for the whole project. She is also doing a Blue and White/Cream version using Edyta Sitar's "Something Blue" fabric line. However, since I already have a completed Christmas quilt top that I'm hoping to quilt up before the end of the year, I wanted to figure out how to do this sampler another way.
I realized that since I've always wanted to stash Fig Tree fabrics, why not do it with this project! Much like I started my Civil War Repro stash, I'm going to start picking up pieces of different Fig Tree print lines as I see good deals on them and build a stash so I can do this as a scrappy homage to my quilting journey and Fig Tree fabric history!
Note: the background it's sitting on is actually the project I got stalled on that started this whole not-quilting malaise! Hopefully though, I've got something coming to help me get back on track with it!
Another nudge to get back in gear came from the Quilt Gods: I had the good fortune* to win some quilty goodies from Kim Brackett of Magnolia Bay Quilts (another blog with a wealth of ideas and quilt design tips) and Martingale Publishing!
They were hosting a blog celebration for the latest in her "Scrap Basket" book series: "Scrap Basket Bounty". I have her first two books "Scrap Basket Surprises" (and the ebook version is discounted right now, if you've always wanted to add that to your library) and "Scrap Basket Sensations". So I was too thrilled to win an e-copy of the new book AND a twin-size batting! Ah, nothing like a new quilt book to rev up your creative juices!
*How Funny: "Good Fortune" is the name of this year's Bonnie Hunter mystery project! I'm sitting this one out but I'll be following along and downloading the instructions as she releases them. She's already revealed the color choices and you can find all the information about it as the project progresses here.
My mother-in-law also keeps my mind in quilty mode with periodic quilt-related "Help!" calls! So, needless to say, quilting is never far away from my mind. There's been a few more behind the scenes doings to push me back toward sewing which I will work on posting over the next week or so. Ahhh, good to finally get back into the swing of things! As Bonnie Hunter so aptly put it:
You're so right Bonnie!
No comments:
Post a Comment