Is it My Birthday?

It's been like my birthday in the mail this week. I received a package from Threadlines KathieB who sent some hand-dyes and "scraps" of fabric. Scraps? Some of these are at least a quarter yard. And Knit One Quilt Too Kristin surprised the heck out of me with this lovely little fungly. Isn't it amazing? Even better in person. Thank you both, you're wonderful.

And the new Gwen Marston book Ideas and Inspirations arrived. Woohoo!!! Here's an obligatory pic of Lily with the book (she has to check them all out) plus a distant peek at the current sewing project on the design wall.


I've opened up the book to my favorite quilt, Summer Fruit Salad, which Gwen pieced in 2001. It's an amazing mix of string and crumb blocks and a few "real" blocks mixed in. The blocks finish at just 3". She has liberated houses, shoo-flies and stars... Amazing. Everything I love in a quilt all together. A very modern take on a utility quilt.

Did I mention it's hand quilted? Almost all the quilts in the book are, and they're amazing. I've only ever seen two of these before and that's out of 28 quilts. How does she get that much work done? She's incredible.

So I've seen the book in person and I can now tell you for sure: it's fabulous. Highly recommended. Just as a warning, it's smaller than I expected - just 8.5" square. But that's my fault - I didn't read the description - I didn't care what size it was!

Lois just returned from her 24th Beaver Island Quilt Retreat with Gwen, although she admits she may have missed a couple. Holy cats, that's still tons of retreats. Lois gave me permission to share this wonderful quilt top with you. It just glows:

Thanks, Lois.

What else is going on in my world... Sunshine!!!!