Snapshots or Illustrations?

I've worked on the illustrations for some of the techniques in Lazy Days in Quiltville. As I went along, I cleaned up the text to make it simpler, hopefully more professional. And then one of my long distance friends mentioned how much she liked the text of the Letters Tutorials just as they were because it seemed like I was explaining it just to her.

That's very appealing to me - having the book really reflect my personality and Bonnie's. Hmm, could I be "ruining" the book as I try to fix it up? So from time to time I'm going to ask for some opinions, starting today.

I've got a poll over in my sidebar. Assuming money is no object, would you prefer Tonya and Bonnie's snapshots to real illustrations? Now, figure that they are better snapshots - clearer, etc - but snapshots all the same. Would that make you think the book was shoddy looking, or that much more endearing? Please to vote, but only once.

Pokey had to jump up and get involved as I was taking a photo of the current super secret quilt in progress.


I sewed for half an hour yesterday - woohoo. Knee isn't really improving, but hasn't gotten worse, which is something. I have stayed off that stupid knee (mostly) and believe me, it's been difficult. Cheri called and invited me along on a walking tour of the Marais. I really wanted to go, but the adult portion of my brain won the day. gosh darn it.

Okay, a Tiny Hint

I had a marvelous day on Tuesday. Cheri of Jovaliquilts is in town and she came over to visit with me. We looked at lots of quilts, I did a bit of letter sewing for her and we just talked and talked. We had lunch at my favorite local restaurant and then went to Montmartre to wander the fabric stores. Cheri is absolutely darling and I loved every minute of her company.

Darling Pokey sleeping on fabric for my current project, the wild and crazy one I mentioned in my last post. Believe me when I say this one is wilder and crazier than what I usually work on, plus a LOT of fun. So here's a hint:

Right now I am extremely frustrated because my knee blew up again plus the other one decided to act up too. Grrrr. I know, I know, this is what I get for overdoing it, having fun and sewing and walking because the sun was out and I just couldn't stand to go back down to the metro.

So that is what I am NOT working on. Instead I'm hand quilting on Orphan Train (ooh, light at the end of the tunnel) plus I've basted the Mini Hotflash quilt that Bonnie sent me. I saw photos of 3am Hotflash which is so fabulous that I begged her to make me a little version. And did you see Just Quilt It? Amazing. I love that she included her initials and year in the border.

Speaking of words in borders, Maureen is doing a great job with her first letters. She's adding wordy borders to her two Gwen class projects - go check them out here. Now that she's started making letters she can't stop. She's started a Halloween project too - wheee.

You know I'm a big fan of Kristin's at Knit One Quilt Too, right? Well she just finished a Gwen Marston Liberated Stars quilt that is so incredible and her hand quilted fans are fabulous. Wonderful minimal mix of colors - great quilt. Kristin is also working on a quilt for her son that is simply amazing. It's posted at her blog and also at the Summer Class blog, where you can also see some other wonderful quilts in progress.

A couple of relatively new blogs for you to check out. Have a visit with Belinda at Brown Dirt Cottage. Lynne is working on some super secret projects that I've seen a sneak preview of and they are a blast. You'll have to stay tuned for those, but in the meantime there is all sorts of fun and tutorials to be had at The Patchery Menagerie.

That's it for me. I'm going to be a good (though whiny) girl and stay off my knee today. Sigh. Ya'all have great days.

Working Away

I have been dithering and dithering about what project to work on next. Had too many options, couldn't make up my mind. You've heard this from me before - unfortunately I get this way sometimes. I finally changed gears and sewed something fun and wild. I'm working on instructions and ya'll will get a chance to play too. Not getting any more hints than that for now.


The winners of the L-O-V-E blocks are Knit One Quilt Too Kristin, Threadlines KathieB, and SewPrimitive Karen. Sorry, I'd put the links to their blog but the internet is running sloooowly. At least it's functioning at the moment - that's only temporary I'm sure. Lately I can only count on a couple of hours of internet really early in the morning - before I am yet functional.

I'm almost finished with the hand quilting on Orphan Train - just a couple more days!

Tomorrow, fingers crossed, one of my favorite quilt bloggers is taking a break from her Paris trip to come visit me and my quilts. woohoo.

Happy Independence Day

Whee, look at my display for the 4th of July - I'm really happy with it - much better than last year's (see the post and learn more about the four quilts on the right side).


Several of these quilts are hung on mini 3M Command Hooks which work great. I also tried something new to cure the wobbles - I used hookless stickies on the bottom quilt corners. The little tabs are barely noticeable.

I have a bit of Christmas in July going on here. These gorgeous patriotic Santas were a gift from my sweet Dad. These are cypress knee carvings by Bill Evans, whom I adore and highly recommend. I now have three knees he carved and I love them all.

This is America with Flag. I hate naming quilts, just try to come up with something descriptive... I wrote about quilting the next two quilts in this post from last July.

Blue with Stars. Check out Kathie's quilt - we were both inspired by the same piece in Small Endearments but came out with different results.

Even though I finished the quilting on these two small quilts last year, I didn't get them bound and finished until this month. I'm lazy and I just hate that part.

I washed these two quilts and Liberty Blooms together. (I'd added more hand quilting to Blooms even though it was already bound and sleeved - just looked too barren and I hate underquilted quilts.) After a delicate cold bath in the washing machine and a short visit to the dryer, red had bled all over the stems in Blooms and some blue had bleed on America. That was even with Color Catchers tossed in.

So I put those two quilts in a big pot with several more Color Catchers and added hot tap water. I kept stirring so the quilts never just sat there. After quite a bit of dye released into the water I drained it out and added more hot water. I did that five times before the water was mostly clear. And that did the trick, the bleeding was out.

My sweetie and I celebrated with antipasti at our favorite Italian restaurant. Not quite hotdogs and potato chips, but it sure was yummy.

Liberated Quiltmaking on CD?

In the two and a half weeks since I posed the question "would you buy Gwen Marston's Liberated Quiltmaking for approximately $36" ya'all spoke up and said you'd buy 235 copies. I think that's pretty swell given the short amount of time and no involvement by the author. I passed the information along to AQS. The editor thanked me and asked how many of you would want to buy Liberated Quiltmaking on CD.

Hmm, I can't get excited about that at all. I do enough reading on the internet as it is. And LQ isn't a book that you'd just bring up to get a pattern, because there aren't any. It's a book to be read and savored. But I relay the question nontheless

Would you buy Liberated Quiltmaking on CD?