Pennsylvania and New York Row By Row Shop Hop

My local quilt shop, Needles in Wellsboro, PA, is participating in an upcoming shop hop. Check out this post on my friend Kathy's blog (Cotton Cellar) to see what cute thing she made from a collectible "license plate".

And then click here to see the gorgeous free pattern that Kathy designed -- it will be available to everyone who comes to Needles during the shop hop.

Here's a link to a list of Pennsylvania shops participating and a link to the New York list.

New Project, Yet Again

This time I have a reason to make a new quilt -- one of my cousins is expecting her second baby, another girl, in November. That means I can justify starting a new project with these luscious fabrics that I won about 18 months ago from Cloud 9 Fabrics. My plan is to add some solid white and make a couple of double pinwheel quilts (a la Eleanor Burns), one mostly pink, and the other mostly blue. The pink one will be given to my cousin and I'll just hold on to the blue one until it's needed.

I used this pattern seven years ago when my husband's twin grandchildren were born -- it's quite easy, but looks very impressive. It worked perfectly for a set of boy/girl twins.

Stitching in Public

Finally, some wonderful weather on a Thursday! Today, my quilt guild, the Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild, is starting our summer sessions of "Stitching on the Green". 

Early spring on the Wellsboro Green

We started these informal gatherings last summer to coincide with the Wellsboro Growers' Market, which is located every Thursday afternoon one block from the Wellsboro Green. Guild members bring their hand-stitching projects (quilting/knitting/embroidery/whatever) and spend time enjoying the outdoors and oohing and aahing over each others' projects. After a couple of hours, we head on over to the market to pick up some delicious locally-grown and made goodies. I'll bet the strawberries sell out in minutes!

I don't have any quilting projects that need hand work, so I'm taking along a ruffle scarf WIP. I'm not a knitter, but I can knit these. Easy, peasy!

Leftovers, Again

The quilt that I showed last week (in this blog post here) left me with some leftover pieces, so I've been playing around with them a bit.

Because of the way the pieces were trimmed, the seams won't all match when put together, but that's OK with me. I'm still playing with layouts and will probably put this aside for a while since I don't really have an idea as to what to use this for.

And since we finally had a wonderful day, I couldn't resist taking a photo of this quilt outdoors. Natural outdoor light does wonders.

Mini-Quilt Challenge Progress -- Sneak Peek

The 625 1-inch squares that I showed in Monday's post have now been sewn together -- half-inch finished squares! Well, approximately half-inch and approximately squares. Now I have to figure out how to quilt this.

Nope, it's not a crossword puzzle. You'll have to wait until after the July meeting of the Ithaca Modern Quilt Guild to see the whole thing.

First June Finish!

I made this top back in January at a workshop taught by one of my guild members -- a workshop using a strip tube method shown in this video by Missouri Star Quilt Company. There are loads of ways to layout the blocks, and I decided to use a zigzag design. To see other layouts, check out the quilts made by other members of my guild here. The pattern goes together very easily. Just watch the bias edges.

I had a few blocks left over, so I used them on the back...

Closeups of the quilting (three colors of thread)...

This quilt used up at least 6 1/2 yards from my pre-2013 stash! Yeah!

Not Much Stashbusting

I've decided to participate in a challenge for the Ithaca Modern Quilt Guild, so I'm busy cutting 625 1-inch squares....what the heck have I gotten myself into?

Don't Tell The Quilt Police

My latest project involves corners that are cut off...oh my!

If anyone calls the quilt police, I won't answer the door...

What a Deal!

I recently went to a craft rummage sale held by a nearby guild and this is what $8 bought -- six yards of fabric, 2 neck roll pillow forms, and a flex design ruler. There were lots of great deals to be had, but I resisted the temptation to add more to my stash, especially since I still have some fabric that I bought at their sale four years ago (not all, some of it has been used)!

I Can't Help Myself

I've been doing a lot of baking lately -- it helps that I have a college-aged son home this summer who needs to keep his energy up!

The recipe for this Strawberry Shortcake Cake can be found here. The only change I made was to use a yellow cake mix instead of white.

Now I have to get back to quilting!