A Tisket, A Tasket 3

Basket No. 3 is finished. I love these little blocks. I can sit down and whip one out in less than an hour and it doesn't really interrupt my other sewing. I realized I don't have a green quilt for March, so decided to follow the green theme. The pattern is from Temecula Quilt Co.'s block of the week.

Shop Hop Finds

Last weekend was the local shop hop. We are so fortunate to have 6 quilt stores here. Two carry lots of reproductions fabrics and the others are modern and traditional. I visited one of the stores to get a backing for the Eye Fooler quilt I just finished.

While I was there I figured I might as well get a backing for a small quilt top from the Jo Morton Little Women's Club that I finished in Nov. or Dec.

Then these cute little fat quarters jumped right off the shelf and into my hands.

I'm going to use these to make the basket quilt from Kathleen Tracy's Remembering Adelia book. She is hosting a quilt along each month from her books at A Sentimental Quilter.

A New Monday Design

After finishing my last quilt top this week, I cleaned off my cutting and ironing table and dusted it, too. I haven't seen the top for quite a few months and now it shines.

I have started a new table topper that has all these parts. It's a design from Jillily Studios that was featured in AP&Q a couple of years ago. And it has appliqué! Can't wait.

It's always fun to start something new, esp. when you have been thinking about it and planning it in your mind for several months.

Time to check back with Judy's blog to see what everybody else is working on.

Tisket, Tasket 2

Got up early this morning and made basket no. 2 from the Temecula Quilt Co. block of the week.

Fun and easy, just my style.

It's Done

My top is finished. I love how it turned out. It is SO BIG I could hardly get it all in the picture. I can't wait to get it quilted.

Several people have asked me what the pattern is. There are two patterns that I am aware of. One is called Eye Fooler. Janet O provided info on her blog Rogue Quilter awhile back. The info is here.

The other is Dream Catcher. I believe Eleanor Burns has a pattern for that.

It is a fun quilt to work on, but it has a gazillion seams which are a real bear to tame. It was fun to use so many scraps and different fabrics, but of course, I have not made much of a dent in my supply of scraps. They just seem to multiply in the drawers.

A Tisket, A Tasket

Are you making baskets? Temecula Quilt Co. is hosting another quilt along. It's one basket block each week in March. How easy is that?

Here is my first one completed.

Traveling

We decided to take a wandering vacation two weeks ago. It was fun and a little unnerving to not have a specific destination. We don't usually plan too far ahead when we travel unless we know there will be a shortage of hotel rooms like for a college football weekend. This can be frustrating sometimes when we hit a snag, but usually leads to some interesting twists and turns.

We started by visiting our son in Illinois and then off to Indiana to my hometown for a birthday party. Friends there suggested Gulf Shores, AL so we headed off that direction. We spent the night in Birmingham, AL at a beautiful B&B. Here are some photos of all the lovely antiques. The husband and wife who own it have been in business for 7 years. She is a full time architect and selected all the decorations and spent hours and hours at auctions and flea markets buying all the antiques. Wow! Wouldn't that be fun? He is an artist and does beautiful bronze statues and busts on commission and holds a school to teach carving of wooden carousel animals.

Our room had an attached sitting room.

This is the living room complete with a stuffed peacock in front of the fireplace. Everybody needs one of those, I think!

We spent two days in Gulf Shores which was quiet and just warm enough to be enjoyable. We walked the beach and visited the air museum on the Pensacola Naval Air Base. We visited a Civil War fort on Mobile Bay and took a ferry across the bay where we could see some natural gas platforms up close.

We came back thru Tuscaloosa and saw the Crimson Tide stadium and campus plus all the tornado damage there. How sad.

In Tennessee we visited a couple of wineries and the gravesite of Meriwether Lewis of Lewis & Clark fame. What a sad story that was!

On our way back thru Illinois, we stopped at a small graveyard to visit the graves of my great, my great-great, and my great great great grandparents. I always wish those gravestones could come to life and tell me about the people.

Then we wandered back home. Hope you have some warm weather in the days ahead.