*Sigh*

Yesterday our son left to go back to Iraq.  And he was kind enough to text at 6:45 this morning to let us know he was in Germany...what a good son!  I'm going to have to give him a world time zone chart.

Thank you for all your comments and advice regarding my son's quilt.  I've decided to go ahead finish the star quilt AND make him his "Marvin" quilt.  For those of you that don't know who Marvin the Martian is, here is the picture my darling son wants made into a quilt.

Yeah...I know!  What the frick?  Is he TRYING to kill me?

I've started to formulate some ideas on how to pull this off...but not right now.

Yesterday as I'm sitting at the airport with my son I starting about all the things I needed to get done...a blog tutorial, quilts for Festival, quilts for family, a blog giveaway...dishes and laundry...ugh.  And what do I do when I get home?

I do the complete opposite!  For several years I've been wanting to start a spiderweb quilt.  And yesterday was the day.  I've completed 5 of 20 blocks.  I might make more blocks if there is any red leftover after the first 20 are done.

I'm so tickled with how it is turning out!  I used Bonny Hunter's tutorial to get started.  If you're interested in making this quilt too you can find the tutorial here.

P.S.  I promise to post my new giveaway and that flower tutorial THIS week!  I'm counting on you to hold me to it.



Designer a Day - Day 9

Judy Niemeyer of Quiltworx

Ok...I know they are not new 2011 patterns but I still HAD to have them.  For a peak at Judy's 2011 patterns go here and scroll down towards the bottom.

What's on the wall today?

Where do I begin the story on this one?

A long long time ago I asked my son if he would like a new quilt for his barracks room. 
And he was like "Uh I guess." 
"Ok...what colors?"
"Dark colors."

And many many moons later, I've only gotten this far.  I had this grand idea to make all the stars a different fabric...what a dum dum!  Yeah it looks great but its not so fun to work on.  To do it this way you have to lay it out on the board first and then pick up the four fabrics surrounding the center of the star, make the star points, put them back, and then take of the next four fabrics.  So its a constant back and forth...and it ties up my design wall....grrrrrrrr.

To top it all off, since he's here I decided to dig this out and put it up on the wall to get his opinion.  And what does he say?  "I thought you were going to make me a Marvin the Martian quilt?  What the frick dude?!  Somewhere along the way I missed that memo.

Now what do I do?  As of right now I have a deadline of January 2012.  That is when he returns from his tour in Iraq.  Do I make this quilt and tell him to deal with it?  Or do I slave away on creating a Marvin quilt? 

Sheesh...kids I tell you!

Designer a Day - Day 8

For all my Civil War quilt lovin' friends, I present to you

Carol Hopkins Designs

Flower Tutorial Coming Soon!

Last week a few people asked if I would do a tutorial.  So as we speak I'm working

on a tutorial to show you how easy these little flowers are to make. 

But I have a question...how do you like to receive your tutorials? 

Videos?  Posts?  Pdf files?  Or a combination of them maybe?

Designer a Day - Day 7

Crabapple Hill Studio

What can be said about one of the most talented embroidery designers today?  SHE ROCKS...'nuff said!

Here's a closer look at the six patterns I purchased from her.

You can check out Meg's blog here.

Today's Count:  9 designers, 27 patterns, and 2 books.

See you tomorrow with more goodies!

I've been playing around...

...with 2 1/2" strips to make pins for an upcoming quilt retreat.

While at Market, I came across a vendor selling cute little flower bracelets with pincussion centers...sorry no picture of them.  When the gal explained how easy it was to make the flower I knew I would have to make some myself.