Take a look WAY back at my July 24 posting.  The little Peppermint Pinwheels project is finished.  18.5" x 36"

I started with a fat quarter of muslin with leaf prints (acrylic dye, real leaves).

I was inspired by the book Cultural Fusion Quilts.

Hand quilted with big stitch and pearl cotton.  Batting used was Quilters Dream "Dream Orient".  Accented with polymer clay buttons made by ME. 

Store Anniversary Sale

On August 1, I will have owned Cotton Fields Quilt Shop in Washington, NC for ELEVEN years!

There's a big sale going on Aug. 1-8.  If you are interested, all the particulars are on my store blog.

http://cottonfieldsnc.blogspot.com/

Peppermint Pinwheels

The colors I chose don't look much like peppermint, but that's the name of the pattern in the book.  I finished the two blocks that I made using the leaf print fabric.  Fun and easy.

I'm planning on making some sort of small composition with just these two blocks.  I needed to audition some fabric.  

I just LOVE this book!  There will be more "Peppermint Pinwheel" blocks in my future and at least one more pattern in the book that I plan to explore.

Slowly but Surely

Remember this one?

It started as woven strips.  Then I designed the overlay to expose as much of the "weaving" as I could.  NOW it's finished!  I added red zigzag around all of the green edges, some red paint, and quilted with yellow thread.  I finished the facing this week.  It's title is "Now and Venn".

The weaving began as an exercise at our "Artrageous Quilters" meeting.  We were challenged to make something and bring it to the next meeting.

At that next meeting, we made leaf prints, using real leaves and acrylic INK (not paint, not dye).

I printed one fat quarter of muslin that day.  It has been sitting around ever since, waiting for inspiration.

Last night, I decided to try out another pattern from Cultural Fusion Quilts by Sujata Shaw.  (I am a huge fan.)  I found a batik to pair with it, that had similar colors and a leafy design!  I cut and sewed, cut and sewed.

The fat quarter was only enough to make two blocks like this.  I need to press each section, trim and sew.  Fun to do, I will explore this pattern again. Wonder how long it will take me to get things ready for the next showing here?

Row by Row

I haven't been getting as much of my own sewing done as I would like, because I am getting the shop ready for the 2015 edition of the Row by Row Experience.  

Each visitor to the shop between June 21 and Sept. 8 will receive the pattern for my row:

The row pattern is FREE, but there are all sorts of other row by row items to tempt the shoppers.  There are collectible fabric license plates!

There are fabric kits for people who would like to make a row just like mine!

There are pins!

There is even an official mascot!  Bobbin the Robbin!

Each shop will award a grand prize of 25 fat quarters to the first person to return with a FINISHED quilt of at least eight rows.  My prize is a gorgeous batik bundle from Anthology Fabrics.

Let's have some fun! 

Orange Again

I finished this up last week, but forgot to post a picture.

Preview of things to come:  I had some nice left-overs from the first wonky rail fence quilt from the Cultural Fusion book.  I was using mostly red and yellow French prints that I bought from French Connections, here in NC.  When I saw them in NYC, I bought a few more FQ.  

I had a picture of a quilt, credited to www.materialobsession.com  called "Fractured", that I had saved oh, so long ago.  The other day, a friend showed me a copy of the very same picture.  So, I went to a file of "saved ideas" and managed to put my hands on it.  THAT'S what I'm doing with the left-overs!

This one's a little more involved than Sujata's idea.  Because they are 9-patches, it isn't just a matter of making the same block over and over or making mirror images.  I was getting mixed up, so made myself pictures using my old version of EQ.  And remember, these are left-overs, so by necessity the individual blocks are only 3".  I've got a handle on it now and when my mailman brings the next fat quarters .....

Orange

I've had this piece basted for a while.  This week it was time to quilt!

I went round and round and round until I ran out of orange thread.

With the lights off, you can't appreciate the colors, but you can sure see the texture created by all of the stitching.  I bought more thread last night so will probably finish today.