It goes together better if. . . .

I put a quilt top together this morning which didn't work out, so I took it apart. Then I discovered the blocks were not all the same size. I made this quilt once before & gave it to the lady across the street who lost her house in the fire, BTW, the rebuild is coming along nicely. Anyway, I intended to keep the first version for myself, but, since I gave the first away, I decided to make another. Ill have to either cut the blocks down to the smallest one or remakes the whole thing - which I will not do. Note to self, pay attention to making sure the blocks are all the same sized to begin with.

Art Quilt, The Natural World, a Book Review

Once again, Martha Sielman produced a gorgeous book filled with colorful images of nature. This book features 20 quilt artists who produce not your average quilts, but quilts that are hard to distinguish from paintings or photographs. The artist profiles are grouped in the categories of nature, birds, animals, flowers, trees, water, and so on. Other artists works are also dispersed through out the book. Profiles of each artist include working methods, inspirations, and why the do what they do. This book celebrates nature in her finest. It is one that readers will go back to over and over again, for inspiration, to learn new techniques, or just for pure pleasure. Anyone who appreciates nature in any form would be proud to add it to their collection.

Rainbow quilt second try

I finished the second try on the rainbow, storm at sea quilt. I used an accu quilt die cutter on this one & made strict quarter inch seams. It turned out much better technically than the first try. Here's a photo of them side by side. Notice the detail , if the corners meet, seams are straight, etc. on each quilt & you'll see the difference. The second try on this quilt is on the bottom of the photo

Stash Over run & the Little Machine that Can

My stash overflows. There are 24 of these boxes, filled with fabric & arranged by color. On top of many boxes, as you see, is more fabric, as if I needed it- of course a quilter needs fabric, all they can get. Then there's the little machine that did, actually worked perfectly after a year of being stowed away in its cabinet. Fact is, the old Bernina 165 was the only one of three that quilted as it was supposed to. My Bernina 830 has a broken bobbin spring & the repair tech is out of town for 2 weeks, then the Creative Vision kept breaking thread in free motion mode, so that left me the 165 to use. I oiled it up & it worked like a charm. Nothing works like the old one. . .
The last pic shows I'm still working on the Storm at Sea Rainbow quilt. Each block has 65 pieces in it. No wonder it's taking so long. I'm using the accu quilt cutter on this one & so far,mIts turning out right. All I have to do is finish it, which I will, in time. stay tuned . .

KY Update

First of all, I'm fins as is my family. The Lexington area was lucky not to get hit by any tornadoes, however many areas surrounding us weren't so lucky. The focus is on West Liberty, KY but many other counties surrounding Morgan County also got hit hard, can't forget about them. I spoke to Lexington Red Cross who is over run with stuff people brought in. They are asking to hold donations of goods until they get a better handle on it all, makes sense. They have to sort through all that. At this time they are making list for future donated goods, meaning shelters & doing damage assessment. I can sympathize,mi used to volunteer with Red Cross when my county had a chapter. It can be overwhelming in the midst of chaos. If you'd like to donate baby iTMS, quilts, or pillow cases, I'm collecting these things to pass on the Red Cross for later distribution once things settle down. Please send me a private message or email for the address. On a related note, we got snow this morning, 4" in my town, after the tornadoes too. Makes me wonder if mother nature hates KY this spring. I wonder what else she has in store for us. Although I don't have pics of tornado damage, that's been all over the news, here is a pic of the snow that fell last night. Stay tuned.. . .

Spring Storms

Just a few lines between storm days to say I like spring weather if it warn't for the severe weather that goes along with it. Yesterday, I spent the day either glued to the radar online or on Tv & on the phone to DH, DS & main office of the schools- I update them on severe weather since I have 3 grandkids attending &, DH & DS work there. It was exhausting. We missed any damage here at home & in my county, but other places were not so lucky. Now, I hear we're going through it all again on Friday, tomorrow. Only tomorrow's risk is bigger than yesterday's. Some say it's supposed to be like the super outbreak back in 1974. I remember that one too well, pink lightning & greenish skies. Weird for sure. Between storms I'm working on 2 quilts, another storm at sea rainbow quilt & one called melon blossoms. I counted the number of pieces in the storm at Sea block, there are 65 pieces in that one block alone. The Melon Blossoms quilt has 12 large blocks plus a couple of borders, so it shouldn't be too difficult to put together. Here are some pics of the blocks,still in progress. Also I'm using an Accuquilt cutter on the storm at sea blocks, they are coming out much better than my first try. Anyway, that's what I'm doing between storm days.