Dragonflies and Butterflies -- Oh my

I've been working on a lot of baby quilts lately.   Seems everyone and their brother (literally) is having a baby.   While working on a quilt using the dragonfly fabric last night, I wondered why I had never done a quilt that combined the butterfly fabric and the dragonfly fabric.  

So I did.

Here's a close up of the fabrics.

This is a baby quilt, because well, babies lately.   It is not for friends or family, it is for sale.   You can also get it in the yellow or purple.    Or all of them (which would be so much fun to do) or any combination of the 3 colors.   It can also be done in other sizes.

Mug Rugging (aka more fun with fabric)

Went with a new pattern for the mug rugs.   Okay, this is the same pattern I use for the table runners.   I decided to try it to see what happened.    I like this so much better.   This one is wider than the old version of the mug rug.   Room for a bigger snack!!!!

These are so much fun to make.   Again, I like the interplay of the fabrics.  With only 4 strips I can only do so much, but what I can do is great.   Plus its a great way to use up smaller bits of fabric batting.   No waste in quilting.




I had so much fun with the mug rug, I made a matching table runner.  






This is what happens when I fall in love with a fabric.   I just want to keep making things with it.  (wait until you see what happens with all the fall fabric I've been collection)

Thank You to Our Troops

Found this great fabric to make this beautiful tablerunner.    What a great tribute to our troops.    The front says "Thank You" in red, white and blue.   The back says "God Bless America."

25% of the proceeds go to USO.  

Order your tablerunner for yourself, a family member, the member of the military you hold dear today.

Last Minute Christmas Gifts

Need a last minute Christmas gift for the person who loves to entertain?   Still believe in bringing hostess gifts to parties?   Have I got the perfect thing for you.

Table runners.   Lots of colors.  Choices abound.   Still time to ship by Christmas.

Others available.   Just ask.   If I don't have it, if you ask soon, there might be time to make it by Christmas.   Or hey, party year round with these table runners.

EBay, Legal Quilts and the Lions

My Lions Club is now on EBay Giving Works.    This means folks can list their items on EBay and a percentage of the sale can be donated directly to the Burtonsville Lions.  

To kick off our new fundraising effort, I listed one of my quilts.  Go bid, buy, help an AWESOME organization.

Scrap Time

I have overflowing bags of scraps.   Those pieces left over from cutting pieces for other quilts.   They are too small to throw away.  Surely they can be used for something?   Of course they can.   They work wonderfully in string quilts.   Any length or width can be used.  Odd shapes can be trimmed.  Color coordination be darned.   It's a scrap quilt.   And amazingly it all works somehow when the blocks are sewn together.

This is the start of a string quilt.

I have a few other base blocks good to go.   Anytime I have a few minutes and feel like quilting but not starting a major project, I can work on these blocks.  

I am using the "quilt as you go" method, so I am sewing the batting and batting in the block at the same time.   When all the blocks are done, I just sew them together, bind it and ta-da, done quilt.

The goal is to get reduce some of the bags by the end of the year.   We shall see.

Slight Change in Plans

Since it looks like New England finally started playing football, I am taking the time to update things a little bit.  

Last week my 12 year old car died.   It was not pretty.   There was a whole lot of shaking going on.  Losing a cylinder on a Ford Focus is not good, it's not like they have a lot of cylinders to begin with.


Unfortunately, that meant I had to get a new car.   Immediately.   The day job of being an attorney involves driving.   This week, I have to go to another county courthouse that is not easily accesible by public transportation.  A car is a must.   So off to buy a car I went.   I got another Ford.   A Fiesta this time.   Sadly, it was not red, like my last 2 Fords (Festiva and Focus, notice a trend here?)   See my new car:

So, now I have car payments.   Not too bad, but not what I needed right now.   This necessitated a little change in plans.    Instead of all my quilt sales going to student loan payoff, it will be divided between student loans and car payments.   What will not change is the 25% going to charity.   That will always happen unless I am homeless myself.   Let's keep that from happening shall we?

I also had to raise some prices.   Nothing too radical.   You can see the new prices on the right.   Also, not mentioned over there, but if you are special ordering a quilt, you can request some extras.   Cotton or Wool batting, a speciality backing things like that.   These are additional costs, but again, not unreasonable.  

Got a question about these changes, or just about my quilts in general?   Feel free to email me or make a comment below.   I always love to hear from you.