We made it to Telluride in a respectable time, unlike last year.  Phew.  There was a flurry of activity at our house the last couple of days before we left.  I mailed off something like twenty-eight packages, some of which were for the Virtual Quilting Bee.

I chose these Denyse Schmidt prints from my stash because I have always wanted to make a quilt from them, but just haven't gotten around to it.  I sent the other 11 ladies each one fat quarter and kept the floral in the top right for my own square because I only had a small piece.

I asked the others to make me a nine patch square using the fabric I sent for the middle squares on each side.  They can choose a second fabric that contrasts or coordinates for the corner pieces and a third print or solid for the center.  I'm going for a look similar to the ones in this photo.  Mine still needs some work - I will take it apart when I get home and change the center square to a third print.  When I have all twelve squares in my hands, I will probably sash them together using white and maybe add some other prints where the corners meet.  I am looking forward to seeing what these ladies come up with.

Thanks for the packing list love....I am going to work on a master list that will be available for download in the next couple of weeks.  Also, although I will be posting on the blog while on vacation, I am going to take a break from responding to comments.  Please know that I read them all and really appreciate every single one.  Thanks.

Back tomorrow with news on what was in fifteen of the other packages I sent.

Whenever we are leaving on a trip, the last minute scramble to get things packed is always just that:  last minute.  While I am packing us up, the girls seem to get into things, making a big mess right before we leave.  About a year ago, I came up with a packing list for them so that they could be busy in a productive way while I was packing my own clothes.

This is today's list.  We went over it together and later, when I am ready to put things in the suitcase, they will go gather what they need and bring it to me.  Occasionally, I will have to edit their choices to make sure that they are appropriate for the season (no tank tops in winter, no corduroys in summer, etc.).  I just send them back to get the right thing and keep packing my own stuff.

Kate wasn't reading when I started using this system, so I drew each item and wrote its name beside it.  Although she's reading now, I still use the drawings because it makes it cute.  And really, cute makes the whole thing fun, you know.  I've thought about making a master list that I can just print out each time.  Would you all be interested in that?

This is a great tool for grocery lists too - draw little apples, bananas, gallons of milk and loaves of bread and then divvy up your list between your helpers.  It gets them involved and keeps them happy in the store.

We're off to Telluride in the morning.  I'll be checking in from there with some other things to share.  See you next week.

Have you seen the project that Emily, Rachel, Alicia and Heather are doing?  If not, you really should check out echoes.  I was enamored with it immediately.  They have a flickr group so that the rest of us can play along.  I joined.

Although I am feeling a bit frenzied, running around, trying to get ready for our trip, I am still taking ten minutes to paint a little something every day.  It's been way to long since I did anything artistic that didn't involve fabric, thread or yarn.  It feels so good.

I have gone and done something crazy.

I have entered my still unfinished x-string quilt in the state fair.

Here's the thing:  for three years now, I have said that I wanted to enter something I made in the state fair, but have never done it.  Two years ago, I didn't have anything I really wanted to enter.  Last year, I was going to enter an apron, but I missed the deadline.   This weekend I finally finished quilting (!) the x-string quilt and it dawned on me that I might be able to enter it in the fair before the deadline.  Oh no - the deadline was July 1st.  Next year, I thought.

I tell Fatty that I missed the deadline and that I can't enter without paying a late fee.  On top of that, I am not finished and the drop off days at the fairground are the one weekend in August when we will be out of town.  How much is the late fee? he asks.  You pay $15 instead of $8.  He looks at me and I can see it on his face.  You want to do this, right?  Yes. Yes, I do.  Pay the late fee and find someone to take it over to the fairgrounds for you.  You can finish it in time.  You always do.

So, that was that.  I poured over the categories in the catalog and tried to discern the differences.  I settled on machine pieced and machine quilted.  I hope that is the right one.  I'll have four days when I get home from Telluride to finish the binding and sew a sleeve on it.  Then I will have to persuade a friend to drop it off for me.

Am I nuts?  Probably.

But I'm going to have a quilt in the state fair.  And I think that is pretty damn cool.

I spent most of the weekend sewing, but I don't have anything to show for it.  All of the projects are in different stages of "not yet finished."  I have myself to blame for this:  running out of thread seems to be a specialty of mine.  And now, I can add math miscalculations to the list as I cut a two and a half yard piece of batting in to a completely unusable mess along with squaring a full size sheet incorrectly.  Yikes.  I think I might start chanting, "Measure twice, cut once" but I am not sure it would help.

The good news is that there are a few things making my heart race lately.  The first is Sarah's latest gocco swap.  Oh boy!  I love me some good looking notes.  See the button on the right side bar?  Click it and sign up.  You know you want to.

Second is Pam's February Lady Sweater.  Seriously.  I have spent a couple weeks deciding if I love this so much because it is the most perfect shade of green or because I really like the sweater.  Turns out, I think it is both.  So now I am on the hunt for the most perfect yarn in the most perfect green.  You know, so I can knit the most perfect sweater.  Preferably wool - suggestions?  I won't start it for awhile - the wrist, you know.  But the girls and I are headed to my favorite place at the end of the week (another thing making my heart rate rise) and the tangled yoke is coming along.  It is the only crafty thing I'm bringing.  That will be either disastrous or genius (the wrist,  you know).  Only time will tell.

Finally, Blair sent Emily, Tracy and I our new assignment.  (As an aside, can I just say how happy I am that Blair is back at the blog thing?  So very happy - I really missed her words).  I pulled out the dictionary - man, oh man!  There are lots of choices with this word.

Cover.  Noun and verb.  My initial thoughts surprised even me.  Wordplay is so fun - it gets me thinking in so many different ways.

Enough for a Monday morning.  Back tomorrow with quilt news.

You guys!  Thanks for the quilt love.  Really.  I adore it myself, but I had no idea that it would strike a chord with many of you too.  All those lovely comments make me want to just make more.

While I didn't whip up another quilt right away, I did make this little top for Kate's friend Claudia.  This is one of my very favorite fabrics (I bought it years ago and I don't know who makes it).  It is the same pattern I used for this shirt of Kate's last summer.  It is really so simple - I swear it takes almost longer to cut it out than to actually sew it up.  It also only takes about a half yard of fabric for about a size 6 which is great since I seem to have lots of small pieces in my stash.  I have never made my girls pillowcase dresses, but if I understand them correctly, this is made the same way except there is no bias tape under the arms.  I just pressed 1/4" and then folded it under and stitched it down.  Anna Maria just made her girls some cute dresses out of pillowcases and while I could explain the process more to you, she's already done it!  Her directions are way cuter than mine would be anyhow.

I've got lots to talk about (or so it seems!) so posting should pick up a bit around here.   Have a great day!

When I opened the envelope from Jen six weeks ago, I was thrilled to see the word bloom.  The first thing that came to mind was the saying, "Bloom where you are planted."  And I knew exactly how I wanted to proceed even though I wasn't sure how it would all come together.

Although wordplay is a collaboration with Tracy and Emily, I wanted this project to go further.  I imagined a wider collaboration, something that I could make with bits and pieces given to me from different people.  I was thinking about flowers and gardens and how so often people dig plants up and divide them between neighbors and friends.  That's what I wanted:  a community garden of fabric.  And so, I asked for vintage sheet scraps and boy, oh boy, did you guys comethrough for me!  Seventeen of you to be exact.  There are just somany good floral prints in a wonderful color palette in those oldlinens.  I wanted a large variety and small bits.  You all had the best stash of scraps a girl could wish for.  And you were willing to share - for that, I thank you.

I found this aqua linen on clearance and thought it would be a perfect background for the various colors in the sheet scraps.  I began by cutting out concentric circles from different prints - just eyeing them and cutting, no tracing was done here.  Once I had a decent stack of "blooms", I started laying them out on the fabric to see what I had.  I cut some more flowers until I had a random scattering around the perimeter.  I had planned on embroidering the saying by hand in the middle somehow, but felt I needed something to signify myself to anchor it so I cut the one large bloom for that space.

I appliqued the individual flowers to the quilt top by stitching three straight lines across each one.  My original plan was to tie the center of the flowers using embroidery floss, but once I had the quilt sandwiched, I realized that I would need more quilting to hold it nicely together.   I improvised by quilting three circles around one flower.  Initially, I wasn't looking for the wavy lines that I got, but when I stood back to look at it, it was perfect.  It reminded me of my favorite flowers and I smiled.

I had so many scraps to choose from that I ended up using some for a strip of patchwork on the back.  I sewed a label on there, too.  It got quilted over and I really like how it made it blend in a bit more.  The quilting on the back is my favorite part.  Even if the words read backwards, I like it.

I think "bloom" and "Bloom where you are planted" are about finding your hidden potential no matter what your circumstances are at the moment.  I know that if you had asked me nine years ago where I would be in 2008, I would have never imagined that my life as I know it.  I would not be living in this town.  I would have more children.  I would not be sewing as much as I do and certainly not quilting.  I might be knitting.  I would not be writing and designing.  And I most certainly would not have this group of peers, people that I have never met in person, that support, encourage and inspire me.  But I do!  What a great surprise!  And I feel so lucky to be surrounded by such amazing talent.  I have planted myself in this blogging community and in turn, you have planted seeds of inspiration in me.  With a little of my own creativity and time, I am growing in directions I had never imagined.

I had fun making this quilt.  I haven't made anything for myself in a long time and I plan on keeping this one.  It measures 45" x 51" - a perfect summer-nap-in-the-chair size.  Thanks, Jen, for a great word to get me started and thanks, too, Emily and Tracy for playing along.

Life is about the now, not the past or the future.  And if you are successful in living in the moment, I think that you have no choice but to bloom.

Grace came to visit.  I know:  two bloggy meet-ups in one week!  Lucky me!

I met Grace and her kids at the aquarium on Wednesday.  It was like meeting an old friend.  I knew her when I saw her and it was just so easy.  After the aquarium, we got ice cream and then sat in the kids' section at Barnes and Noble while sweet James played with the trains and Elisabeth and my girls looked at books.  Grace and I just talked - it was so nice and really wonderful.  Then yesterday, they all came to our house and we just hung out and chatted more.  It was a lovely afternoon and I was so sad to see them go.

I wasn't the only sad one.  We will just have to do it again sometime.  Thanks for visiting, Grace!