The PUSH

I ran across some great blog articles recently which delve into the modern quilting movement.  Please take a moment to read these, as they are truly thought provoking and will likely guide the way our online modern quilting community evolves.  Rossie takes a look at where Modern Quilting should and could go while Cheryl (Naptime Quilter) takes a hard look at where Modern Quilting really comes from.  Both really challenge us to take our quilting to new places with a focus on technique, pushing the envelope and doing new things.

As a fairly new quilter, the exhortation to PUSH to try new techniques and designs is pretty easy.  There are so many new things for me ;-)  For my next project, my big PUSH is going to be hand quilting.  Inspired by Ann StewArt's amazingly simple and yet intriguing work, I am going work on hand quilting with large color blocks in my next quilt. 

Though I have done hand quilting before I am pushing to better my technique.  Take a look at my practice piece.  I am pretty consistent with my stitches when I use a longer needle, but I want to get better.  So last night I tried working with #10 between and what a big difference. 

I have a lot more practice before I am ready to tackle the real quilt with my smaller needle.  Guess that's part of the process!  What tips do you have for me to with hand quilting?  I'd love your tips, tricks and techniques!

Fun Quick Project

Coasters!

I love this Michael Miller fabric...It was crying out to be made into something that you'll see everyday on the table.  Now its in the shop.

My Next Project

Can you guess what my next project will be?

Inspired by the plum tree in my backyard at sunset

Gee that’s Generous!

What a great mail day I had today!  I had two thick envelopes waiting in my mailbox and both were filled with fabric goodies.  Best of all, both came with EXTRA goodies!

First I got a yard of blue bouquet (flea market fancy) that I bought from TiggleGiggles on etsy (here's her blog).  She surprised me by adding in a fat eight of pink bubble dots and a fat eighth of pink buoquet.  What a find! 

Next, I opened a fabric swap that I did with Bessiemae .  I have been looking all over for green ribbon flowers (Katie Jump Rope) and was glad to swap for them.  What a nice surprise to get some Heather Ross Mendocino as well. 

A BIG thank you to both for your generosity!

Sandwiches for Dinner

Last night instead of making dinner, I made quilt sandwiches. 

I think I am going to quilt around each square and on the diagonals through the square

Probably will do random horizontal quilting to accentuate the "sticks"

Coffee and Quilts

I just love mornings while on maternity leave.  Here's what they look like:  grab coffee and chocolate muffin...pat the boxer ...give the baby a bounce...then enjoy quilting blogs while eating my high quality and healthy breakfast.

This morning I ran across a great giveaway.  In a shamless effort to win it myself, I am posting a link to Fabric Junkie's giveaway. So be my competition and stop over there and check it out.

Have a great morning everyone!

Mother's Day Napkins

I whipped these up from scraps from my wonky star quilt (you'll get to see this in a coming post) for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day.  I followed a tutorial that I am having a hard time following right now.  I'll try and link it later.  I used different measurements because my scraps were narrower. 

The backing is two prints from Denyse Schmidt's county fair home dec line.