I recently found out about Quilting Bloggers, a new website that is a directory for quilt-related blogs. I've added Quilt Monkey to their directory and have had fun popping into different quilt blogs that I never would have found otherwise. I added a button over on the right, located above the list of blogs that I read regularly. The Quilting Bloggers website has lots of interesting things, including a gallery and free projects. Use the logo button to get to the website, then click on one of the random blogs, or search for a blog by state or country. How will I find the time to actually quilt anymore???
There hasn't been much quilty action going on around here lately. Once I finished the quilt for the summer workshop, I didn't have much to work on. I may not do too much quilting over the summer, but then again I may get totally inspired and end up doing a lot. I do have this kit that I bought recently. There is quite a bit of applique in it, and although the directions sugguest fusing the shapes with a machine buttonhole around the edge, I thought I'd use the starch method of turned edge applique. I've had very good results with this method and prefer it to fusing. However, now that I've started on the first blocks (above), I'm starting to re-think my decision. Those pears are only a few inches tall and I haven't even gotten to the birds yet... I'll stay the course for now and play it by ear.
It is Women's Sewing Month over on the Sew Mama Sew! blog. I have made clothing in the past (mostly when I was much younger), and it seems like a great way to have the clothes that you really want to wear; it's getting harder and harder for me to find fashions I like. However, I have always had a problem getting them to fit right. It takes time (and money) to make something and then I would put it on and it wouldn't fit just right, so I kind of gave up on making my own clothes. But I may be coming around... Sew Mama Sew! is having a Women's Sewing Month where all posts are about making clothes. From what I've seen so far, it starts from the vey beginning, with taking your own measurements and adjusting commercial patterns to fit them. I'm getting excited about actually being able to do this. This is the same blog that had the Handmade Holidays month late last year, and also a quilting month earlier this year. There are lots of photos to help you on your way.
Above is my entry for the first challenge project put on by Always Quilting quilt shop in San Mateo. They gave us three months to work on the challenge, but I've been so busy lately, that I really was only able to work on in for roughly the last two weeks. My design changed countless times from when I first got the challenge. Maybe if I hadn't decided to design it myself, I could have saved myself from a lot of grief! 
I tried quite a few different types of fabric flowers before settling on an origami style folded flower. Below are some of the practice flowers without their centers. I settled on the one on the far left, but the final ones looked much better in the purple fabric.
Lastly is Floral Nine-Patch. An easy quilt that looks more complex because of the way the colors are positioned. This one ended up being quite big, and I didn't have any way to take a picture of it, so this is the EQ5 rendering I made. The colors are pretty close, except for the border, which is a plaid in the actual sample. I pulled the darkest fabric from my stash, and I didn't have enough of that orangy-red for the border, so I used a different fabric.
All of the samples are made and the directions are written and printed, so all systems are go for this session. I look forward to see all my friends and getting to know the new people who came to the preview last week.
Now it's time to start on the summer project...
That's it for today. Hope to see you all at the Preview!
Maywood Studio has wonderful fabrics and is home to Jackie Robinson's designs, including the Fuchsia lines. Gotta get some of that one of these days... Free patterns here (click on "Quilts & Projects", then "Free Patterns").
