Little sis

After I decided to give this quilt to my sister in law for her birthday:

I decided I liked it so much I would miss it and wanted to make something else in that pattern and fabric, but I didn't want to tackle another large quilt.  So I found a couple of charm packs of the "Etchings" fabric and made nine pinwheel blocks for this wall quilt, its' litter sister.  Here it is pinned together on my design board: 

I"ll assemble it after I complete the binding on the gift quilt in the next few days.  The large quilt is set on point but this small version was better in a straight set because it showed the pinwheel blocks better.  Side setting triangles in the gray fabric were too overpowering on the smaller blocks.

Sherry Meyer did a magnificent quilting job on the gift quilt as usual.  I'll post pictures of the pretty design as soon as it's bound.  By the way, Sherry's got my Orca Bay to quilt right now.  I can't wait to see how it looks.

Yes, I am still here...

... but seriously distracted with some personal issues and out of the blogging loop for weeks. Hopefully, it will be better soon.

In the meantime, this is the foundation pieced small quilt I wrote about. I received a lovely email from the recipient, so I can show the picture. Yes, it's a greyhound, very appropriate for Kathryn of Hound Mistress and Silver Nutmeg Crafts.

Even though I am officially a "cat person" (and I'm not just saying that because Molly is in the room staring at me!) I so enjoy her stories about life with greyhounds, a dog I have always admired and thought beautiful. When I found this pattern, I knew it was just the thing for her.

Isn't this pattern darling, even if I do say so myself?

I love connectingthreads.com

Connectingthreads.com has to be my favorite quilting supply site right now, because of their great kits and even greater prices. I'm not usually a kit buyer, but I have been known to browse the kits for sale on many websites to get inspiration. Well, recently it's been "Inspiration nothing, I want THAT kit!" The price doesn't hurt either --- and if you can get them on closeout, well, that's a deal too good to pass up.

This is my latest. It's a small wall quilt, 24" square. I love the colors, and have decided that once I quilt it, this beauty will grace my coffee table. The fabrics are just wonderful, that feather print especially so.
The 6 inch blocks are a challenge to your piecing accuracy. I found that I was measuring and trimming each unit, especially the half square triangles, because even 1/32" adds up if you're working small. But, challenging or not, you have to love the instant gratification that a small quilt brings.

Fig and Plum, again

I bought a Jelly Roll and a Layer Cake of Moda's Fig and Plum on sale (deeply discounted!), added 1/2 yard of a neutral from my stash, and have made two small quilts (42" square) with 30 Layer Cake squares left over! Now that's economy! The bindings, batting and backings will come out of my stash, too. The remaining Layer Cake squares will make 30 4" pinwheel blocks for a Project Linus quilt.

Oh, by the way - that little pieced border fought me like a tiger. Funny since the inner neutral border measured out exactly as designed, and I tried sooooo hard to be accurate on my seams in the outer pieced border. Well, I was adjusting all over the place to make the two come together. The pieced border on the other Fig and Plum quilt went together like a dream. Go figure.