A few things

I picked up some irresistible scraps from a big bin at a homewares store the last time I visited DD1 in Berkeley. Small pieces, big prints, no way I could think of to use them. How about fussy cutting a house for Victoria's donation quilt?

I hope to get another house made tomorrow.

Since I mentioned recently that I am into piano key borders, I thought I'd share a photo of a Project Linus quilt we made.

A guild member with an AccuCutter cut zillions of squares and strips from our bugs and critters fabric. Boy, what a time saver that is! Several people sewed the strips to make rail fence blocks and pieced the center of this quilt. The layout had been my idea, but I didn't like it at all when it was made! Eek! So I added the green border to give the eye a place to rest and used most of the rest of the strips as an outer border. I just love piano keys!

Today I got back to work on a quilt I started some time ago. I love the blue strata, but it seems like water to me and it's not a water quilt. I'm going to have to to make a landscape quilt before long! It's so hard to cut these big strata up, but I now have all the strata made and most of the squares cut. The quilt will also have some wonky log cabins, which I just got started on today.

It feels great to be finishing up some old projects -- they were really weighing me down. If you're feeling that way about your UFO's, you might want to read this post on the Happiness Project blog. I subscribe to the blog and belong to their Facebook group because the posts do help keep me focused on positive things.

Houses

When I want a little relaxation, I can tootle over to the sewing machine and chain piece my I Spy hexagon stars, but slicing and stitching without measuring is another story. I need to psych myself up for it. I feel just a wee bit of trepidation when it comes to making something without a pattern. I want rules! And yet I don't, and I find myself attracted to things that are more free form. Once I get into it, I enjoy it, but I have to get over that getting-started hump. I decided that making a house for Bonnie would be a good way to warm up my creativity so I can get back to my own free-piecing project.

For those of you who don't know, Tonya at Lazy Gal Quilting is hosting a housewarming party for Bonnie. I've used some of Bonnie's patterns and sending her a house block is a way to say thank you. I rooted through my novelty prints to find something to fill the doorway. I had wanted a cat and couldn't find one quite the right size, but Micky seemed up for the job. Very fun! I have a whole pile of stuff I need to mail, so I'll pack this block and everything else up this weekend and head to the post office on Monday. I would do it tomorrow, but I have to spend the day in Kankakee for work. (I'm taking Monday off to make up for it!!)

And more on houses -- I just found out they're going to be doing Happy Houses at the national Project Linus conference in June! Yay!

Falling off the grid

Many apologies for the long delay between posts. Things have gotten a little crazy and I haven't gotten much of my own quilting done. I did attend the Make A Blanket Day for Project Linus event for the Central Illinois Region -- lots of fun, lots of people attending -- and pieced most of a top there. It's so energizing to be with a group of people all working away! Some of the quilts that people donate are amazingly creative. I also got to demonstrate how to make a Happy Houses quilt from kid-friendly scraps or as a group project. Lynda over at Master of Patience? made some wonderful Happy Houses!

Things have been jumping at work, but the fun part of it is that our chili took home the grand prize this weekend at the Urbana International Beer Tasting & Chili Cook-Off! Here I am with my co-worker Marilyn (also a quilter) and a student, Katie. Note our tacky chili lights and chili necklaces and earrings.

The chili uses textured soy protein and is vegetarian -- I think the judges were very surprised to discover they liked ours better than all the other meaty chilies! It was a blind judging. Our chili really is delicious, with wonderful flavor from the chipotle chilies in adobo sauce, which come from a can. It's very quick and easy to make, too. The recipe is on our website, Illinois Center for Soy Foods.

I am off to the Food & Nutrition Conference & Exhibition in Philadelphia, but will be back quilting by mid-week! I am trying to catch up on my blog reading. I've been so busy with other things this week, and I really miss keeping up with all of you!

Busy week with Linus

It has been a very busy week getting ready for a Project Linus worknight. I'm chair of the Linus committee at my guild and it is far more work than I had anticipated, though I feel good about it. People have been extremely generous with fabric donations, although not all of it is really child-friendly (but we've been working on creative ways to incorporate that fabric into the quilts). This week we made Happy Houses.It was so much fun, although the sewing took no time compared to the hours I spent sorting through our fabric and cutting out the pieces. Do click on the photo to enlarge it so you can see all the people and animals in the doorways. If you're interested in making any Happy Houses yourself, I have links to the original directions and some simplified cutting info posted on the blog I keep for the guild's Linus projects. Click here for the instructions. I'm trying to decide on sashing -- all suggestions welcome!

The roof and sky are made by the quick corners method, which is easy but wasteful. One of the ladies stitched all the leftover triangle pairs into squares. We have a big block box where we put leftovers like this and eventually they get used in a quilt.

And finally, here I am in my very messy sewing space. Brian had put a new memory card in the camera and snapped this photo to be sure it was working. I'm putting the borders on the I Spy quilt I'm making for Laurel's kids. I trimmed the hexagons without incident, thank goodness, and hope to finish up the quilt this week. I'll post a photo soon.

Happy Houses

I've been trying to come up with a variety of block projects for Linus workdays. It's easier to make a block than a whole top -- duh! -- and people get really creative when they make just one block. Here's my latest idea , "Happy Houses."Before Simply Quilts was taken off HGTV (sigh), one of the episodes I taped was Quilting with Kids. The guest showed how to make a butterfly block and a house block. Both are simple enough to make with children, but I figured that since the designs are so child-friendly, they'd make great Linus quilts, too. I used her pattern (available online if you click the link above) but put a child in the doorway instead of using the roof fabric for the door. I cut twelve blocks, each with different fun fabrics, so we can stitch them at the next work night. I love the balloons in the sky! Do you suppose this little boy is so happy because it's his birthday? ;)