Here is my current project. My quilting group is doing a calendar quilt with each quilter doing one month of her own quilt and then trading with others until everyone has a piece done by someone else. The pieces are different shapes for differnt months. January's piece is 6 x 36, (mine is straight !!! although it doesn't look it) Most quilts are going to be anything goes, applique, embroidery, paper piecing, patchwork, embellishments, whatever.

I found my inspiration from what I see outside during this time of year. Dark gray trees, with snow on them and bright white snowflakes.

This wallhanging I made for my mom a long time ago. I call it Aerin's Ladies, as my dd, then 3, helped me pick out the ladies dresses. I really like how I did the sashing and the nine patches at the corners. But upon closer inspection, I realized the binding was fused on and not sewn down. Oh, well, she doesn't wash this and no one else knows....

This is really not a project I would pick to do now, but I enjoyed making it. And with fusible web it didn't take too long.

Today and yesterday were good quilty days. I started an Odds and Ends Quilt. I am using my scraps and odd blocks to make a quilt top. I am using 6 inches for the scrap block but including some orphan blocks of any size, just bordered to fit somewhere. So it is easy to work with different sized components. I don't expect it to be beautiful, but full of memories. I received a BD FQ swap. And the fabrics are wonderful! As usual, I am not working on one project but three or four. Tomorrow morning I work, but the can sew in the afternoon.

This is Jungle Fever, a quilt I made in about 2002. It is very wild, but that is the point. This is a sick quilt, one that my kids get to lay under when they don't feel well. It has a lot of things to look at, lines to trace, patterns to figure out.

Above are photos of some of the blocks. There is a theme to each block, cowboys, pigs, space, light house, chicken, christmas, butterflies, zebras. I used up a lot of novelty fabric. The alternate squares are a bright animal print. The back is teal colored, like the 2nd border, and it is quilted in white, so that you can see outlines of things on the back.

The themed squares are not squares to begin with. If you look at the blocks they are kind of wonky. This was before wonky was really in.

I don't remember where I got this fabric but it has this interesting printing in gold on it.

"Specially Made for

N. Fadlailah

Kano

Design K18063/2

6 yards

Uniontex Nigeria"

It is really beautiful, and has more large starbursts on it. I guess I have about 3 yards of it. I wonder about it, what was it made for?

This is me and John Flynn at a Quilt Festival in Valdez, Alaska, September 2004. This is his Arabic Lattice pattern. His is set with little squares between the blocks, mine is just a straight set. I donated this quilt to my daughters school for buying new books for the library. It sold for $225.
These are the fat quarters I found in my scrap tub. Where did they all come from? Not that I am complaining. Maybe I should leave some in there and hope they reproduce. :)

They are all nicely pressed and folded. Now to go to work on the fabric boxes!

I hand pieced this star just for something different. It is part of a Robert Callahan pattern.

Today I have been ironing and refolding fabric to get it more organized. I had to take a break from cutting because I dropped the rotary cutter on top of my foot and gashed it. No stitches but it is achy.

It is -20 F tonight and snowing. It has warmed up though, yesterday morning it was -44. We are all going stir crazy staying inside. Both my kids are sick, ear infection and a sore throat virus.

I picked up three quilts from the large arm quilter today. Two turning twenty's and a Debbie Caffrey mystery. I will bind them and then show a photo.