Quiltmaker Blog Tour!

It's my turn to be on the Quiltmaker Magazine Blog Tour for 100 Blocks, Volume 2!

The 100 Blocks, Volume 2 Blog Tour is running Nov. 8-12, 2010. Get the inside scoop from over 60 designers with lots of exciting prizes all week long! You can check all the fun things going on now at Quiltmaker's Blog: Quilty Pleasures!

But don't click to go there YET! Finish THIS post first, THEN go surfing :cD



The issue should be available near you on or around November 16th...can you feel the excitement building??

My Block is called BIRTHDAY GIRL! Because...I designed it and sewed it up on my last Birthday, January 23rd. I think it was the BEST thing to do on my birthday, don't you? A commemorative block. Spending the day at my machine...perfect!

You will find my block, #174 on page 58 of the issue.

Those of you who know me, know I "LOVE" a challenge, and I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE digging into my scraps to make things happen!

In my patchwork I am always looking for a design that will use up things that I have on hand, left over half square triangles from other projects, bricks, squares, strips of pre-cut this and that and everything to pull it off!

This block was no exception. The only HARD part for me was to design this in a 12" block, because....well.....you know....I like things SMALL! So the only way to combat the GINORMOUS size of the blocks was to fill it up with lots of little pieces so it didn't look clunky. LOL!

I dug into my bin of 2.5" X 4.5" bricks and pulled out the purples. I dug into my 2.5" Precut square box for some random neutrals, yellows and golds! And I dug for extra half square triangles from other projects and pulled some red/yellow-gold ones, and some red/neutral ones too! The fill-in neutral triangles also were cut from scrap strips..the only thing BIG I had to cut was the corner triangles.

Having scraps cut into usable sizes meant that I could assemble this block from a multitude of fabrics on the quick!


I've even played with a sample layout! If you set the quilt with scrappy neutral sashings (I cut these 2" wide so they finish at 1.5") you get an alternate look of shoo-flies that appear where the block corners come together with the red cornerstones. COOL! ((I love secondary designs!))

The Quilt as shown, with 30 blocks, an inner border cut 1.5" and an outer border cut 5" Will give you a quilt that finishes around 80.5" X 94", a good size!

So, now the fun part! Would you like to WIN a copy of 100 Blocks, Vol 2?! All you need to do is leave a blog comment here, and please say something about WHY you like to visit me here at Quiltville! I'll use a number generator to pull not one, but TWO winners! Someone will win a signed copy from me, and I will mail it to you personally! A second someone will win a copy directly from Quiltmaker magazine!

Ready? Set? Comment! ((And please be sure to include your email address if you don't have that visible in your settings so that I can contact you back about your win, and to get your snail-mail address!)) Scroll down to the bottom of the post, below my signature, look for the link that says "SNIPS BY OTHERS" That is where you click to comment if you haven't been here before!

And DON'T worry about how many comments there already are! Everyone gets an equal chance! I want to hear from you :c)

If you haven't clicked to "FOLLOW" ((In the sidebar, down the page)) Please do so, so you can keep up with the doings here...if you didn't know yet, The Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll Mystery is starting on the 19th! You won't want to miss that!

If you are a facebooker, please "LIKE" the Quiltville Friend Page! We are having a lot of fun you won't want to miss!

And if you are NEW here, welcome! Please be sure to check out Quiltville.com and browse through all the free patterns, tips, techniques and other quilty stuff.

I'm also honored and thrilled to have a regular running column in every issue of Quiltmaker Magazine called "Addicted To Scraps!" Each issue gives you a block design to help use those precious scraps in your collection. You won't want to miss a single issue! Keep On Scrapping On!

The Best Things in Life are Quilted!!