Tree traditions

Hi everyone, and welcome to my stop on the Holiday Tales and Traditions blog hop! Bernie at Needle and Foot organized this hop to spread a little holiday cheer. I know this holiday is different from all the others, and at least some of us are having a bit of a time this season. It's been a hard year, so let's pull up a chair, grab a cup of whatever you like, and share some happy stories of our holiday traditions. At the end of my post today, there is a small giveaway just to spread a little more cheer, and also a fun holiday recipe that we have enjoyed for years and years. (And it can be made gluten-free, too!) Read on and enjoy, then share your own story in the comments! Off we go. . .

 

My holiday traditions story will be quite familiar to people in the Upper Midwest, where Christmas-- and sometimes Thanksgiving or even Halloween-- are usually marked by lots of snow and cold. We always had a "real" Christmas tree, and as soon as our kids were old enough to walk a bit in the woods, we started going to cut-your-own lots, where you can cut down your own tree. We did this until our kids left home, and we have some of the best memories from those times.

My very first Christmas ornament, bought for my first "adult" tree almost 40 years ago.

We usually had a great time getting a tree, walking through the whole lot to get the best one. Then of course the kids each had to take a few swipes with the saw, which really did not make any progress in cutting down the tree, but it felt good to them. One year we picked a tree that came with pinecones already attached, and I saved them and still have them.

Non-digital photo that survived from the 1990s.

My favorite year was the year that it was 5 degrees below zero and very snowy. You would think that we would have just forgone the tradition that year, but nope-- traditions do not die that easily! And we were pretty hardy folks, you know, so we bundled up the kids and went out and found a tree. It was probably the longest time we spent in a tree lot, and it was hard walking through the snow, but it turned out to be one of the best times ever. And no frostbite, either! We all still talk about the "freezing year." 

Christmas trees meant for eating!

Of course, after all that activity, we needed hot chocolate and cookies! While the tree thawed out (and dripped) in the garage, we had as many cookies and as much hot chocolate as we could hold. It ruined everyone's lunch, but who cares? They got plenty of vegetables at dinner, I promise. Then, of course, we got to decorate and enjoy our prize tree, which somehow always ended up being way too tall for our room. They look much smaller outside!

Ah, memories! I might be tearing up a bit. I know the picture of those cookies up there is making your mouth water, so now I have two small gifts for you. First, at the bottom of this post is our family Christmas cookie recipe, which makes a *lot* of cut out sugar cookies. Also, I am offering a small giveaway so that you can create something fun in the new year. I have this to share with you:

 

This is a small package of Christmas-tree-colored Aurifil threads in different weights and types. There is some floss, and a spool of regular 50 weight, and some 12 weight thread, too, I think. I didn't want to open the package, so I'm not super-sure, but I know that someone who enjoys experimenting with these things will have a great time with these threads. To enter the giveaway, just share a happy holiday memory in the comments! If you don't celebrate Christmas, that's okay, too! I'm happy to hear any of your happy family stories. I will choose a winner using a random number generator on Sunday evening, December 20. 

This giveaway is now closed! Thanks for sharing your stories!

Be sure to visit everyone else on this hop for some more holiday stories, too:

Sew Preeti Quilts

Quilting Jetgirl

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

From My Carolina Home

MMM! Quilts

Pieceful Thoughts

Devoted Quilter

Me and My Quilts

Kathleen McMusing

Sarah Goer Quilts

Needle and Foot

 

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 And, as promised, here is the cookie recipe:

Note: This recipe makes a LOT of cookies-- between 10 and 12 dozen. Hey, I come from a big family! The dough can be divided and frozen, and it will keep a good six months in the freezer if well wrapped. I have made cookies at Easter from dough that I froze at Christmas, so don't be afraid to make the whole batch and have cookies for months.

2 cups butter, softened

2 cups granulated sugar

3 eggs

5 tablespoons milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

6-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and whisk to combine.

 

In a very large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, beating for at least one minute until well combined and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in the milk and vanilla and scrape the bowl to be sure everything is well combined.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, making sure all of the flour is incorporated after each addition. Dough will graually become stiffer and the last of the flour mixture may need to be added with your hands. When well combined, smooth the dough and shape into a rough loaf shape. Wrap tightly and refrigerate overnight (at least 12 hours). Dough can also be divided and frozen at this point.

To bake, preheat oven to 350. Roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thickness a small portion at a time on a lightly floured surface. Dough will be stiff but will soften as you work with it. Cut with cookie cutters in any shape you desire. Place cookies about an inch apart on greased cookie sheets. (Cookies do not spread a lot.) Bake until lightly browned, about 8-10 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks, frost or decorate, and enjoy!

To make these cookies gluten-free: I am gluten-free and I have successfully made these cookies using Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour. I find it helps to let the dough sit on the counter for about an hour before refrigerating it when using this flour blend. Then refrigerate and bake as described above. Yum!

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I hope this was a cheerful post for you, and I'm really looking forward to reading your stories. I have some tea and some cookies, so I'm ready! Share your stories below, and pass on some Christmas cheer!

Nine patches for Paula

Hello all, and welcome to my stop on the blog hop honoring Paula Budinger. Paula was a good and gentle spirit who blogged about the quilts she made at Paula B Quilts. She made a lot of scrappy quilts for kids, and donated almost all of them. I got to know her through Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge, where Paula often linked up her creations. She and I sometimes chatted back and forth, like ya do, about her quilts, especially the antique quilts she collected. And she was a Wisconsinite as well, so we had a small connection there, too.

On February 8th, Paula passed away after a short illness. Her obituary is HERE, where you can read about how very awesome she was, from electron microscopes to art and design, all across the country. Paula would have been 79 yesterday, and a bunch of us are honoring her quilting legacy through this blog hop.  Because Paula's life and work made us happy, there are also some "presents" for her birthday, in the form of prizes for you! That information is at the bottom of this post.

Here is what I made in honor of Paula:

Yes, two tops! Both bright and happy and intended for children. Since Paula loved scrappy quilting and bright colors, I thought a quilt made in her honor should be the same. It happens that I had a bit of the animal fabric that I had intended to use for a quilt for my grandson. I didn't like how it looked with the alternate blocks, so I used something else, but I had already cut the animal fabric, so there it was, leftover in a strange size. It worked great for this project, though!

The larger quilt is a giant double 9-patch that measures about 45 by 45. The blocks I had cut from the animal fabric were 15 inches square, perfect for using 5 inch squares to make 9-patches as alternate blocks. It worked great! I chose the yellow and green to coordinate with the animal print, and somehow I managed to use them all up. Eagle-eyed readers will notice that some of those yellow and green squares are actually pieced together. Shhh! This quilt will be donated through Sarah's Hands to Help project.

The smaller quilt top was made with the scraps from the first one. Why not? It needed to be used!  This one used a different green and yellow, both polka dots. It happens that I made this in 9-patch form as well. I made four 9-patches with 6-1/2 inch squares and then combined them to make this 36-inch square top. This little quilt will go to Jack's Basket, an organization that celebrates babies with Down Syndrome.

I am very happy with how these two tops turned out, and they will be among the first things I quilt up when this crazy semester is over. I feel like Paula would understand! I have a few small scraps left of this fabric, but otherwise I am thrilled that it is used up and will help comfort some small people.




And now for the presents for you all!  Here are the prizes being offered:

Lorna, Sew Fresh Quilts, $50 gift certificate for her pattern shop.

Yvonne Quilting Jetgirl, 2 PDF patterns of choice.

Bernie Needle and Foot, $25 certificate for her shop.

A fat quarter bundle from Figo Fabrics

A set of quilty gift cards from Initial Thought by DMF  Note cards set 1

A pattern of choice from Karen, Sugar Free Quilts

A $30 gift certificate for Doris, Cactus Queen Quilt Co

A PDF pattern of choice from Joanne, www.etsy.com/shop/CanuckQuilterDesigns

$25 gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop

(donated by Janice Holton)

"How do I get one of these prizes"? you ask. Here's how it works-- below is a list of bloggers honoring Paula through this hop. Every comment entered on one of the posts in the hop by Friday, May 15, will count as one entry. Winners will be chosen that day from all possible comments by Janice at Color, Creating, and Quilting. Then the winners get a happy package in the mail! International readers, you can enter, too, as many of the prizes are digital. So you get happy email instead of happy mail.

Thanks, all, for stopping by to honor Paula's life and legacy. Be sure to give thanks for all your quilty friends, too. As we've all sadly learned, life is sometimes too short, and it looks a little less colorful without all of us in it. 

Wednesday, May 6

Karen @ KaHolly
Kate @ Smiles From Kate

Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of my Quilting Life
Bernie @ Needle and Foot

Linda @ My Sew-Called Quilts
Cathy @ Crazy By Design

Sue @ From the Magpie’s Nest

Thursday, May 7

Kate @ Smiles From Kate
Diann @ Little Penguin Quilts
Rose @ Something Rose Made
Nann @ With Strings Attached
Mari @ The Academic Quilter
Louise @ My Quilt Odyssey
Susan @ Desert Sky Quilts

Friday, May 8

Janice @ Color, Creating and Quilting
Kate @ Smiles From Kate
Joy @ The Joyful Quilter
Susan @ Quilt Fabrication
Edi @ Edi’s Crafting Life
Carol @ Quilt Schmilt
Preeti @ Sew Preeti Qilts
Emily @ The Darling Dogwood

 

Autumn Jewels

Hi everyone, and welcome to my turn on the Autumn Abundance blog hop!  The temps have fallen dramatically (really! It was 40 degrees last night!) and it's time to think about cuddling up on the sofa, drinking hot chocolate, and buttoning up because winter is coming.  This celebration of the season was organized by Bernie at Needle and Foot and is sponsored by Paintbrush Studio.  We each received some lovely fabrics from Paintbrush, and here is what I managed to do with mine:

An autumn-themed Jewel Box quilt!  Aren't those fabrics really great and rich-looking?  I'm really thrilled with how this turned out.  The fabrics are from the Into the Woods line, and the solids are also Painter's Palette Solids from Paintbrush.  (There are free patterns all over if you follow those links, so check it out and see what you can find!)

This picture is the closest to the true colors of the fabrics. 

I was seriously worried about this background color, which is the solid in Curry.  Jewel Box quilts are traditionally made with either a black background or a white one to showcase the fabrics, so I wasn't sure how the curry color would turn out.  I think it turned out great for a fall quilt!  It's such a nice warm color and complements the others so nicely.
 

Making this quilt is really easy.  My quilt turned out at about 60 by 68, a nice cuddle size, and used 42 8-inch blocks.   Each of the blocks used 2 4-patches and 2 (gigantic!) half-square triangles.  Use 2-1/2 inch strips to make the 4-patches, which should measure 4-1/2 inches before they're sewn into the block.  If you want to make a quilt the same size as mine, with 42 blocks, you'll need 84 4-patches.  (Strip piece them and they won't take long!) I made the hsts using the Magic 8 method and cut 10-inch squares of each fabric.  You'll also need 84 of these.  Arrange the 4-patches and hsts like this:

Then it's just a matter of turning the blocks in various directions and laying them out to make the pattern in the quilt.  I tried to be as random as possible without having the same colors meet.  Somewhat more difficult than it sounds! Join the blocks into rows, and the rows into a finished quilt center.  For my borders, I cut the curry color at 1-1/2 inches to finish at 1 inch, and the larger leaf border at 5 inches.  Layer, quilt, and bind!

The giveaways are now closed!  Thanks to all who entered, and congratulations to Lori and Mary, who won the fabric sets.


And now for the giveaways!  I am giving away two sets of fabric:

First, there is this set of fabrics that didn't make the cut for the quilt.  They are lovely, though!  I received a fat quarter bundle and just didn't use all of them.  There are fat quarters of the yellow solid and a patterned yellow, neither of which showed up well with the curry, and also fat quarters of the leaf print and a nice brown, both of which have some pretty metallic accents.

For the second fabric set, I followed Bernie's lead and cut these into charm squares, plus added some leftover 2-1/2 inch squares.  I didn't count them, but there are plenty!  These would make up into something nice for Thanksgiving, if you're inclined to do that!

To win either of these fabric bundles, leave a comment on this post with a suggestion for something you like about fall.  I will draw for these on Halloween, Monday, October 31.  This giveaway is open to all, but if you are overseas (outside the US and Canada) I will ask you to pay for the shipping.  These don't weigh much!

Be sure to visit everyone else in the blog hop!  Not only are there some really lovely projects, but there are more giveaways to be had, including at least one brand new stack of fat quarters.  Here is the schedule:

October 24th – Bernie at Needle and Foot
October 25th – Janine at Quilts From the Little House
October 26th – Mari at Academic Quilter  (that's me!)
October 27th – Tish at Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland
October 28th – Sandra at MMM! Quilts




Hope you're enjoying the fall!  Sharing at Let's Bee Social, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finish it Up Friday, and Finished or Not Friday.  See you there!  And thanks so much to Bernie and the other hoppers, and to Paintbrush for their generous support of this project.

A flurry of triangles

Hi everyone, and welcome to the hottest day of fall!  It's supposed to be fall, but right now its something like 77 degrees and the next few days are going to be even warmer.  And here I was just starting to anticipate cooler temperatures and looking forward to the first freeze.  So much for that for now.  Plus it wasn't 77 degrees when I got dressed this morning, so, you know, overly warm all day. 

Since it's not going to be cold around here any time soon, I've been creating my own "flurry" of sorts with hsts:

That, my friends, is 84 4-1/2 inch half-square triangles.  Yes, that many!  They took forever! I am participating in the Autumn Abundance blog hop next week with some friends and these are for my hop project.  (The hop is being hosted by Bernie at Needle and Foot, so be sure to check in with her starting next Monday. Or today, if you want!)

I used the Magic 8 method to make most (80) of these hsts.  I confess that I've always used other methods, and I never used to make hsts larger and cut them down, but now I do both of those things.  To make the hsts using the Magic 8 method, I cut 10-inch squares, stitched, and then trimmed them to the correct size.  What is happening to me? Combine that with the golden background fabric and there is definitely something going on!

Remember the 4-patches I made last week with these same fabrics? (I guess this is a good place to say that these fabrics are from the Into the Woods line from Paintbrush Studio, the sponsors of this blog hop.)

Well, I am combining those with the hsts to make blocks.  Here's a sneak peek:

Can you guess the pattern for this quilt? It's going to be lovely, and maybe by next week it will feel like the fabrics belong in our current weather.  Looking at the forecast, it's not looking good.  But at least the quilt will be pretty!  

(Why do those units look wonky?  I promise that they're not!)

Hope you're all having a lovely week with lots of temperate weather.  Is it weird that I kind of want it to be cold enough to wrap up in this quilt?  My day for the hop is next Tuesday, and there will be a bunch of giveaways, too, so I hope to see you back here then!

Sharing at Linky Tuesday and Let's Bee Social!

Stringing along

Hi folks! What are you all up to today?  I am feverishly getting ready for a conference this week. I always wait until the last minute so I get pretty stressed. What can I say? I do this to myself.

In order to deal with all my stress, I spent some time making up some string blocks in light blue:

The blocks are a little washed out, but they're pretty boring, so I took them out to the garden for a glamor shot. I don't have much light blue at all, so this is all I got out of the strings I had. Sad, I know.

I also made a light blue "crumb" block, in the same style that I made the green one last month:

These were the teeny pieces that I had at the very bottom of the light blue scraps bin.  That bin is just about empty now.  Cause for happiness, or cause for despair? Hmmm.

And just because I never showed them, here are all the green string blocks I made last month:

Two. Yep, that's all the green strings I had, and I had to scramble for those. That bin is just about empty, too. But don't they look nice with the flowers?

So that's it for the string blocks, BUT! Nancy at Pug Mom Quilts has nominated me for One Lovely Blog!  Thanks Nancy!  She has a wonderful blog herself and the cutest pug dogs ever.  And great quilts, too.



So, for the blog hop, the only thing I really have to do is tell you 7 things about me.  I hope I can think up 7 non-quilty things!  Here goes:

1. I've been to almost every ball park in Major League Baseball.  Really! Wish I could say "all," but they keep building new ones and it's hard to keep up!  Our favorite (except for Miller Park, our hometown park, of course) is PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Not saying what the least-favorite is, but trust me, it's a pit.

2. I hate cooking and will do almost anything to get out of it.  All food tastes better if someone else makes it.  (Especially salads, for some reason.)  As far as I'm concerned, restaurants are the happiest places on earth. Maybe that's why our son became a chef.

3. I love books and read every day, usually while Best Husband Ever is watching a sporting event on TV.  I have too many favorite books to list, but almost any genre and any well-written book is good with me.  Sometimes I feel like the characters are my real friends. I wonder what that means? (If you have a young adult in your life, check out Seven Stones, a new book by Julia Lee. I know the author!)

4. I also love movies! Especially action movies. Romantic comedies, not so much. My favorite movie ever is Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which I first saw in high school. Some things never get old. "Try sculpture!"

5. I can read in 7 languages (besides English), most of them for research purposes. I can only say "where is the restroom, please?" in four, though. Gotta work on that.

6. I'm the author of 3 books, with another coming out next year and yet another in progress for 2017. Hope to be done with that manuscript by December.  They're not quilty books, so most people would find them very boring. Heck, sometimes I find them very boring!

7. I am a volunteer literacy tutor, teaching adults to read (or read better). It's probably the most rewarding teaching I'll ever do.

Hey, that's 7 things.  Hurray! That was hard.

The last part of the blog hop is to nominate ten more blogs.  Most of the blogs I like have already been nominated, so I'm just going to tell you a few of my favorites, in no particular order with no obligations attached.  Some are newer, and some are old friends. I'm afraid to leave anyone out! If your blog isn't here, there just wasn't room!

Angela at soscrappy.

Lane at That Man Quilts?

Julie at Me and My Quilts, Exploring the Possibilities.

Bernie at Needle and Foot.

Jo at ButterZ.

Kevin of Kevin the Quilter.

Leeanna at Not Afraid of Color.

Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts.

Connie at Freemotion by the River.

Wanda at Exuberant Color.

That's a good mix that should give everyone some good reading! Hope you all find some new friends to visit.

Thanks again to Nancy, and everyone have a really good week! (Also, if you are interested in adopting and finishing one of my orphan projects absolutely free, check out last Sunday's post.)

Linking to Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social,  and soscrappy for RSC15.

Winter quilt and Blog Hop

Hi all! How is everyone today? I am longing for sunshne. I don't care if it's only 5 degrees as long as the sun is shining. Sadly, it's cloudy again.

Today I am showing off another finished top from the end of last year--the winter quilt!

I think quilts are more tempermental to photograph than children are. Here's another that almost gets the whole quilt:

Where else to photograph a winter quilt but on the snow?

See--totally uncooperative! It was quite windy, so I couldn't really make it stay on any of the benches at the park.

As you may recall, I made this between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was a year-long block of the month from Cindy at Quilt Doodle Doodles, but I made it all at once. This was a great quilt to work on at the end of the year. It was a virtually no-stress project for me, which made it perfect for a high-stress time. My quilt finished at about 70 by 82.

This quilt went together so easily. It's based on same-size squares, so there was no real thinking about the cutting. It was a great quilt to work on a little bit at a time.

Yikes! There's snow on my winter quilt!

 I did change a few things from the pattern. Mostly I mixed the colors a little differently and changed some of the spacing between blocks, and also rearranged the rows. I also cut some of the pieces (like the mugs) in one piece instead of using different scraps. I just liked the way it looked a little better, plus it saved fabric. The only problem I had with this quilt was joining some of the rows. All the matching seams!

I think the thing I like best about my quilt is the background fabric. This was the perfect fabric for me, plus it used up a length of old fabric and a couple of odd half-yards. I had just enough to finish the quilt. Barely a thread left! I love that! I also had the border fabric in the closet, and there is very little of it left too.

I plan to quilt this myself, but there's no hurry at all. Don't tell the quilt police, but I bought a flannel sheet (from L.L. Bean) for the back. I think it will make this quilt extra cozy.

Anyone for tea?

So that's my quilt! Great thanks to Cindy for the terrific pattern and inspiration.  Everyone have a great weekend. I really hope someone somewhere is getting some sun. Be sure to visit the other blogs in this hop to see some fantastic and creative quilts and make some new friends. The schedule is below!
 
As always, linking to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Amanda Jean at crazy mom quilts. 

Winter quilt blog hop schedule:

January 24th 

LeeAnna - Not Afraid of Color

Liz - Hosted by Quilt Doodles

JoAnna - Needle, Thread, Happiness

Sherri - Sushine in the Attic

 

January 25th 

Dee - deesdoings 

Nancy D - Hosted by Quilt Doodles 

Sharon - Vroomans Quilts 

Leslie - 365 Days of Wonderful
Jules - Quilting with Calicos

  

January 26th

Kathy-Kathy's Quilting Blog

Nicole - quiltinglikeamaniac

Pam - Stitching Between the Lines

Jill - Hosted by Quilt Doodles

Hop Around the World

Hello all, and welcome to September! Hard to believe, isn't it? Angela at soscrappy has tagged me to participate in the Around the World blog hop, and today is my day to post. (Thanks Angela!) Also up today are Shasta and Katie. For those of you who are new here, I'm Mari (rhymes with sorry, in case you're wondering) and I'm a college professor whose main distraction is quilting. I am lucky enough to live in the beautiful state of Wisconsin with the hubster, who does not sew but understands my need to do so. Our three grown children have flown the coop, so now I have a sewing room to keep all my thready mess. Come on in and let's chat!

What am I working on?

Well, I've just finished two big projects, so now it's time to move on and finish up this quilt:

This is a scrappy Ocean Waves variation from this book by Joan Ford:

This is a pretty nice book if you're looking for a new project. Her version of the quilt is made with reds, but mine is made in blues since I had so many. I've been making it a little at a time, leader and ender style, for several months. I've finally gotten to the point where all the little units are made and now need to be put together.

Yes, all of those units come together to make one block. The directions call for using one white on white, but mine are also scrappy, mainly because I didn't want to buy anything new for this project. I could probably put the blocks together as leaders and enders too, but I have to pay too much attention to the orientation of the pieces to do that.

And here's the first completed block! Only 47 more to go.

I'm also working on a long-term project to make the Loyal Union Sampler, following along with the crew at Patched Works. Calling it a "long-term project" makes me feel better about being hopelessly behind. Here's the one block I made in the last couple of days:

Someday this will be a very pretty finished quilt. Someday a long time from now. . .

Of course, I also have two Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts in progress, one using half-square triangles

and the other with Odd Fellow's Chain blocks

These will be finished early next year, after the close of this year's challenge. I'm actually hoping to do a lot of work on them over Christmas break.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Hmmm, this is a hard one, mostly because I don't want to label myself. I'm not modern or traditional, but some of both, and I like all kinds of different patterns and fabrics, mainly depending on my mood. I love traditional blocks and I use mainly traditional methods. To me, that means that I always go back to the way my grandmother and earliest teachers taught me to do things when I was a child. Hand basting, pinning intersections whenever necessary, measuring and squaring pieces before they're put together, and figuring out how to conserve as much fabric as possible. That's right, we rock it really old school around here. Sometimes it also means drafting blocks by hand, on graph paper, and drawing layouts the same way. But I also love many modern fabrics and most frequently opt for traditional blocks in "happy" fabrics.

Gratuitous quilt picture from 2013.

Why do I create what I do?

I love art. That sounds pretentious, I know, but painting makes me cry and sculpture takes my breath away. I also love fabric and all kinds of textiles. I can't draw, paint, or sculpt, but I can sew, so I use that to put together color and pattern into something pleasing, not to mention useful. Nothing I do approaches Monet or Van Gogh, but could they wrap themselves in their artwork on cold nights? Well, maybe. Those guys were pretty odd. But canvas can't be all that cozy.

Also, I spend so much of my time with books and papers and such that I often need to do something with my hands. It calms my brain and relaxes me. When I'm working on an especially tricky idea in another part of my life, it helps a lot to use another part of my brain to piece and quilt. And let's just admit that fabric feels nice. It's cozy and colorful, and who doesn't find that comforting?

How does my creative process work?

I wish I could say I had some grand quilting trajectory that I always follow, but usually it either starts with a pattern I want to make or a piece of fabric that keeps saying "pick me, pick me!" I have a list (on a spreadsheet. . .I know) of patterns that I want to make and things that I have in progress. For example, Burgoyne Surrounded has been on my list for a very long time, so now I'm finally going to make it. I purchased a long length of white on white yardage this week (7 yards!) and plan to use that with my solid scraps to make up a lovely scrappy Burgoyne Surrounded quilt. See what I mean about modern AND traditional?

Won't that be striking? There are a lot of pieces, but I have a lot of scraps. I started cutting this past weekend and will start sewing this week.

As I said, sometimes the fabric talks to me. Right now, this one is yelling the loudest:

This is a strip set from my local quilt shop. I don't trust the precuts from the manufacturers any more, but the ones from the shop are all the right size. I don't know what this will be yet, but I'll start looking for a pattern to use with it. I get bored easily, so I need to have about three projects going at once. I want to start whatever this will become as soon as I'm done with the blue and white Ocean Waves. But you know I'll probably decide on a pattern tomorrow and start it right away without finishing the blue and white quilt first, right?

So, that's usually the process. Of course, after I choose the pattern and the fabric, I obsess over every aspect of the project until long after it's finished. And sometimes I find things I really want to make, either online or in a catalog, or sometimes through quilt shop projects, and somehow they worm their way into my projects list. It happens. I mostly just go with it. This is supposed to be fun, and what fun are deadlines, rules, and schedules?

So that's it! As a part of the blog hop, I'm tagging Bernie at Needle & Foot and Julie at Me and My Quilts for next week. I can tag another person too, so if you'd like to be included, either leave me a comment or drop me an email. And everyone have a really good week all around!

Linking to Linky Tuesday, WIP Wednesday and Let's Bee Social. Pop on over!