Here are some pictures of the long wall and nook in my now "old" sewing room - the wall is about 8 feet long. The real estate agent took a look at it and I wish I could have taken a picture of the disbelief on his face! The wall opposite isn't usable for much - it has the nook, and the entrance to a powder room. My husband has taken down all the shelves, and is repainting - and putting on the baseboard that I was too impatient to have installed when the room was being built! Soon I'll have pictures of my room transformed to a kind of office.

All Packed....

I've packed just about everything in my sewing room, save a few projects that I can keep in a few shoebox type storage containers, and one roll-y cart. They also have to be sewing that I can do in a small amount of space, with the tools I've chosen to keep. I have Consider the Lilies, Val Laird's block of the month; the Electric Quilt block of the month, Henrietta Whiskers block of the month. For hand work, I have Stars and Sprigs by Kim Maclean, My Whimsical Quilt Garden by Piece O Cake, and wool applique using My Mother Taught Me to Sew by Faye Anderson.

I need a couple of machine pieced quilts, so I chose Winner's Bouqet by Atkinson Designs - easy to cut one block at time and assemble. I was going to work on the last border of stars for Stars for a New Day, but it was going to take far too much organizing and space to work on. So I dug up a quilt design that I had cut up years ago, the baggy simply labed Red and Green Log Cabin....from Kim Shaefer's book on Christmas quilts. The book has been packed, but thank goodness for Google Books, as I found a picture of the quit so I can at least see what her Log Cabin block design was.

Here's a picture of the second block of Consider the Lilies

Meet me at the Manor

The last top done - or flimsy as some call them!

The pattern is a series quilt from Quiltmaker magazine, four parts ending in their March/April 2011 issue. There were to be stars in the final border, but I just made scrappy squares - I had been making so many stars for Stars for a New Day that I had had enough for now! Also, this ends it at a better size for my niece, who will hopefully be receiving the finished quilt some time this summer.

I've been sewing together tops to prepare for a move, and today the packing begins. We haven't sold the house yet, but my little sewing room off the kitchen would be much better presented as an office to prospective home buyers. So all has to be packed up, saving hand work and maybe a bit of piecing to keep me happy for the next few weeks.

BunnyHill Baskets

I finally gave a home to the BunnyHill Baskets blocks, a 2009 block of the month from Anne Sutton at Bunnyhill Designs.




I do wish I had a place in my home to layout a quilt for proper pictures! This design started out as a quilt called "A Dresden Medallion" by Vicki Bellino in McCall's Quilting Sept/Oct 2010. I thought the pattern would be well suited to all my scrappy reds I had collected. However, the english paper piecing of the dresdens was driving me nuts - let me say right here that I don't think I ever want to attempt english paper piecing again!. After completing all but three of the dresdens, I realized this quilt would never be done because of those.

Then that wonderful lightbulb moment! The BunnyHill Baskets! The same block size as the quilt was based on! I did do a bit of redesign, eliminating the centre panel, and in the end I am so pleased with the result. The quilt is 66" square.

As a bonus, I made this wallhanging out of the extra blocks....and I still have a few extra blocks to play with in another quilt. The picture shows a black inner border to be sewed on, I'll have to find some border fabric that's red with black.

A Farmer's Wife Meets Jane, do-over

Here's a (not so good) photo of the new setting of the Farmer's Wife Meets Jane quilt.  I like this soooo much better than the original!  I've had to order new border fabric, as the original is too short, and I chose a fabric a little brighter than the dark green that I had the first time.  I do wish I had a huge design wall so I could have chosen which block goes where a little better, to arrange colour and design variations. I had some upsetting news on the weekend, regarding my  Dad's death last fall, that had me ripping out that old top in record time!  I even sewed it back together pretty darn quick.  Quilting is great therapy :)