The Great Debate '08

What quilt should I do next? I know, I know...... I'm starting a totally new quilt when you can see my list of quilts I'm piecing is growing and growing. But I just get so excited when I get new fabric! This weekend I got 2 jelly rolls for Recipe For Friendship. I have these two patterns that I haven't made. I was thinking I'd do the first, but I have been really wanting to do the second as well. However, the pattern for Black Diamond has been lost in the move. It's probably with Retro Aprons. I can't find that either. I did find my frog patterns though!
Anyway, I'm trying to decide if I should the Merry Go Round Quilt or the Black Diamonds. I have my triangle rulers on the way and I already have both patterns. Which one is more kitcheny? I love the retro kitchen look of Recipe for Friendship and Merry Go Round could be really cute in it.
Or should I keep looking until I find the Black Diamond pattern. The pattern doens't look as kitcheny to me, but I love it. Maybe it would look cute in Candyland Christmas or Isn't Christmas Jolly. Or maybe it would be cute in just a mix of 1930's scraps. What do you think?

The problems and debates of a quilter. Will they never end?

Loch Lomond Quilt Show

Today was our First Annual Loch Lomond Quilt Show. All of us at one time or another lived in the Loch Lomond Subdivision in Saratoga Springs. All of us but two have now moved. Here is a picture of us taken just before the show. Every year since 2005 we have done a group exchange quilt. As you look at the pictures the shoo-fly blocks are from our first exchange. The house blocks are from the second, the nine patches are from last year. I loved the way Kristin's yard looked with all the quilts. If it wasn't for sun, rain or other weather damage I'd display all my quilts in my yard all the time!

This is one of my quilts from a few years ago.
Here are some 9 patches.

The pink and green quilt is also mine.
Strawberry Lilies is mine too.
Erica's beautiful snowflakes.

The baskets are mine and the flowers are Kristin's.
Elisa's cute robot quilt.
Erica's quilt. This is one of my favorites of hers.
Here's another 9 patch.

My butterfly and Halloween quilts.

A house and 9 patch both from exchanges.

A few shoo fly quilts.


Here are the star blocks we exchanged today. We each made a star block out of the Prairie Paisley fabric and kept one and made 11 to share.

This is the back of Anna's group quilt from a year ago.
House quilts from the second exchange.




The next several are from the exchange at the beginning of last year. I love to see how everyone put theirs together. I didn't take any of mine from any of the exchanges. I love to see how the exact same blocks in the same fabric can all look so different when different people put them together.

Amy's Martha Stewart quilt made of Martha's dish towels. I LOVE this one.

I love this vintage space baby quilt Amy made. I am really liking vintage kid fabric lately. I had to take an up close picture. The colors in this are so bright and happy.

Our first quilt show was a success. It was so fun to have so many people come out to see our quilts!

A Piece of Cake

I started my Piece of Cake pattern yesterday with my Cotton Blossoms Layer Cake. It is so easy. I've done about half the blocks so far and have only worked on it for about an hour, including cutting time. I love this fabric. I love the oranges and greens and browns for fall. The blues are kind of fallish too. I can't wait to put the whole thing together.

I also wanted to remind you about our quilt show tomorrow afternoon. The address is 172 E 1500 N in Lehi from 1-3 pm. I hope to see you there! If I haven't met you I'd love to so please come and introduce yourself!

Halloween Tablecloth

Last year after Halloween I bought the kit for this table cloth at Broadbent's. I put it together really quickly the other day and added ric rac and some little pom pom
things on the edges. I added a back so the seams wouldn't be showing, but now I'm wondering if I should us my walking foot to secure it to the back. Thoughts?

Caleb looks upset, but he's really thrilled with his new pjs. I have had this fabric and some of the sock monkey fabric for at least a year and have been meaning to make them into pj bottoms. I finally got around to it this weekend. Now I need to find a pattern small enough for Jake to make him some. Also good news.... I found my frog patterns. Now I am only missing two patterns that I know of.

Football Fever

It's football fever at my house as I'm finishing Caleb's football quilt. I need to quilt it, but my frame is not set up yet in this house. Hopefully this week sometime so I can take it to the quilt show. Also, our camera is broken and beyond repair. Not sure what happened, so until we can get a replacement here is an online picture of the football fabric. As I mentioned before, we are not football fans. In fact, I have no idea who won the Super Bowl this year or even who was playing. Also, I really don't care. It's hard to find boy fabric. Blue or brown fabric is easy to find, but it's hard to find that doesn't have some type of flowers on it so we settled for football. I have about 10 inch blocks of this football fabric with 4 patches in between. For Caleb's I have a red border with white dots and Jake's is blue with white dots. This big football fabric is the outer border. I let Caleb pick the backing on his quilt. He wanted flannel so it was soft. He chose a Robot print. Welll..... the colors are similar and it's on the back so I let him get it.

Here's the outer border.

This is my next project. I had planned on making a new quilt for our bed with this fabric, but when I saw it all I went crazy and bought a layer cake and this pattern instead. I may do it before I start Jake's quilt. He's still in a crib and can't use it anyway. Caleb was in a bed long before this age, but Jake would leave. As soon as he heard us walk down the stairs he would get up and either play in his room or follow us. That's the type of little character he is. That is also why he'll be in a crib for a little while longer. Fortunatly he's also very short and is not tall enough to climb out of the crib. He's tried though.

I love everything about the Cotton Blossoms line. I can't wait to start this and the colors are not what I would usually choose so that's even better. I love doing something different and I love these colors. I can't for their next line to come out.

Oh! FRABIC!

Do all little boys love fabric this much? I started quilting when my little Caleb was not quite 2 years old. I started because I needed a quilt for his big boy bed and couldn't find one I liked. I've been addicted ever since. Not long after I started and before I finished his quilt I was invited by a girl in my ward to be in a shoo fly swap. I also signed up for a row of the month class. I only bought a little fabric at a time for Caleb's quilt. That's when it started. During my search for the perfect fabric for his quilt. He would see us pull up at The Quilting Cottage ( before I discovered Broadbent's) and he would say in a frustrated voice "Oh! Frabic!" It took awhile to convince him that we love fabric. I'm still working on that one.

A couple weeks ago my dad came over and we were going to take some branches we'd pruned from our yard to the dump. On our way out to the truck Jake started to stink. I took him back in, but he wasn't quite finished yet. When Caleb decided it was taking too long he told my dad it must be because I was looking at fabric and they better come in to and get me or I'd never come out. Apparently he thinks everything that takes a long time must have to do with me and fabric.

Yesterday I picked Caleb up at the bus stop after kindergarten. He asked where we were going. I told him I needed to go to Home Depot to get some floor cleaner. On our way into Home Depot he asked if we had anywhere else to go. I told him there was a quilting store across the street, Threads of Time. I promised we'd be quick. The whining began. He suddenly had to go to the bathroom and needed to go home to do it. He wanted to know why I wasn't waiting until Saturday to go fabric shopping when he could stay home with Dad. He told me from now on I should only go on Saturdays.

Well.... Threads of Time is closing. I was quite disappointed to see that since there are not many quilt stores around here. However, as I was looking one of the other shoppers asked one of the workers where she was going to work when the shop closes. She said that one of the other workers is going to open a shop in Farmington! I'm so excited! One close to me! I hope it opens soon.......

Threads of Time didn't have what I was looking for. I had to go over to Quilter's Haven, which is one of my favorite stores. I needed more 30's fabric for my flower quilt. I thought I had tons of scraps, but I feel like I needed a few more since I don't want to do green, aqua or yellow flowers since the centers are all yellow and the stems are aqua. Caleb chippered up at Quilter's Haven. Really, how can you be grumpy there? The boys love the ramp on the side of the store. We were also quick as promised.

When the new quilt shop comes to Farmington I will hopefully be able to get there and back and do everything else I need to do during the time Caleb is at kindergarten. That way he won't have to use the word "fabric" to describe something frustrating.

My friends and I are having a quilt show a week from Saturday. Here is the flier and all the information you need! I hope to see some of you there. We are also going to have a raffle for a free quilt plus you can try Kristin's new long arm and learn how to sign up for classes to teach you how to quilt your own quilts!