Friendly Advice About Quilt Alongs

Isn't that just the cutest little block?

I'm beginning to think that sampler blocks are like children. Each one is so different, but they all belong to you, and there's not an ugly one in the bunch! 

From a critical point of view, some of the points got knocked off, and more will with additional seam allowances around it. Do I care? Nah, no way! I think it's adorable! Yup, me who only liked modern looking fabrics for how long. It's so, so different playing with subtle fabrics. It's like painting with a finer brush, in my opinion. It takes a lighter hand to create the same texture a modern quilter does with larger prints and brighter colors.

Saturday Lists, Stash, & 150 Canadian Women

The Day of Big Lists 

and Why You Should Have One

More than any other time of year, this is the Craziest (with a capital "C") for most of us. There would be no other opportune moment for me to plug the value of making lists than today, one week before Christmas and Hanukkah. My current lists are:

Santa's List

Shopping

Home and Holiday Budgets

Calendars: His, Hers, Theirs, Yours

Menus

Travel Itineraries

Studio Work/ Holiday Sewing

Halloween Quilt & Eerie Nights Blog Hop

No, you're not lost! 
I'm working out of my comfort zone, 
and trying a more traditional design.

I have to chuckle to myself because I have succumbed to quilter's peer pressure. At last weekend's retreat, I watched as my friends picked up fabric in the stores. Not just what they bought, but what they needed to touch. It was not necessarily what I would have chosen, or in my color palette or style. I normally choose brighter hues, and silky smooth fabrics like Art Gallery and Michael Miller solids are glorious to me. But I saw fingers touching wovens, flannels, and fabric printed to resemble burlap. (Burlap=chills!, and I am allergic to all jute products.) Texture is a big deal for me, and I started wondering if I avoided more traditional fabrics because I associated them with certain textures.