Carol's 4500 Member Celebration Block

WOW Carol Doak's internet group has reached 4500 and is still growing. It's not a surprise, since she is such a talented designer and wonderful person. She is very generous with sharing her talent. This is yet another wonderful block she designed for us.....I re-drew it in EQ5 (quilting program),resized and planned the layout (using 4 of the blocks)only to find out that Carol had already suggested the layout with the block. Oh, well, I hadn't peeked before I came up with a plan. LOL I chose my fabrics for the block by picking out colors from the border fabric I wanted to use.

Three Baby quilts

The pattern is called "Super-Sized Nine Patch" by Anita Grossman Solomon. Found in the Quiltmaker May/June'06. I've been wanting to try this pattern out since....ahhh 2006? My daughter, Trisha, wanted to make a simple baby quilt for her friend. It says Beginner, so it could'nt be that hard right? Since you had to fold and cut it a certain way for it to work, we decided she would "practice" with some other fabric than that she bought for her friend. We cut it perfectly, so we were ready to go on to the fabric she got for her friends quilts. Now remember 3 fabrics, 3 quilts...... We were thrown off some because the fabric was too short. She bought 1 yard of each fabric as stated, but it didn't say "if you are going to wash it first, buy a little more:-(" (I always wash my fabric first)It's ok, the directions said we could adjust the cutting line if need be, but cut all the fabric the same. We cut the first fabric.....went to cut the second and it was too short in the other direction. Sooooooooo we were off to the fabric store praying they had some of the same fabric left. Meanwhile, I thought I'd make some baby quilts with the same pattern so I could practice free motion quilting on them. My goal for this year is to learn free motion and get some of my UFO's done:-) So, I cut my fabric ever so carefully.....I thought.....only to find out that one of the fabrics I cut 1 inch too short. I couldn't believe it. I was able to fix that after I laid out all the pieces and made the adjustments. What the heck! I'm not planning on entering them in a show or anything. lol And I don't think anyone is going to take out a tape measure and measure everything, so I'm good to go. After Trisha got the new material and washed it, she cut it just perfectly.

Lessons learned : 1.) Always buy a little more fabric than what it calls for if you are going to wash it first. Then again, extra is good incase mistakes are made. 2.) Double check your measurements before cutting. (I thought I had, but at my age, it's hard to really remember if I did or not.lol) 3.) No matter how many years you have quilted, you still make mistakes. 4.) Nothing has to be or really ever is perfect.

The pictures in this post are the quilts I made. I have quilting on them yet to do. I'm not finding free motion quilting alot of fun. One would swear I'd been drinking while doing free motion.(I did some on one, but need to practice more first) Actually, I'd probably would have done a better job if I'd had a drink or two. LOL It's not as easy as it looks.

3 new fleece blankets

(Tonia in picture.)

Elli's

Tonia's & Ryan's....

Tonia is the one who said she never wanted a fleece blanket because the blankets are too warm. She asked me to make her one too. Now everyone is covered;-) I have made 3 for Ryan. He loves his blankets and still wants more.........

Happy New Year....a little late

Hello my dear family and friends. I know, it has been a long time since I wrote on this blog. I worked part-time for Christmas and have been working on small projects. Above are my December and January BOM designed by Carol Doak.

Happy Belated New Year! I hope the New Year will be all you want it to be. Happy crafting!

Kathy