I worked on a fun project for the Halloween season: a pixelated pumpkin using this pattern from Missouri Star Quilt Company and fabrics by Riley Blake. It was my first project using a “layer cake,” or package of 10-inch squares. Most 10-inch squares are cut with a pinked edge to keep the fabrics from unraveling. The pinked edges threw me. I just couldn’t quite get the hang of incorporating the pinked edges in the seam allowance. But I stuck with it and went with good-ish.

I made the mini version but would love to do the large version as a porch quilt. Some day!

I had a small piece of this fabric which I call Monet’s village. I carefully cut the fabric to maximize its use and was able to get backings for one large and three small strip quilts.

The larger quilt is still a work in progress, but here are the smalls.

I liked the colors of last month’s canyon quilt so much that it deserved a reprise in Canyon #2 and Canyon smalls. The small versions were a special request.

I don’t have a binding selected yet. It’s a little like naming something (or someone). Sometimes the perfect thing comes easily, sometimes not.

I have rushed it in the past and been sorry for the awkward binding that resulted. I have a few things on order. Maybe one of those will be THE ONE.

I acquired a piece of manatee fabric some time ago. Just a quarter yard, 18 inches by 22 inches. The print is large, so it didn’t lend itself to strips. I typically put prints like this on the back of quilts, but this time I wanted it to be on the front. It took me a long time to figure this out and cut it to maximize the manatees. When you are used to doing things one way, wow, it’s hard to change.

But I finally decided to try a diagonal cut with perpendicular strips and a surprising option for the back – a bright green tone-on-tone swirly fabric.

It’s quilted with sun rays made with a red, green, and gold variegated metallic thread. I added matte gold glass seed beads to the end of the rays.

I wanna be a tree.

This is my latest quilt, Tree #18. Green is my favorite color, so I have always been fond of trees. Or I have always been fond of trees, so green is my favorite color. Hard to say which came first. If you want to sing along, the soundtrack for this quilt is Branching Out by John Gorka. I’m gonna reach. 
 
This month I did a major cleanup of my sewing room, which will now be called the studio. I realized that I have the space that I have always dreamed of having, and it needed a better name. This year I want to try new things and be prepared to fail.