Happy St. Patrick's Day! (Green Quilts)

My mother's maternal grandmother, Mary Lehane, immigrated to the US from Ireland around 1900. When I was little we used to wear something green on March 17th,

and we'd have green mashed potatoes with our supper.

Years later, when our sons were little, I used to surprise them with green food too.

My favorite green food is beer! But it doesn't look very appetizing.

Do you have any favorite St. Patrick's Day traditions?

Here are some green quilt for you:

A Gee's Bend quilt featured on The Purl Bee site.

"I Love Green" by Pamela Mostek.

Stunning quilt-in-progress by one of my favorite quilters Sujata Shah of Pennsylvania.

See her blog The Root Connection.

"Weeping Willow Houses" by Bobbi Finley of Williamsburg, VA.

Featured on All People Quilt.

"Eureka!" by Jackie Robinson of Animas Quilts.

National Quilting Day! (Tomorrow)

This "Pointing the Way" quilt was designed by Martha Ethridge to celebrate the 22nd anniversary of National Quilting Day. Also see the National Quilt Association's main website.

So how will you be spending the day tomorrow? I hope to be quilting! Same as every other day. Haha.

Meet Gudrun from Germany!

Gudrun from Germany has been busy creating beautiful garments with her selvages!

See more on her blog: Flohmarkt und Sticken.

Good work, Gudrun!

Texas Selvage!

Take a look at this! "Deep in the Heart of Texas" by Moda has little Texas-shaped color windows!

Thank you to Diane Steele at Rabid Quilter for the heads up about this post on Judy Laquidara's blog: Patchwork Times.

Diane made this beautiful selvage bag. Nice job!

World Quilt - Winner Announced!

The winner of the World Quilt is Linda at The Quilting Violinist in Tampa, Florida! Yayy, Linda!

Here's a photo from her wedding day, back in 1988. Aww.
(This photo is from her blog.)

Pin Cushion Grand Finale! Day 5

Vintage ring box pin cushion by Lorri of All Vintage Sewing in Pennsylvania.

Lovely vintage crochet and linen pin cushion by Redesigning Vintage in Jacksonville, Florida.

Pink donut with sprinkles pin cushion (haha!) by Claire from London, England.

From Danamarie Hosler of the Small Craft Advisory in Baltimore, Maryland, here are three little felt pin cushions. She uses all her scraps, and each cushion is different. Should we tell Danamarie about selvages? Haha, I don't know! How many scraps can one person handle?

And finally, a whimsical pin cushion from Victoria Gertenbach of Lancaster, PA. See more of her work at Silly Boodilly on Etsy.

So, do you have a favorite pin cushion from the last 5 days?

Pin Cushions! - Day 4

Vintage tin toy tea pot pin cushion by Kelly of Whimsical Wool in Northern California.

Vintage egg cup pin head pin cushion by Barbara Rose MeConkey of Ollympia, Washington.

Charming cross-stitch pin cushions by Vicky in the UK.

 "Blooming Pin Cushion" by melissamoze of Austin, Texas.

Tiny World pin cushion by Mimi Kirchner. See more at Wee Folk.

Final batch of pin cushions tomorrow.

More Delightful Pin Cushions! - Day 3

Cactus needle pin cushion by Astrig of London, England.

Yellow egg in bird's nest pin cushion by Laurel Susan Studio from North Carolina.

St. Patrick's Day theme by Janie Johnson from Austin, Texas.

What a charming idea! Granny square pin cushion by Anna Hopper of Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

I'm having fun looking at all these creative pin cushions!

Noteworthy Pin Cushions - Day 2

This lovely embroidered pin cushion was made by Shelly from Victoria, Australia.

Red hand-felted pin cushion by Dealey Dansby Designs.

This one makes me laugh! Little hiking boot pin cushion by Joyce Tompkins of New York.

"Eat Your Veggies" by ADHD Knitting in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ooh, nice and soft!

I love this one! It's from Sixes and Sevens in the UK.

Also, World Quilt winner annoounced Sunday!

Gallery of Pin Cushions! - Day 1

Watering can pin cushion by Taylar Hall from Omaha, TX.

Vintage baby shoe pin cushion by Seaside Rose Creations in New Jersey.

Hydrangea pin cushion by Love Laurie in Boston, MA.

Cocoa pin cushion by Dotty in Maryland, USA.

Aren't these imaginative pin cushions? More tomorrow.

Philip Jacobs: Delphinium

While I was browsing through Laura Sampsel's Fabric Square Shop, I found this beautiful fabric by Philip Jacobs called Delphinium. I love these colors. I'd like using it in big pieces, and cut up in small pieces too. These are "my" colors. But I'll share.

New Bags from Sophia in Athens

Sophia has some new additions to her Etsy shop, Apopsis. Aren't they pretty? Nice job, Sophia!

World Quilt Giveaway!

Remember we recently admired a string quilt that I found on the Internet, and we decided to make a group quilt using 1.25" strips sewn together randomly in 55" widths? Well, here it is! Isn't it a beauty?

The quilters who participated in making this quilt are:

1. Martina from Germany, Stufen Zum Gericht
2. Darlene from Missouri, Dar's Patchwork Garden
3. Janet from the Yukon Territory, Canada
4. Michi from Austria, Michimachtdas
5. Carolyn from Wisconsin
6. Kym from the USA, Fabric Fascination
7. Susan from Kansas
8. Tina from Rhode Island, Seaside Stitches
9. Carol from Michigan
10. Helen from New Zealand
11. Kim from New York, Pokeytown Kim
12. Karen from Connecticut, Selvage Blog

With blocks coming from Down Under, the Arctic Circle, and many places in between, you see why I call it the World Quilt! It was so much fun to open all the packages and get this quilt together! It measures 54" x 70." The backing is a bubblegum pink print. The binding is a mixture of prints. The batting is "Warm and Natural" cotton, and it's machine quilted. Yup, awesome!

And now you can enter a random drawing to win this beautiful quilt just by leaving a comment on this post. Good luck!

UPDATE: This quilt now lives in Florida!

Brand New Selvage Quilt Pattern!

Just finished this today! Here's my new selvage quilt pattern, "Cane Weave!" It's a pdf tutorial so you can get it now via email. Then you can print it if you like. This quilt goes together fast, and it's lots of fun to make. You know you already have all the ingredients in your sewing room! Haha. And more, I'm sure. There's also a Photo Gallery section with lots of interesting selvages to see too. Take a look, I'm really excited about this quilt. It's different from the quilts in the "Quilts from the Selvage Edge" book in construction and appearance.

Come back tomorrow for a really big giveaway! (Hint: Remember the skinny string quilt that we made?)

If you'd spread the word about this pattern on your blog, that would be wonderful. Thanks!

Mosaic Art Teapot from Utah

This incredible mosaic teapot is the creation of Lily Rose Prawitt of Salt Lake City, Utah.

She has four teapots listed in her Etsy store: Lily Rose Tulip. 

 Three are 7" high, and one is 9" high. This one is priced at $799.

 It's a little like a scrap quilt, isn't it? I love stuff like this!

 Nice work, Lily Rose!

Free-Form Crochet

On a recent car trip I decided to try my hand at free-form crochet, and these are the two pieces that resulted. I have to say that it was lots of fun. I don't have any idea what I'll do with them, but the fun of making them was worth it. My husband just shook his head. My 25 year old son said, "Oh, that's cool." Kids are so smart! Haha.

The chunky yarn is by Rowan. I love the colors and how soft it is. Using yarns of different thicknesses adds to the scrappy, shabby-chic look.