Thrift shop find - just discovered it's wool! There is a local thrift shop that has a "yarn wall" with a variety of plastic bags filled with a vast assortment of yarn. I discovered this marvelous hank two summers ago. I should have known that it would be high-end yarn by the way it was presented. No paper wrapper with generic labels by the main stream yarn vendors (ie,  Lion Brand; Red Heart). I uncoiled it and wrapped it into a giant ball. The weather is turning cold here and it's time to pull out the crochet hooks and various yarn. I rediscovered this and decided to find out whether it's wool or just acrylic or polyester. Tested it by fire (match) and it turns to ash. If it had melted into a clump and smelled awful, then it would have been synthetic. That bundle above is 100% wool! Yarn samples I found a huge assortment of these yarn samples with some serious "bling" last year (yarn wall, of course). Pulled these out and am determined to us...

Do you remember this post? Let's review (because I actually got around to finishing it!) Create a ring of hexagons. Stitch them together as shown. Grandmother's Flower Garden Hexagon Ring: each hexagon finishes to 4-1/2"  I faced the 6 hexagons with medium weight interfacing Faced Hexagon Ring using interfacing Applique the focus hexagon (which is also interfaced) onto the center Don't you just love interfacing? It's AWESOME! Now it's ready to be appliqued to a 15-1/2" background square of white on white fabric: Center and machine applique with invisible mono-filament thread And then cut away the white background fabric from behind the Hexagon Block Clip away fabric to reduce bulk. This would make an interesting applique, huh? Everything clipped away and you can see the seaming and applique stitches I finally got around to quilting this. Used my HandiQuilter Sweet 16 and it was so much fun. My Ring of Hexagons Wh...

The Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria This quilt is over 22 years old. Jinny Beyer created this collection to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the "discovery" of America by Christopher Columbus. What a beautiful mariner's compass - as only Jinny Beyer could draft! I remember buying the fabric, in fact! I still have a small piece SOMEWHERE in my messy stash. I used a pattern from a Quilting Today magazine (now defunct) exactly as it was presented. I hand quilted the little quilt and bring it out every year around October 12th. I'm of Italian heritage as was Columbus. And one of my sons in law is from Spain and we have to remember that it was Queen Isabella of Spain who financed Columbus' trip so he could "discover" us. Tomorrow is a holiday here in the States, though some people scorn Columbus. Revisionist history and all that. I blogged about Columbus Day in 2012 and presented a Mariner's Compass quilt HERE Galaxy Compass Hope y...

Antique Amish Triangles quilt I saw an exhibit at the Textile Museum in Washington, DC back in 2008 that was curated by Esprit. There were some amazing quilts on display. While this wasn't one of them, there were many that had the same personality. Isn't this just glorious in it's muted colors and exquisite quilting? I decided to design and sew one of my own. I actually made two using the newly released (at that time) Gee's Bend solids by Windham Fabrics. Here is my first one, trying to stay with the same basic design as the antique quilt above. Amish Triangles - 48" x 66" I had to simplify it because I got exhausted thinking about piecing all those triangles! I rather like the orange next to the red for an unexpected shock of color (no, I would never put those colors together in my clothing!) This quilt was picked up by Fons and Porter Magazine the following year and it appears as the October quilt in my 2014 wall calendar of quilts. Amish Class...

Spooktacular Fabrics by Benartex BOO! Uh, I mean, welcome! Thanks for stopping by to see what I've got behind the curtain. Last month at the Benartex Sew in Love with Fabric blog I shared about how to create hexagons. Today I share about making octogons into snowballs. I will be making the Snowball block to showcase these novelty prints. Take a hop over to the Benartex Blog to see how I transformed these fabrics into something Spooktacular! There's a fabric giveaway for one lucky winner, too! Sew in Love with Fabrics blog for Benartex

Little pumpkin quilt has a new home Audrey comes and raids my fabrics. "Oh, mom! Can I have this? Ooohhh. And this?!!" Of course, I say yes - but there's a caveat to some fabrics. "You must bring back all the scraps to this one. You can't pass them on to your friends because I still may have plans for that!" Now she grabs quilts off the walls - yes, she did! See that Gee's Bend sample on HER wall? It was on the wall of the guest bedroom where she stays when she visits and I came home one day and it was GONE! Yes, I know. It used to be on the wall in her previous apartment and she brought it back when they moved. I hung it. She remembered how wonderful it looks and took it back. Sigh. Halloween should last all of October and she needed some decorations. Why - mom has some quilts! She also took the little Circle of Bats quilt from 2012's Wicked Blog Hop . Bat Wreath now lives at Audrey's house Come back tomorrow for a Technique Tuesda...

Sew in Love with Fabric - Benartex Fabrics Are you ready for FALL? Let us help you think about the golds and browns and even the Halloween colors. Sew in Love with Fabric is having a blog hop for 6 days with giveaways of fat quarter bundles each day. WOW! Check in each day to see what treats the bloggers have to share with you. Make sure you leave a comment. And certainly come back on Tuesday, October 5 to MY blog for a tutorial and an offering of fabric! Here are the bloggers for the next 5 days (and make sure you check in with Kelly from Day 1): Day 1: Kelly from My Quilt Infatuation featuring the Harvest Song collection Day 2: Christina from Sometimes Crafter featuring the Spooktacular  collection Day 3: Melissa from My Fabric Relish featuring the Daily Zen collection Day 4: Benartex blog design team featuring the Fall Festival collection Day 5: Debby from Debby Kratovil Quilts featuring the  Spooktacular  collection Day 6: Erin from Why No...