The Off-Kilter Quilt

For reasons I won't bore you with, this episode took me forever to upload--sorry it's so late! Just quilting away here, and feeling okay about not being perfect. That's a nice change! Susan, the History Quilter, has a wonderful blog at http://bobbinsbougainvilleasandbread.blogspot.com. Check it out!

Machine quilting a queen-sized quilt: The only workout you'll ever need!

Simply Amy/Simply Frances backing fabric:

Here's a list of new podcasts to check out! Nonnie's Quilting Dreams The History Quilter Katie's Quilting Corner Some Quilty Nonfiction: Loose Threads by Helen Kelley Quilting Lessons by Janet Berlo Quilty as Charged by Spike Gillespie Stuff I'm Reading: The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabelle Wilkerson The Sisters Antipodes by Jane Allison Cool Quilting Patterns--thanks to Debbie for sending me these links from Leah Day: Super spiral: http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2009/11/day-98-super-spiral.html Spiral illusion: http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2010/07/day-204-spiral-illusion.html

You wouldn't believe the progress I've made on Simply Amy/Simply Frances. Essentially, I have put aside all the other parts of my life in an effort to finish this quilt. Here's how the blocks looked laid out on the floor of my study:

And here's where we're at right this very second:

I'm definitely getting there! Congrats to Sue on getting picked by the random number generator--a copy of Rule Breaking Quilts will be heading your way this week! Thanks for listening!

A give-away! If you're interesting in winning a really close-to new copy of Kathryn Schmidt's Rule-Breaking Quilts, leave a comment and say so. The deadline is Monday, January 17th (MLK Day). Good luck! Let's send each other postcards! If you're interested in a postcard exchange, email me with your address (fdowell@mindspring.com) or leave your address in a comment. The book I talk about, sans title--the Alice Starmore sweater experience book--is called Sweater Quest: My Year of Knitting Dangerously by Adrienne Martini. The Barbara Brackman Civil War Block-a-Week site is right here. Have a great week!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday and have recovered successfully enough to start some New Year's quilting. My Christmas fabrics: Anthology Fabrics: A Collection of Color Stories http://www.fatquartershop.com/store/stores_app/Browse_Item_Details.asp?Shopper_id=439112694414391&Store_id=499&page_id=23&Item_ID=51485&Parent_Ids= Three Sisters Park Avenue Layer Cake http://www.threesistersfabric.com/fabric-2/fabric-by-collection-1/park-avenue-by-3-sisters-moda-122/park-avenue-by-3-sisters-for-moda-layer-cake-1830.html Here's the picture of Simply Amy/Simply Frances taken (gulp!) last summer. I've made progress, but I've got miles to go.

More  entries in the quilt diary, but not a lot of quilt-making in and of itself. Sigh.

In this episode, I interview my mom about her life as a quilter. Below, you'll find pictures of the quilts she made my sons.

This is Will's quilt. I didn't realize until I'd uploaded it to my computer that it's upside down. Sorry, Mom!

This is Jack's quilt. Isn't it pretty?

So here it is, the Girly-Girl Reading Quilt (photos courtesy of the Man). The front:

The back:

A goofy daisy:

A stippling close-up:

The quilt is stippled! Pictures next week, when I swear, swear, swear the whole thing will be done! Check out Nonnie's pictures of machine quilting!