In addition to my piles (baskets actually and bags) of scraps I have a virtual mountain of books that I have been collecting for years and telling my husband that I was saving those for retirement so I would have plenty of patterns to make quilts by during retirement! These books are stacked on my staircase. East step holds between 5-10 books and magazines and assorted patterns that I have purchased when I saw something that I really liked all with the intention of saving for my retirement!
I guess it could also be said that I am a pack rat because of all these books and patterns!
Regardless, I found another book at the quilt shop yesterday. I just love my local quilt shop and the people who work there. Sew Bee It in Ringgold, Georgia is just a wonderful shop full of friendly people and I always have an enjoyable time when I go up for a visit, which I do often. As you can well imagine we are on a first name basis there!
Back to my story. I found a new book "Small Pieces, Spectacular Quilts" by Mary Elizabeth Kinch and Biz Storms. I was drawn to the book by the cover picture which is a Pumpkin Peel Pattern. The quilt is beautiful but I have to say I was not impressed with the directions. This is definately a pattern for someone with experience. In particular I don't like instructions that just say "cut wedges of varying widths". I find this too general for directions except to experienced quilters. I also wish they had included some indication of the quilting level required for each project. I want people to have a successful outcome when they start to quilt and if they start a project that is very difficult and they do not have the experience needed they will get discouraged and I hate to see that happen to anyone. I met a lady in Knoxville, Tn who wanted to learn how to quilt and the quilt she started on was a Baltimore Album. The shop owner did try to tell her that her choice was not something that was normally recommended for a beginning quilter but she decided that she was going to try that one anyway! I never did hear if she finished her quilt or not but fear it may have been too daunting a task for a beginner. To be honest, I don't even feel up to trying a Baltimore Album but it is because I am not a fan of applique. I am more of a person who likes to make progress quickly.
With all of that said you are likely wondering why I bought this book! Well, I have to try everything at least once it seems to see how it goes. One year I decided to do some paper pieced quilts for the ladies in the family. Sorry to say the pattern I choose was one that was very intricate and very time consuming and finally they were put away into the void of UFO's. Years later I pulled out the partially finished piece and squared up what was there and added borders and made myself a wall hanging. I will not tell you how much that wall hanging cost me, but it was more than I would normally spend for a full size quilt! Now after getting this book I'm starting another quilt with too many pieces. We'll see how it goes and if I finish a complete quilt or wind up with another wall hanging. In this one each 3" block has about 19 pieces. The squares are 1/2" finished and made into 4-patches and then the patches are put together with sashing between each one to make a 16 patch of 4 patches which are sashed together to form the large quilt. Boy that's a lot of work just trying to explain the pattern. I'll try to get a couple of pictures to show you how this thing goes together before I publish this post.
Not the best picture I have every made but this is one of the blocks!
This is one forth of the above square.
Of course this one is where I am putting the tiny four patches together to form the above block.
And this is the tinies with just the 2 squares together and in the top left corner is one I have put into a 4 patch.
(Okay I did good. I got the pictures before publishing the post) Wish I had more of it done, but as I said sometimes I am a little slow but I am still working on this. I did mention to a friend of mine that maybe I should use the blocks I have put together to put on the back of some potholders that I'm planning on doing for Christmas and she cringed in horror and said, that is just too much work to put into a potholder! She may be right. So I'll continue to see how it goes!
Typically I will go on a writting binge and write several post and then put them up one at a time. Which is where I am right now. I do everything by binges, quilting, writing, cleaning! Is anyone else like that? At any rate since I am so very blessed with so many scraps, I'm trying my hand at this once again. So thankful that I have had the opportunity to collect so many scraps and still have the health and resources to continue quilting. Here's wishing you all a happy quilting week and I'll talk with you later!
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