Quilter’s Patch – Block of the Month – April blocks are finished!

April 27, 2017 / lifesloosethreads / 2 Comments

This month I asked my special needs daughter, Mimi, to model the finished Day Lilly block. Both April blocks for the Quilter’s Patch Block-of-the-Month are done! The Tulip and Day Lilly blocks were easier than last month. I didn’t have to take out my seam ripper one time this month.

However, I started to sweat looking ahead to May’s blocks. The Dahlia block has lots of hexagons … and I’ve never gone near a hexagon in my life! The Honey Suckle block doesn’t look any easier … full of 60 degree triangles and bias edges. Looks like I will have to step-up my game!

Quilter’s Patch – Block of the Month – March finished!

March 23, 2017 / lifesloosethreads / 2 Comments

I got my lovely daughter, Katie, and grandson, Ben, to pose with one of March’s finished blocks. Last month I tried to get grandson Jacob to hold one of February’s blocks but he wasn’t having any of it. He’s nearly three years old and a man of action. After chasing him around the backyard for a few minutes I gave up. Maybe he will stand still long enough for a photo in April when he officially turns three!

My two blocks for March on the Quilter’s Patch block-of-the-month quilt are all done! Loved the fabric color choices and pattern on the “sidewalk and log cabin roses” block. It’s a really cute block! It amazes me how a block with well over fifty pieces can, in the end, measure the required 12-1/2″ by 12-1/2″. What did we do before there were rotary cutters and precision rulers?

The “petunias” block came together rather quickly! Easy block. Love the pinks.

I’ve probably got a week before April’s fabrics and instructions hit the mailbox. Time to work on unfinished projects while I’m waiting!

Quilter’s Patch – Block of the Month – February

March 1, 2017 / lifesloosethreads / Leave a comment

So yesterday, I finished blocks 2 and 3, the cat block and the nine-patch daisy, from Fat Quarter Shop’s block-of-the-month for February. Hope I can keep this up! I consider it a victory to not have fallen behind when life gets in the way … yet!

What I love about these types of quilts is the opportunity to review piecing skills and to learn new ones! So far so good.

Bring it on March quilt blocks 4 and 5!

Quilter’s Patch – Block of the Month – January

January 26, 2017 / lifesloosethreads / 2 Comments

Dephinums block pieces cute and organized

You really wanted to see the back didn't you?

The minute I laid my eyeballs on Edyta Sitar’s Quilter’s Patch quilt featured on the Fat Quarter Shop’s website, I was in serious love. Sitar, of Laundry Basket Quilts, is one of my favorite quilt designers. Her butterfly and elephant quilts are currently in my quilting queue to be pieced.

I could tell from the Quilter’s Patch photograph, the quilt would be a challenge using a variety of piecing techniques. And since I don’t really have a beautiful quilt that screams “SPRING” in my little quilt collection, this one was going to be IT! I reserved a spot on their website for the block-of-the-month quilt late last year.

So January’s installment arrived a couple of weeks back, along with Edyta Sitar’s book, and I just this moment finished my first two blocks. The year-long project features first the Cosmos and Delphiniums flower blocks. Lot of fabric pieces to piece … great directions … no shortage of fabric. This is my second block-of-the-month through Fat Quarter Shop’s website. They are pros and do a great job! Hopefully, I can keep up the piecing pace to have all the blocks finished during the proper month.

I understand this block-of-the-month is full, but Edyta Sitar’s awesome book is available. I feel certain for the adventurous soul, it would be fun to come up with alternate color choices. Happy piecing!

2015 International Quilt Festival

October 29, 2015 / lifesloosethreads / 3 Comments

I attended Preview Night last night at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. I’ve been going for decades and this year was absolutely the best! It is so fun to go and shop and fall in love with the new quilt trends. But to do it with your great friends was the buttercream icing on the cake! Loretta and Toni moved away some time back and came to Houston to join Tina and Gwenn and me for an epic adventure.

If you have never been … let’s just say it is five days … 60,000 people from all over the world celebrating quilting. There are classes, quilt exhibits, demos, lectures, tons of shopping (1,100 booths) and more eye candy quilts that you have ever seen under one roof! I really should have taken more photographs but I was concentrating on those future potential projects to purchase.

Trends I noticed … lots of primitive quilts, modern, and so much more! I snagged Edyta Sitar’s “Elephants” quilt pattern and stencil (awesome design), a pillow kit for Fall, a cowboy boot quilt kit, and the most important was a chunk of Minion fabric for my grandson’s Jake’s future I Spy quilt.

The International Quilt Festival ends on Sunday, November 1, so get your walking shoes on and head on down to the George R. Brown Convention Center.

Name that quilt!

August 5, 2013August 6, 2013 / lifesloosethreads / 13 Comments

I need some help naming a quilt. For you non-quilters out there, just like books, quilts need a name, or a title, if you will. Short and sweet words work best. It’s for a quilt that I’ll be donating to my special needs daughter’s day center. They have a fundraising gala each November and it’s something personal I like to contribute.

So several years ago I purchased a collection of thirty Kaffe Fassett fat quarters. The man is an amazing textile artist that does the most interesting things with color and pattern. If his use of color doesn’t cause your eyes to dilate, the designs will knock your shoes and socks right off your tootsies!

Earlier this year I used part of Kaffe’s collection to make a quilt for our special needs daughter’s room. I used a scrappy pattern entitled “Spider Star Quilt” from Edyta Sitar’s book “Friendship Strips & Scraps.”

With all the leftover fabric from Mimi’s quilt, I made the simple quilt below with 2-1/2” strips. The beige print really makes the colorful blocks pop!