Carrie's Chrismas Forest.

Carrie has a little Christmas forest growing.

I made this little tree to add to the cheer.

I love how the Santa sits among all the trees, some very modern and others are rather traditional. Most are applique but some are pieced.

Aren't they lovely!

Cheers,

Dionne

WOW! I got the deal of the Century

It was a rainy afternoon on Friday. I had groceries in the back of my car and a glance at the clock told me the kids would be getting off school in little more than an hour. Still, the sign for a garage sale in my neighborhood caught my eye and I stopped.

Good thing I did. There on a table was a large box marked "Fabric" -- Cool, I thought, just what I need. Well, probably not really. My stash seems to be pro-creating on it's own right now, but a deal is a deal so I dove right in. Beside, maybe I would find something vintage in there.

Well, nothing vintage to be found. In fact, it was actually a box of mostly acetate and polyester curtains. Go figure! But there in the bottom of the box all crunched up in a ball was a crazy quilt in pinks and greens.

Now, I don't really go for those colors myself, but I couldn't let this little gem go sitting in the bottom of that dark, dank box, could I? No, I knew you would agree. That little thing needed liberating. It hasn't been quilted and there is no batting so I believe it's meant to be a nice little table topper for a breakfast table, perhaps.

I asked the hostess how much she wanted for it and she seemed surprised to even see it. "That thing, not even sure what it's for, you can have it for free." she said.

Free? Did I hear that right? Yes, indeedy do. I pushed her for more information, but she had no idea about where it came from or who made it. Sadly there was no label.

Who do you think made it? Perhaps it was a gift that didn't receive a proper reception. I hope not.

Cheers,

Dionne

The Bridle Trails Quilters and the Accuquilt Cutting System

Did you know I have a quilt club? It's not the guild with a lot of women (all very lovely) and a lot of politics (not so lovely). And it's not the monthly Block of the Month club at my LQS (Local Quilt Store), which I also enjoy.

We're a small group of friends that meet monthly. We host private swaps that include many regular "Guests" every month - more or less. We drink tea (or wine, or margaritas when appropriate -- and sometimes when not appropriate).

We quilt and we laugh and we've been known to cry. Each of us brings our ideas to the group, we mull them over and choose projects.

We're all quilters, but we each have our lives, families, careers (or lack thereof)... in short, we all have our stories.

I'm going to share with you my project. Maybe I'll introduce you to each and every one of the girls as we go.

It's a good club. We call ourselves the Bridle Trails Quilters.

Sewing is a passion I've had all my life. It isn't my career but it's something I do, always. I teach sewing to kids. I teach quilting. And more often than not, I host the quilt club.

I also have an Accuquilt Studio cutting system. I love my cutting system. We use it a lot. I'm talking A LOT... at the classes we teach (those of us that teach), in our swaps, in our projects.

Because of poor customer service, I will never do business with Fons & Porter again. Granted, I expect excellent customer from a company that is willing to take my money. But that's a different story, all I want you to know is that Accuquilt surpassed my expectations! They have brilliant customer service.

However, I find their patterns lacking. If you are looking for a regular old pattern, you might find them adequate. What I'm looking for from Accuquilt is a pattern that's going to address the actual tool, the cutting system.

Accuquilt has a sampler BOM they started about 4 months ago. I haven't done it yet because I don't like their directions.

My quilt club and I decided we're going to do their Block of the Month but we're going to re-write the directions to address how to use the cutting system.

I'll rewrite the directions here for anyone who has a GO! or an Accuquilt Studio cutting system. Feel free to follow along if you have one of their systems as well.

We (almost) unanimously voted to make our quilt scrappy. Fellow quilt club member
Mai requested we do controlled scrappy so we're going to use the same colorway in the pattern, only scrappy!

Our colors are: white/cream, Blues, Greens, oranges, reds

Month one is called 'Double Cross Block'

Cheers,

Dionne

Greenpiece, Month 4

Month four uses four fabrics: cream for the background color, burgundy, green and light pink.

I like the star within a star look to it.

UNITS:

- Four large flying geese in Burgundy/Background, Four large flying geese in Green/Background

- Four small flying geese in Burgundy/Pink, Four small flying geese in Green/Pink

- 10 2 1/2" squares for the cornerstones and centers

- 8 1 1/2" squares for the cornerstones

Flying Geese:

1. Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of the four small 2 7/8" squares.

2. With right sides together place 2 small squares in oposit corners of the large 5 1/4" background square. Stitch 1/4" on either side of the drawn line.

3. Cut on the center line and press the small triangles away from the large triangle. You will end up with an angular heart.

4. Place another small square on the remaining corner of the large triangle (heart shape unit) and stitch 1/4" along either side of the center line. Cut and press.

End result:

Two large flying geese units that measure 2 1/2" by 4 1/2"

I think it was Eleanor Burns who first introduced this method. But I've been using it for years. The final blocks for the BOM are 8 1/2"

Cheers,

Dionne