Revealed

Remember how I cryptically mentioned a Top Secret project a little while ago? Well, as you may have guessed, that project was a gift for a good friend, and now that posting photos won't spoil the surprise, I get to share it with you.



I rarely have the time to make quilts, I don't sell them in my shop so it's really a matter of making the time. I don't know how some people manage to whip out a quilt in a day or two but I need more time to plan things out (a.k.a. play with fabric) and work on fabric placement (a.k.a. play with fabric some more). And, you know, find stuff I've mislaid along the way.

I knew I wanted to start with some lovely Pop Garden prints, and to use the Stacked Coin pattern from Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts.

But, in typical Kim fashion, I managed to misplace my copy of the book so I had to wing it when it came time to working out all the measurements. I'm pretty sure my coins are a little thinner than the pattern calls for but at least I got to squeeze in all my favorites. And speaking of squeezed, I think I'll call this quilt Cherry Lime-Aid. The colors are so summery and fresh.

I used plain old straight line quilting from top to bottom, except I didn't mark the lines as I wanted some natural looking waviness. The quilting lines are about one quarter inch apart and I'm completely in love with the texture the quilt took on. I also used a thin cotton batting so it would get nicely crinkled in the wash. Yummy.

It was really hard to fold this quilt up and send it off in the mail.

A little quilt I-Spy: you'll notice some Farmer's Market, Summer Soiree, American Jane (of course, I can hardly put together a special sewing project without my favorite ruler print), Amy Butler's Lotus, some Katie Jump Rope and Flea Market Fancy...pretty much a little of everything.

And don't you just get a kick out of quilt binding? I think it may be my favorite part of quilt-making. I just love spending quality time with favorite movies while I hand sew the binding. Okay, I know that one of those "movies" is technically a mini-series, but they both contain Colin Firth so who cares.

The sneak peek I showed earlier was a photo of the quilt back, you can see it's mostly just a solid natural cotton (yards and yards of it--I'm used to making smaller items so it was a little different juggling such a huge amount of fabric at once), with extra coin edges tucked in there.

Sigh...I really need to find the time to make more quilts.

Happy Christmas!

Something wonderful

Can you imagine my excitement when I opened up this month's issue of Ready Made and saw this:

Yep. That is an entire page. Serious hand clasping and glee ensued.

Those are my pear ornaments and fabulous Michael Miller fabrics (including a couple hints of Farmer's Market by Sandi Henderson).

And, on a related side note, it looks like you can still get my favorite new MM Christmas print, Yule Critters, at a few places. Anyone thinking last minute throw pillow or reusable gift bags?

On a semi-unrelated note, I thought I should mention that I finally set up my Retro Mama fan page on Facebook, so I hope to see you there!

Now, I have just dug up my wintery cookie cutters and I am raring to bake! Anybody have suggestions for favorite cookie recipes?

Snow White

We had a gorgeous snow day today, at least a foot and a half of snow fell overnight and I was a little more excited about it than my husband, who spent two hours digging out the driveway and shoveling puppy trails in the backyard so our Chihuahua mix could do his business.

We had a little bit of snow inside, too, sort of.

Okay, it's not really snow, and I can't show you more of this project yet because it is Top Secret. Shhhh!

I should be sleeping right now, but I have a bit of snow-induced insomnia: Will schools be closed tomorrow? Do I really want to slide around on the roads driving the kids to school even if it isn't canceled? Why again did we move to the Midwest? But the snow sure is pretty... A white Christmas! It's almost Christmas! Holy smoke....I really need to start mailing out those gifts, where did the time go?? Boy, that gingerbread latte I had this evening was tasty--and that's probably the real reason I'm still awake.

I really am going to bed now, soon to be dreaming of sugarplums, or possibly lattes, or maybe even gingerbread cookies. Drat, now I'm hungry.

Stay warm, wherever you are, and sweet dreams!
Kim