Dresden Turkeys

Carrie of Freckles Galore just e-mailed me the news that she used my Dresden Turkey block pattern to make a wallhanging. You can visit her blog, http://www.myfrecklesgalore.blogspot.com/, to see her turkey.

If you'd like to make one, the block pattern is available for free on my web site: http://www.sundropdesigns.com/thanksgiving.html. You will soon find some other Thanksgiving ideas on that web page, too.

It's a Banner!

When I sat down to sew my leaf blocks into a table runner, I suddenly changed my mind! I blame it on those stark, white sheets of drywall that seemed to be screaming for something to decorate them. I decided to make two simple banners instead - one for my shed and one to give to a friend. The scan of a portion of one banner shows the fabrics I used. The other graphic shows a rendering of the banner made with Electric Quilt software. You can get the applique patterns and very basic instructions for making this banner on my website: http://www.sundropdesigns.com/specialdays.html

More Fall Leaves

I collected fallen leaves from the silver maple tree today. This is my favorite tree on the property because there's such a variety of colors and sizes. Leaves on the other trees generally turn just one color or another, often a dull brown.

I chose 4 leaves of various sizes and traced them on brown freezer paper to make templates to keep on hand for future use. They look wrinkled because I salvaged this paper from a box of art supplies that I ordered years ago - the paper had been used as filler instead of styrofoam peanuts. Of course, I had to try a couple of the templates out now using some fabric scraps. Wow! I really like how this simple block turned out. I'm now inspired to make a few more to make a small table runner for the bowl of Halloween candy to sit on.

By the way, I noticed something odd about the silver maple tree: only the leaves on the east side of the tree are turning color. The leaves on the west, south and north sides are all green!

Fall Leaves

You can blame one of my 3rd grade teachers (I had 2 teachers that year) for my interest in leaves. She assigned us to collect "pretty colored leaves" for an art project and I've been fascinated by leaves and their changing colors ever since. Today, I found an internet article that explains why leaves change colors and gives a toll-free phone number for the U. S. Forest Service's Fall Color Hotline (who would have guessed there was such a thing?!): http://my.att.net/s/editorial.dll?eetype=Article&eeid=6104281&render=y&ck=&Table=
(800) 354-4595 Fall Color Hotline

Leaves are one applique pattern you don't need a designer for - nature provides them in abundance! Take a walk, collect some leaves, then trace them on paper or template plastic. Or sandwich the leaves between clear adhesive-backed plastic (i.e., Contac paper), then cut about 1/8" around the leaf (leave enough seam allowance for the plastic to adhere to itself). Now you have a pretty leaf to look at and an applique pattern to trace.

If you need an activity for kids, have them collect the leaves and sandwich them between the adhesive-backed plastic, or press between two sheets of waxed paper (adult help required), then cut them out. Punch a hole at the top of each leaf, thread yarn or string through the hole then tie to make loop. With adult help, hang leaves near a window or above child's bed. Small leaves can be used as bookmarks. Have fun!

New Quilt Blocks

I've been busy this week catching up on a block challenge for one of the Yahoo groups I belong to. The challenge is to make one block for each month that features a cat and represents that month in some way. We had snow in January, so I used yo-yos to make a snowcat and stitched it to a snowball block.

February's block features a heart for Valentine's Day and uses a pink fabric that I used in a project I was working on in February. The cat fabric just looked like Valentine's Day to me.

March's block is a 3-leaf clover made without a pattern - I just haphazardly cut some white rectangle and square shapes and sewed them to green squares to make the leaves. It's fun to ignore all the fussy rules once in a while! I drew the cat on a small piece of fusible web, cut it out and fused it in place. The stem is embroidered.

My oldest cat, Wylie, was born in April many years ago, so I searched my cat fabric stash for a black and white tuxedo cat. The kitten in the center of this block was the best I could find. The block features a 4" Puss in the Corner block as the center of an 8" Puss in the Corner block.

Twin Star

On TV last Saturday, Fons and Porter demonstrated how to use the basic component of the Twin Star block to make a twisted ribbon border. Like them, this was a new method to me for making this border so I had to experiment. I was watching the show in my studio shed and didn't want to dash to the house to work the measurements out on the computer first, so I picked up some fabrics, cut a 3" square in fourths and went where it led me. I ended up with a 10.5" block (finished) - not exactly a common block size but I had fun. I'll add more log cabin type rows to make it big enough to make a pillow.

Later, I went to my computer and drafted a pattern for a 12" block. I like this block, but I think I like the other method of making the twisted ribbon best. Getting those little triangles to line up to make a square can be a bit tricky.

More Surprises

As I continue to sort through stuff, I find a few surprises. Today, I found some photos of me taken in first or second grade. Black and white photos were quite common back then. :-)

And I found some of a litter of kittens one of my cats had several years ago. It's about time for this year's feral kittens to start peeking out at the world, but so far I haven't even heard any tiny meows. Since the cold weather stayed around for so long this year, I'm wondering if this year's kittens will show up later than usual. We don't really need more kittens, but they sure are cute! (My females are all spayed now, btw. And the ferals get spayed whenever I'm lucky enough to catch one.)

I also found a sample of a crazy heart block I designed years ago that I'd totally forgotten about. I pulled scraps from a box to make the 4 blocks it took to make the sample, and I'm not entirely happy with how it turned out. Next time, I'll have to try it with a controlled pallette of fabrics. This is what an EQ (Electric Quilt) mock-up looks like:

If you'd like to play with this foundation pieced block pattern, let me know.

Bunny Baskets Update

I finished setting my bunny basket blocks last week - thought you might like a peek at how it turned out. I choose to set then on the diagonal with alternate white blocks and sashing. Setting blocks on the diagonal is not my favorite setting option. Working in a small space without a design wall like I do at present, it's easy to get diagonal settings mixed up. But I really liked the garden lattice look it gave these blocks so I decided it was worth the struggle. Now all I have to do is sew the borders on and I'll have another top ready for quilting this summer.

The Gammage Cup

Have you ever wondered what inspires quilt designs? Sometimes it's a fabric or collection of fabrics. Sometimes it's our pets or children. Sometimes it's nature at her finest beauty. And sometimes it's just something wierd.

This week, I had the dubious honor of undergoing one of our society's initiation rites into the Past 50 Club: a colonoscopy. Those of you who have already suffered this pleasure know that it's a 2-day ordeal, at best. I had it figured that I wouldn't get any work done the day of the procedure, but I'd planned to get my taxes done the day before. Oh, how naive! When I realized that I'd be sitting on a porcelain seat, not an office chair, all day, I decided to make the best of a yucky situation and pulled one of my all-time favorite children's novels from the shelf, The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall.


It's been years since I'd last read this book, so I lost myself in it despite my uncomfortable setting. First published in 1959, it was a Caldecott Honor Book way back then. It's always puzzled me why this book hasn't been more popular through the years. Although the story lacks the complexity of Harry Potter books or the Hobbit, it has a simple, witty charm that I find delightful. The theme (as I see it) is a fairly universal and timeless one, that of finding the courage to stand up to peer pressure and be yourself, and allow others to be who they are.


As I lost myself in the land of the Minnipins, and fell in love with Muggles and Gummy and even Mingy once again, I decided that I'd try to translate this wonderful story into a quilt when I'd recovered. So yesterday afternoon (I slept all morning!) I sketched and figured out measurements and began cutting, and today I sewed up a prototype block of a Minnipin cottage. In the beginning of the story, all Minnipin cottages are white-washed and have thatched roofs, and all are supposed to have green doors. I chose to make the walls of my cottage from 1" (finished) white-on-white strips to make it look like clapboard siding. As in most fantasies, electricity doesn't exist in this story. The minnipins use candles and reed-lamps for illumination, so I chose a yellow-with-white fabric for my windows. The door is green, of course. Most of the cottage is pieced, but I chose fusible applique for the thatched roof. The finished cottage is 10" x 10", a bit larger than I was originally planning, but the perfect size for my Wee Folk (applique patterns) who can easily be turned into Minnipins.


Not bad for my first cottage, but I see a few things I want to change. I'm going to move the second-floor window up a notch, and make the thatched roof a bit wider. The soft-yellow windows look nice up close, but in the scan they blend in too much with the white walls, so I might need to find a more intense yellow to create more contrast. I can't wait to finish my taxes so I can build my next cottage!

Bunny Baskets

Last week, I began working with the novelty Easter fabrics I bought in February. The bunnies were just too cute to pass up! After studying the fabric for several hours, I decided to go with a pieced basket block idea. I chose what's probably the simplest of all pieced basket blocks, a triangle basket with base and an appliqued handle. But instead of appliqueing a handle, I decided to fussy-cut some bunnies and fuse them to the top triangle. To hide some of the awkward cuts, I fussy-cut some eggs and fused them over the "holes" left where another bunny was originally.

For the baskets, I dug into my doll clothes stash for some trims like lace, rick rack, etc. My goal was to make each basket different in some way - no exact look-alikes! I'm pleased with how they turned out. Now I just have to decide how to set the 16 blocks I made.