Focus Friday for this week is “So Much Thread�, an easy introduction to picture piecing pattern that would be perfect for your sewing studio. Or your friend’s sewing studio! Quilters can never have too much thread!

It’s not too late to crank out some Christmas gifts with this quick and easy design, it’s all straight seams. Just choose three stripey effect fabrics for the thread, two shades of tan for the spools and a smidge of black, plus a background Presented with two different orientations it will be easy to choose the one that fits your space.

So Much Thread – approximately 46 X 25â€� or 28 X 41â€� Pattern: $9.00
Click on Patterns in the side bar to order.

Both Cover Sample quilts are for sale, machine quilted, they are $300.00 each. Email me for details.

“Goose on the Loose” is one of my earlier patterns that continues to be a best seller. Now at the end of October, I am reminded of how it came to be as the wild geese are flying overhead. They don’t stay in those nice orderly V’s as they are usually depicted, but rather they tend to ravel out into tangled skeins as they constantly switch positions, honking loudly at each other as they go. Usually a quilt gets named after it is finished, but this one had a name before it was even started. I looked for a block that would portray the vision, maybe with Flying Geese blocks, but instead I settled on Fox and Goose, which doesn’t even contain Flying Geese. Instead it is worked from half square triangle units and what can be easier than that! Half of the blocks have gray sky centers and half have autumn leaf colors and it is the way that they are sewed together that gives the effect of the geese straying from their formation. I love to make it so you have to really look for where the block is, makes people think it was harder than it really was! Of course that is all laid out for you in this very easy pattern.

The pattern contains instructions for both a wall hanging and a bed quit. There is only about half a box of patterns left and it will not be reprinted, so act fast if this is a quilt you would like to make.

Goose On The Loose – approximately 36 X 42â€� or 72 X 84â€� Pattern: $8.00
Click on Patterns in the side bar to order.

Cover Sample quilt for sale, lovingly hand quilted, a steal at $400.00 Email me for details.

The PRIZE winning bed quilt, made from batik fabrics and free motion machine quilted in swirls and maple leaves can be seen in the Large Quilts Gallery on my website.  It is also for sale.

Did it again! Friday got away from me! This week I will focus on the “New Leaves Wallhanging” which is a take-off on “Third Weekend in October”, that wonderful autumn leaf quilt that I showed you last week. Not long after that pattern was released, I started getting questions about how to adapt it for a wall hanging. To do that, you would have to redesign two edges to get that neat border effect, but then you would be left with not so many leaves, in the smaller version. So I decided to design a new version, which is based on a smaller leaf size so you get enough of them to be interesting. Plus, of course, those four nice borders with the overlapping leaves. For my sample I used all batiks and arranged the colors as a progression through the seasons, from spring through fall. But feel free to color yours any way you want!

New Leaves Wallhanging  INNOVATIONS # 99218  Approx 39.5 X 49    $8.00
To order click on Patterns in the side bar.

New Leaves Sample Quilt   SOLD

A lovely autumn scene, the fat cat dreaming in the fall sunshine with colorful autumn leaves falling all around. A day just like today! Very easy to do using templates and half square triangle units. Rotary cutting, easy piecing, with an easy tip using freezer paper to get the cat’s stripes just right!

FAT CAT DREAMING – $9.00
Innovations # 03236 approximately 35 x 35″

To order the pattern, click on PATTERNS in the side bar and scroll down.  The pattern sample quilt is also for sale, only $300.00, email for details.

Fall has officially arrived and with temperatures last night in the 30’s, I can believe it! I do love the change of seasons, though, and fall is one of the best, but it does promise winter, which is NOT a favorite with me!

In honor of Fall, and the changing seasons, today I decided to feature the SEASONS banners. I designed these to hang either separately or all together with the shared fabrics complimenting each other across the surface.

They are grouped as patterns in sets of two that share the same fabrics. The backgrounds are pieced and the simple applique shapes can be added either by hand or by machine. They were inspired by the plants and animals that are drawn to our water garden/fish pond throughout the year.

SEASONS – Winter and Fall  $8.00

SEASONS – Spring and Summer $8.00

To order, click on Patterns in the side bar.

The SAMPLE quilts are also for sale at $150.00 each, email me if you are interested!

This year, probably because of all the rain, the wild sunflowers have been extra lovely. In the roadsides and in the fields, they are a delightful vision to brighten our days and remind us fall is just around the corner.

So in light of that and the fact that on my recent trip to the Kansas City Guild, my Sunflower Patch pattern was one of my best sellers,  I decided that today it should be my featured pattern for Focus Friday.

SUNFLOWER PATCH

Approximately 70 x 85 ”      $8.50       Click on Patterns in the side bar to order

A bright and sunny pieced quilt, quickly made from only twenty pieced 15″ original design blocks.  I used two different black and white prints to effectively set off the scrappy yellow and brown flowers – but imagine it with a scrappy blue or cream background instead!

SUNFLOWER PATCH sample quilt
Machine pieced and free motion machine quilted  The backing is also scrappy, created from a variety of green and gold and sunflower printed fabrics.  $1500.00. To purchase, email me.

The stormy weather top is finished. I must have tried at least dozen fabrics for the bottom before settling on these.

I was thinking that it should be dark to balance the top, but too dark was just too much. It also needed to have more detail, being closer to the viewer in the scene, but some of the fabrics just had too much detail. Or not enough. When I came to this green one, it seemed to do the job. It was subtly darker than the sunlit fields with just enough detail to add interest. Then I found this stone wall fabric – so Kansas farm land, and it repeats the grays in the buildings.

I prepared the backing and the batting but have not pinned it yet.

You know that rare weather phenomenon where the sky goes almost black, but the sun is still shining and lights the landscape to a bright chartreuse-y green? That’s what I am trying to capture in this new piece. I finally found the right sky fabric and I already had the greens. This progress shot is a couple of days in and I have not yet decided on the foreground fabric.

August has been  busy month! My last multiple day engagement for Guild programs/workshop in Oklahoma happened and it was a fun trip with lovely ladies.  Even fitted in some fabric shopping, though we did not find the one I was looking for.  One more trip – next week to Kansas City, then I will be officially retired!!

We went to Wichita over the weekend for the Opening Reception of the Wichita National All Media Craft Exhibit where “Snow Buddies” is being exhibited. It has a great spot , well lighted where you see it as you enter the gallery; looks good!

While we were in Wichita we visited the Botanic Gardens, The Indian Museum and the Zoo.  The weather was near perfect and I was exhausted by the time we got back home! But it was fun!

Since coming back I have finished the Heron top using some of the fabrics that I found that looked like they might have possibilities.  I un-sewed some of the previous work to insert the new fabrics and I think it is going to be OK. 

Yesterday I squared it up and selected a backing fabric but have not yet layered it for quilting.  I think another deadline has squeezed in that will need my attention first!

News came that all four of my entries to the Visions of the Flint Hills Art Benefit and Sale at the Buttonwood Gallery in Kansas City were accepted.  “Harrier Hunting”, “Prairie Power”, “Drifted”, and “Grasslands” will be there.  This is an art exhibit so it is always gratifying when my quilts are recognized as art! The opening reception is on Oct 2 and the show runs through Nov 27.  Sales benefit the Friends of Konza Prairie.  Be sure and check it out if you are nearby.

Tuesday I went to the Kaw Valley Quilt Guild meeting where David Taylor was the speaker. He and I often enter the same contests as we both do Pictorial work; his are hand applique while mine are pieced. His attention to detail is amazing and sometimes he beats me, and I really can’t complain! He is an excellent speaker as well, and kept us laughing the whole time.

While there, I learned of The Missouri Star Quilt shops – and that one of them is JUST batiks!! Better yet, it is about 9 miles off the highway I will be taking to Des Moines next week for my guild presentation of two lectures and two workshops. You can bet I’ll be stopping there!

Yesterday I finished the beading on the prairie fire quilt and blocked it; now I have to concentrate on getting ready for my trip next week.