A Moody Quilter

I'm in the mood for some blogging. As you can see it has been a long time. And if you guessed I am here cause it is raining, you guessed right. I've spent many hours outside in the last 2 months. The prairie I planted 2 years ago is showing some promise. As gardens go, they tend to be slow starters so you want to stay ahead of the weeds. I've also spent lots of time in the woods. It's unbelievable how many wildflowers there are blooming. And how many more there would be if the critters wouldn't eat the blooms! I suspect it is the deer eating the Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Wild Geranium, Shooting Stars and Solomon's Seal, including the leaves. In spite of that, there are enough flowers for me to enjoy as I go about getting my exercise.

I've had the same blocks on my wall for too long, so I decided to start another quilt. You are welcome to join me as I make these ShooFly blocks. Not sure what I am going to do with them, as usual, but the process results in positive and negative blocks and you can set them like this. Likely I will do something else with them. Call it a Quilt-Along or a Shoo-Fly Mystery if you want. I will give cutting and sewing details as I go.

These are my sample blocks and will go to the orphanage for a comfort quilt at church. I will be making my quilt with these luscious Bali Batiks. So this is my MATERIALS LIST to start with.

One pack of 40 Crackers that are 10" square.
Add another 40 squares of light colored fabrics.

I chose 5 different lights from my stash and from each I cut 2 strips 10" and cut 4 squares from each. Any combination of light fabrics can be used. And you don't need to use 40 squares of darks and 40 lights, either. I may not use all the prints in this pack. I rarely do. The blocks finish 7 1/2". 81 blocks set 9 x 9 = a 67.5" square quilt. That little bit of math is just to give an idea of the possibilities. Hmmmm. Maybe I will make 2 different quilts with all those blocks. Or maybe I will be making more blocks. What are your first thoughts???

One more thing I've been busy with. I am taking a booth with my new book at Quilt Festival in Chicago in 2 weeks.  Look for me in booth 2011 if you go. Then be sure to say "HI". And if you're still wondering what the heck Thirtysomething is all about, check out my updated website - particularly the "tool" page. I hope to be adding a youtube video sometime after Festival. Yikes, I hope I find some time to sew.