What is your perfect Quilt size?

How's everything in quilt land. Do you have cabin fever, or don't you get it cause you quilt? My visit with Judy 2 weeks ago was just what I needed to jump start my enthusiasm for quilting again. Since then I quilted two tops for church comfort quilts. Here is one. I guess I never took a pic of the other one.

Then I went with Judy to quilt club at Ben Franklin and that inspired me to finish the logcabin I started when we went to quilt retreat in November. Only I forgot to take a picture of that too! I did get three pictures of other settings with the quarter-quilts that I made. I must say it was much easier handling a large quilt by putting it together in quarters. You will have to wait for my next post to see what setting I chose.


I am undecided about the border. I border nearly everything and I am not sure I want to add one to this. It now measures about 88" square. I like that size for a bed and realize the quilting will take up several inches. So I might just add a narrow border. I am really curious what size quilts you like to use on your beds. This information probably would have helped me more earlier when I wrote the last 8 books, but I am curious now cause my gals are coming over for quilting in a few minutes and we always pretend to argue over the perfect size quilt. So, please, do tell. More later.
Sew long

120 tops and counting

January dreams
First thing Monday morning, January 4th I sent the quilts and manuscript to the publisher. The feeling of relief lasted several days till it switched to burnout. I did practically no sewing. I did clean my sewing room and closet pretty well though and it felt good to get most of it organized again. At one point I counted my quilt tops. I don't virtually count them all as they are scattered about the house. I usually go though my photo album and count. Yikes! Was I shocked to see it was up to 120. Last time I counted it was at 88 and I thought I was keeping it pretty steady since I got the longarm. I think I need to track them in some other way. That should help inspire me. I see some gals post on their blogs all the fabric used/bought, quilts finished etc. So I am going to think about that. Watch the sidebar for that. I also gathered, organized and counted all my PHD's and came up with around 20. Again that is higher than ever for me. Typically after a manuscript is done I work on finishing up some of the phd's so that is a small goal for the next month. I wanted to post that theme, but again I had issues with the new computer and now want to redo it. So watch for that too.

I found one of the pictures of the comfort quilts that I couldn't find yesterday. It was just an uneven width log cabin. I'd made the blocks long ago and turned them in for someone else to finish the quilt and this is what was done with them. Of course, I turned the blocks in to me. But I bagged them and labeled them a kit and put them in the kit bin at church. And then some little quilt fairy took them home and made them into a quilt. I am not sure if I'd like those fairies visiting my quilt closet. They'd take the fun out of quilting for me. I know a few quilters that wished there were basting fairies. If you know of any, let me know.


I quilt with Shaggy a few times a month and she finished her top with a hunting theme for a friends son. She used one of my Thirtysomething patterns. It turned out great.
So what are you working on? A quilt I hope. Sew long,

Scraps - A Favorite Theme

This holiday weekend I thought I'd get a chance to get some more serious sewing done. But I wasn't sew lucky. I decided to put "clean the garage" on the agenda for Saturday. And Sunday was spent with family. Neither were planned, but I am sure glad I did both.
When I saw Mom for church today she had some more scraps ready for me. Mom likes to pick at things and sort and organize them. I knew the scraps I was offered at the retreat would be something she would enjoy ironing and sorting. The were given to me sorted in two huge laundry baskets. One basket for lights and one for darks. I pulled out all the long strips under 1 1/4" wide and all the little bits. I'm slowly turning the rest of the scraps over to mom. She is pressing and sorting them for me. I will let her decide how small a piece she will putz with. My church group will use these with little additional cutting. We'll make crazy or crumb quilts and string quilts.

I made this odd width Log Cabin from similar scraps. If you look closely at the blocks you will see that the strip width varies from log to log. As the blocks get larger it is usually evident if you need to add a narrow or wide strip to keep the blocks kinda square. For the last round of logs I usually add wider strips(2 1/2" or wider). I keep a ruler handy as I add the last 2 logs to be sure I add a large enough piece. After the final pressing, I square them all to the same size.
I have only made 2 other log cabin quilts before, and that was fairly recently.

This is one of them. I'd almost abandoned it entirely as I'd only made 12 blocks and I didn't like the direction it was going. It had been a PHD for probably over 15 years before I picked it up again last year. I like pink now. I think I didn't for a while.





I sure enjoyed making the log cabins, so I think I will be doing more. How many have you made?
Sew long.