Saturday's Book Choice

If you like to quilt, then this week's book is an amazing resource.  I don't personally own it, but have checked it out at the library over and over again.  It isn't an inexpensive book by any means, thus the reason I just use the library's copy.  But that is what makes utilizing a library so very nice.

The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns: 4050 Pieced Blocks for Quilters, by Jinny Beyer is 488 pages long, but a wealth of information.  She breaks qulting down into basic steps beginning with a primer on pieced blocks, followed by square blocks, hexagon blocks, continuous pattern blocks, etc.  Each block is broken down into square grids so you can see how they are designed and put together.  Seeing the basic grid is also helpful in creating your own color sequence, as many times the grid is lost in the amazing patterns that a quilt can take on after being pieced together.  With this book, a quilter would never tire of looking at the same familiar patterns because there literally are 4,050 different quilt blocks included.  I don't know about you, but that will keep me entertained for quite some time.

Scrap Bag

On a recent shopping trip to my local quilt shop, I spotted small brown bags for sale here and there labeled as "scrap bags". I was feeling adventurous, and considering they were only $4.00, I decided to pick one up.

And to my delight, look at the treasures that were inside:

Rotary Cutters

When I first became interested in quilting, I was introduced to rotary cutters. I took a special class on how to use them, and actually have never hurt myself with it, which is an amazing thing in itself. I bought my cutter probably about 18 years ago, and have even managed to change the blade a few times since then. At that time there was only one model available. Now there seem to be several different brands and types on the market. Recently when I was cutting out some fabric, I thought that perhaps I might like to look into updating mine. So when I attended the Quilt Show a couple of weeks ago, this really caught my eye:





I was able to give it a try, and liked it immediately. Some of the advantages that I like are the way that you hold onto it (it seems to be much more comfortable than my old one); the easy way of opening the safety cover over the blade (you just give it a roll on your cutting mat, and it opens by itself); when changing the blade you just have to unscrew one little knob and pop the new blade one (no more wondering in what order to put back all of the extra pieces that seem to fall off on the old ones -- at least that always left me wondering); a model is made for both left and right handed people; and boy does it glide through the fabric (of course that could have a lot to do with the fact that the blade is actually sharp, in contrast to me trying to get as much mileage out of my old blades as I possibly could). There were other colors, but I favored the red one. Here is another view of it:

And this is how you hold it:

Now I must make a note here just so as not to lead anyone astray. Yes, I have had a rotary cutter for a long time; yes, I am very interested in quilting; and no, I have never finished a full-sized quilt (well actually one, but that was before I knew what I was doing, and I don't really count that one). I have made a few doll quilts, wall hangings, and blocks to a couple of full sized quilts that have just seemed to remain in an unfinished state. But I really do have high hopes of actually completing some full sized quilts some day. Maybe now that I have this new snazzy red rotary cutter, that will be just the incentive that I need.

The Quilt Show

This weekend is the 30th annual quilt show put on by the Washington State Quilters in Spokane, Washington. I have been attending since 1990, only missing one year when my youngest was born. It is an amazing show, and has grown a great deal since I started attending. This year I attended with my sweet mom, and my two oldest daughters. We had such a great time.


It is so inspirational to see so many completed quilts. It always makes me just want to come home and fire up the sewing machine. This was my favorite quilt of the show:

It was such a cheerful quilt. And besides, I do like red a great deal. After admiring it, I looked at the tag to read about who had made it; and it was actually made by a cousin of mine who gets together every year with all of the girls in her family to do some quilting. This particular quilt was actually a collaboration of all of them. They then had a drawing to see which one of them would get to keep it. Doesn't that sound like fun!!

I hope to make it back to the show on Sunday to hit the merchant mall. We actually ran out of time yesterday to do much shopping. I love bringing home fabric and new patterns to eventually make some day. And even if I don't ever make them, I do have fun looking at them and thinking of their many possibilities.