Needles and Pens

Taking place each year on the third Saturday of March, National Quilting Day was created in 1991 by a resolution of the National Quilting Association , as a day set aside to celebrate quilts and those who make them. Therefore, I thought it was only fitting that I spend a little time in my sewing room today. To be honest, I wasn't really in the mood. The weather here was gloomy and gray, the kind of day that makes me want to just curl up and take a nap. I suppose I could have just as well "celebrated quilts" by wrapping up in one and crawling into bed! Nevertheless, I decided instead to make a few blocks for CQUSA 's quilt block lottery: The block is called Buckeye Beauty , courtesy of The Quilter's Cache . It's a super-easy-to-make, 12" scrappy block -- my favorite -- so I'm entering the maximum of five blocks. Wish me luck! ;o)

Here is my February block for the " Seasons of the Heart " block-of-the-month, designed by Sandi at A Legacy of Stitches . For some reason, I could not get to sleep last night, so I decided to "just pick out the fabrics" for the new BOM. Before I knew it, the pieces were fused and I was blanket-stitching away. LoL These little block patterns are so cute and fun to work on. Thanks so much, Sandi, for sharing them with us!

One more project I've been working on... These started out as 9-1/2" sampler blocks, made last year in a block-of-the-month project with Country Quilters USA . I just pulled them out of the UFO pile last week, determined to make them into a quilt. I'm starting to have some problems though, working only from my stash (remember the don't-buy-anything-unless-absolutely-necessary budget?) I really don't think I can do justice to these without doing a little fabric shopping. What I have done so far, was to add 2" white-on-white sashing strips to the blocks, followed by 1-1/2" sashing strips in burgundy. I think the next step should be to set them all together with more white, but I'm seriously low on any kind of white fabric now. You just can't do much of anything without those neutrals! And I'd really like to do a pieced border on this one, using more of the burgundy sashing fabric -- only I've used it all up. Hopefully I can still find more...

It was a busy day today, visiting out-of-town relatives, but I wanted to take a minute to share a photo of an appliqued quilt block that I finished yesterday: This is the first in a 2009 Block of the Month (BOM) series, Seasons of the Heart , designed by Sandi at A Legacy of Stitches . Sandi has created a block to represent each month of the year, designed for fusible applique. The edges are blanket-stitched by hand and the details are embroidered. I want my finished quilt to have a warm, country feeling, so I plan to use various homespuns for my block backgrounds. When I saw this cute little snowman, I just couldn't resist joining in. I'm really looking forward to more of her patterns. Thanks, Sandi!