More Stash and Simple WhatNots Club

 

 

I learned about these wonderful fabric bundles recently on Lori's blog, Humble Quilts. They come from Two Thimbles Quilt shop in Bellingham, WA. There is 2 yards in each bundle, 12 strips, 6" wide by WOF, and the cost of $14.95 seems very reasonable to me. So I bought 3 of them.  I could have bought 4 and paid the same on shipping,  something I forgot to check before I placed the order.  The best part is there is only 1 fabric in the 36 pieces I already have so it was a great stash enhancement event! Their service was excellent--I placed the order on Wednesday and the Priority box arrived today, Saturday.  Thanks, Lori!

There was very little Civil War/1800's fabric at Spring Market.  Most lines are bright and clear and a lot of solids.  The new lines are pretty fabrics, but I still love 1800's repros a lot.  So that is how I justify adding to my collection.  I will use several of these in my Stars in a Time Warp quilt. 

Last night was the Simple WhatNots Club by Kim Diehl for Henry Glass Fabrics that I am conducting at my local shop.  Here are 2 quilts completed from last month's pattern:

Michelle did 16 blocks, Anna did 9, both are great

The pattern is called Cloud Nine and those blocks are 3.75" finished.  I love how you get a little bitty Churn Dash/Monkey Wrench were the blocks come together at the corners. 

This is the pattern we are doing for May, called True Blue.  Each block is 6" finished.  I used one background fabric where the pattern uses several.  My tip for these small blocks is to use a small stitch, 2.0 or 12/inch, and press all the seams open.  These 2 blocks will become part of my WhatNots Sampler quilt, where I am combining the parts of many of these small quilts into one large quilt.  See my post about the parts on the design wall here.  There is only one month to go and I am working on that project now. 

Last night I also told the group about Becky Goldsmith's wonderful new book:

The Quilter's Practical Guide to Color, by Becky Goldsmith


 

I botch the title, I'm afraid.  Becky did a blog this morning about this, featuring a short video tutorial on color:  Color Tutorial.  She quoted my email to her about how much I like this book and think it will be so helpful to quilters.  I plan to teach 4 classes from this book and I'm calling it Color College.  We'll have Fall Semester this September, Winter Semester in January, Spring semester in May  and Summer School, in summer 2016.  Each class will be independent of each other.  The plan is to use 4 of the projects in the book to teach skills with color and by the end of the 4 classes, the students will have read the book.  I know many quilters buy great books, flip through them and don't read them.  You will get lots of out this book if you READ it!

May you all have a wonderful Memorial Day holiday and remember:  We are the Home of the Free, thanks to the Brave.

Let's quilt!

Barbara