Gnomes, dogs and sewing

If you're wondering why I'm talking about gnomes and dogs on a quilting blog, I'll explain.

I have a friend who love gnomes. She has a cute little set in her house. So when I found Michael Miller's Gnoming Around fabric collection I had to let her know about it. Soon a plan was hatched to make gnome pillowcases. And this is the result.

I've also been hard at work on a quilt that I'm donating to K9 Kindness Rescue, Inc., to raise money to help homeless dogs. I got the top done at a quilt retreat I went on last weekend and started to quilt it. I've included a sneak peak in the photo at the top of the blog.

What are you working on?

A peak at the design wall

I had a great time at quilt retreat. I did nothing but sew and chat with other quilters for three days, and while my husband doesn't understand why that was so fun, I'll definitely be going back for the fall retreat.

On Friday afternoon I finished the quilt top for my signature quilt, layered and basted it. Then I spent the rest of the retreat making quarter square triangles and flying geese for another quilt I'm working on. It's all in shades of brown and cream with a few greens, blues and reds thrown in for variety.

I've started arranging the blocks on my design wall. I need to buy eight more fat quarters to have enough fabric to complete the quilt, but when it's done there will be 42 different fabrics in the quilt. I'll post a few more glimpses as I add more blocks to the wall.

Things to do before Quilt Retreat

1. Make two pots of the De Pasquale family pasta sauce recipe for lasagna on Friday night.

2. Decide which projects to bring with, (signature quilt, T-shirt quilt, quilted messenger bag, a quilt I'm making as a gift and an airplane baby quilt are all possible contenders).

3. Finish laundry so I have clean clothes to wear this weekend.

4. Pack said clean clothes, sewing machine and notions and at least two possible projects.

5 . Stop by fabric store to see if there are any fun stencils, fabrics or notions I must have at retreat and can't believe I've done without for so long.

A few things I'm working on

I've been working on some new (and old) projects now that I've finished the patriotic T-shirt quilt for a client. I'll post pictures of the quilt later, as my camera died the morning I delivered it.


I'm finally starting to sew together the signature blocks that guests signed at my wedding in August. We had our six-month wedding anniversary this week, and my goal is to have it quilted, bound and labeled by our one year anniversary.

So far I have the 80 blocks sewed into 20 squares of four. I want to get the top, including the borders, sewed together this weekend so I can start quilting it by hand in the evenings at a quilt retreat I'm attending next weekend.


I also am almost done sewing together two table runner tops from a Moda Blush charm pack. And yes, I did create a makeshift design wall by taping batting to the wall in our hallway. It makes life a lot easier when arranging charm squares and making sure the signature blocks, which are grouped by families, are in the right place.

I promised my husband I would take it down by last Monday, but I really do intend to take it down after this weekend when I get the signature quilt top finished. But a design wall is going to be a must have when I have my own quilting studio if we ever find a house.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to quilt the table runners with diagonal lines or in a stipple pattern, but I do know I'm going to call them "Think Spring." Once they're done, I am going to list them for sale on my Etsy shop.

What are you working on?