A Little QUIP : A Little Quilt in Progess

I have been redesigning this little quilt that I blogged about before. I am making it to go on my round table so I changed the layout from the pattern since it was intended to be a wall hanging. Doing the redesigning has given me great respect for the people who make patterns. I used to feel they were a little expensive, but I have now spent a few hours calculating and recalculating measurements that only have to be changed again once I cut and piece sections, so I now appreciate the amount of time that is spent on making a pattern for sale. It is really fun though and I am really liking the way it is turning out. I have a few more strips to piece then will work on a fun border. I haven't even thought about the binding much yet though I will probably use the little red dotted fabric. I got a little concerned when I finished my aprons because they weren't really complimenting the fabrics I had chosen for the borders and the red was looking a little too much so I found some red ric rac and added to each apron and completely bordered each apron with a narrow red border and suddenly it was all seeming to go together perfectly. The fabric in yellow has the cutest little Jello molds, it is a Michael Miller fabric and the border will be the complimentary fabric by the same artist. It is a fun retro print with kitchen appliances from the 50's. Oh, to be a fabric designer...where do they come up with all these ideas? I only hope they keep sparking my imagination with ways to use them.

I think my next quilting project will be to piece the fish fabrics I have been collecting into a throw for my couch. I did manage to recover the couch cushions for the 3rd time with some denim and used a red fabric for the piping and I think the fish fabrics will look perfect with the denim. I don't have a picture yet, but will try to remember to take one. I think it is in some of my Christmas pictures. I am finally really happy with the way it turned out AND it is washable. I even put in a 36" zipper in the back. I used some of the techniques I have been learning from making bags and it made it oh, sew easy! I had made a little pouch from an American Jane pattern and that is the method I used to do the zipper...it came out perfect!


We finally got a chance to go fishing with my son, Andy today. It was suppose to rain, but we managed to find a few hours before the rain came to get out. We knew that they had stocked some nice trout from Lassen on Thursday, but they weren't biting and the weather was so cold. We layered on some warm clothes and went out anyway and we caught 2 very nice fish! The 3 of us have been having some pretty bad luck with fishing lately so we felt very fortunate indeed! We also each shared a few fishing tips and had a really nice time. Can't wait to get some pink lemonade power bait! Thanks Andy!