A chorus line..... pattern coming soon

 

Juliet at the Tartankiwi  (www.thetartankiwi.com)  has done it again. This time it is a chorus line with lovely ladies kicking high. The pattern will come with ladies kicking to the right and ladies kicking to the left. There are also several sizes. I tested the 12" by 18" size. There are a couple of very minor tweaks to the printed pattern before the pattern release in the next week or so. And yes it is a paper pieced pattern but everything is so clearly laid out it is really quite easy to construct.
Now for my high kicking chorus line story. About 50 years ago my Dad took our whole family to New York City for a week. It was our first plane ride and we stayed at a downtown hotel. Each day we went into a different area of the city and saw as many of the highlights as we could. One day we went to see the Rockettes at the Radio City Music Hall. I can still remember the precision. Oh my! Sometimes now you can see them doing a little spot on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and when I see that I am taken back to that trip. We packed a whole lot into those five days.
I am off on an extended weekend retreat starting this afternoon. We are focusing on UFO's on this retreat as opposed to creating more UFO's. I had a hard time deciding just what I would take. I think I have enough for a month but who knows. They are calling for rain on Saturday so that should be a good day for sewing. Piecefully, Joanne

Happy Stars pattern release expected soon

Alyce over at Blossom Heart Quilts (www.blossomheartquilts.com) is getting back on the design wagon. I had the opportunity to test this lovely "mini" for her. It is a paper pieced and makes up as a 24" block. She has blogged about her design inspiration today and is expecting to release her pattern soon. I decided to go wild and crazy with my little test, or should I say wild and Happy! I had a big piece of background fabric that had splashes of colour and I pulled colours from that for my bands. Just need to remove the paper and get this one quilted.
I taught another beginner quilting class today. Summer people are arriving in our community and wanting workshops on weekends when they will be at their cottages. Our daughter has lined us up for babysitting every other week this summer so I am already feeling like the Summer of 2015 is going to disappear before it is even here.
Piecefully, Joanne

My tiny (and perhaps virtual) contribution to Spring Market

I tested these two patterns that will make their debut at Quilt Market. The top picture is called Strip Plus and is a table runner from Gundrun Erla's new Stripology2 book. I believe she will also be debuting this pattern in a regular size. Regular meaning using 2 1/2" strips rather than the 1 1/2" strips that her Stripology patterns use. It was a fun little pattern to do. Each of the 6 patterns in the book is presented in 3 different sizes. A mini quilt, a table runner and a baby quilt. The mini's would make cute little doll quilts if there is a little doll lover in your family.
The bigger quilt is called Charlotte's Lace. The pattern was designed by Raija from Quilters' Treasure Chest. She uses a lot of the Deb Tucker rulers in her designs. Her design will be featured in fabric from Timeless Treasures in their booth. It is a complex pattern but the result is worth it.
It is so nice to be able to talk about a test before it becomes a distant memory. I gifted the larger quilt to my sister in law who now shares a birthday with the new Princess Charlotte. The quilt had the name before the new princess arrived. But timely choice of name.
The testing for Quiltmaker's 100 blocks Volume 12 has started so I am back to work on that one. Piecefully, Joanne

I am a guest blogger today

Be sure to visit Sarah's Blog (here)  for my guest post for the Hands to Help Quilt Challenge. I talked about my favourite "go to" quilt block for charity quilts. Piecefully, Joanne

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 11 coming out very soon

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Blog Hop is happening this week. Visit their blog at http://www.quiltmaker.com/blogs/quiltypleasures/ to see who you can visit. This block was one of my favourites from the testing I was assigned. It is called Bicycle Path but when I looked at it I saw tumbling blocks. Testing has started for Volume 12. I can tell you in all certainty that there are still hundreds of talented designers out there. This magazine series has only highlighted a few.  Piecefully, Joanne

Finally something gets finished

This wee little quilt was a paper piecing test for Janeen at Quilt Art Designs (here). I finished it up with a couple of borders and it is now a good enough size for a small Project Linus donation. I was disappointed in my central yellow star because it rather disappears so I stitched around it with a dark orange and it shows up a little more. The border was a scrap piece donated to the Scrap Bag Quilters that I thought was perfect...oranges, limes and lemons.
The daughter of one of the Kincardine Sunset Quilters is quite technically talented and she made labels for us to use on our donation quilts. All we have to do is add the year.
My two other finishes this week will have to wait. One is a pattern that will debut in the Timeless Treasures booth at the spring Quilt Market and the other project will debut as part of the Stripology2 book that is coming out at Spring Market. I merely tested the patterns for the designers. Piecefully, Joanne
Edited to Link up with Cynthia at Oh Scrap!http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.ca/
Edited again to link up with Janeen at Quilt Art Designs http://quiltartdesigns.blogspot.ca/