I'm Learning Greek

Maple Star block on the right

Federal Square block on the top

This month's feature fabric is the red, best seen in the Maple Star block and small, outer squares of the Federal Square block.

Blocks 5 and 6 of the BOMs I making as part of the Ladies Friendship group at Ye Olde Schoolhouse. I just love the fabric I used as the main squares of the Federal Square block even though it wasn't the feature fabric of the month.

Jeannie promised that these 2 blocks would be easier than the last 4 blocks from hell - and she was right - or else I am slowly learning to read ancient Greek quilt patterns! I finished one an evening. I still can't figure out where she is getting the patterns from, but that's OK.

I laid out the 6 blocks I have completed thus far. Ha! Mine should be a very interesting quilt! No rhyme or reason to it. Maybe when I get the next 18 blocks completed it will all come together. In the mean time, this month it was fun to do. Let's hope November's blocks are as easy as these two!

China Dishes

Look at little Gracie peeking out from beneath the quilt. Lucy was behind it with me! Wait! on closer inspection (double click on picture) it is Lucy Lou's head (and tail) peeking out. Silly dogs.

My china dishes quilt is completed and what an ordeal! First let me say that I do love this little quilt. The colors are fabulous. And, anyone who know me would say this is the perfect quilt for me - all the beautiful blue and white fabrics.

But, while I completely enjoyed making this quilt, I screwed up royally! Look carefully at the edge "plates" on the completed quilt. Then look carefully at the edge "plates" on the pictures below.

Notice the "plates" reversed. Yup, all 8 edge plates were sewn backwards. I didn't notice this until I took it off my dining room table and draped it over the couch so I could admire it while I made a phone call to my sister, Suzanne. Yup, I had one small border on all 4 sides and a larger border on 3 sides that had to be removed before I could reverse the plates. Rip, rip, rip, rip, rip. Actually, I surprised myself. I didn't yell or scream in frustration. Amazing - no curse words either. I actually laughed about it. I just put the quilt aside for a number of days and then tackled the job of fixing the "plate" position. And, it went very quickly.

I need a design wall!

The pieced 3rd border is another story and give me trouble and didn't come out well at all. By this time however, I was "over it" and just wanted the darn quilt done. Ahhh - the galloping horse method of quilting.

The backing is washed and and waiting to be ironed, trimmed, squared sewn together and then it is off to Mary to be quilted. Should be done tonight.

Changes are A-Coming

For many months now I have started to feel a shift coming in my life. I've basically been hibernating for well over a year. I realized I have cut myself off from friends and have stayed focused on being at home, my dogs, my relationship and quilting. While I probably needed to do this for many reasons, it is time to dig deep, think about what I truly want, what is good for me and to start the crawl out of my cave. Now that I will be retiring in 10 months, this is even more true and important. My sister, Suzanne, who retired 10 years ago, has aways said that when you retire you need to almost reinvent yourself because your life changes so much. And, it is time I regroup, hang on, let go and take stock in my life. I have let important things slip. My spirituality has suffered. I've put on over 25 pounds. I've lost touch with friends.

Yet, wonderful things are going on, too. Fun things I enjoy and look forward to. I recognize that I have a lot of blessing in my life and am very grateful. I don't feel terribly depressed or in angst, but rather adrift and in need of grounding.

The other day I took the long way home from work. I drove along Lake Michigan. It was another rainy, dreary day. The lake was all different shades of gray and white. The waves, while it was not terribly windy outside, were huge. I was mesmerized. If I hadn't had to get home to let the dogs out I would have pulled into one of the lakefront parking lots and sat there for a while. Maybe because I felt like those waves. Gray, turbulent, pounding on the surf only to be pulled out and pound again. Maybe because I realized that the lake will once again be sparkling blue and calm. And, so will I. This is part of the ebb and flow of nature, on which I based my deepest spirituality on.

Over the course of the next few weeks I will be journaling, blog style, trying to figure things out for myself. Some of you readers have known me a long time. Some only through out quilting interests and for a few months. I would appreciate all of your input while I go through this process.

Life is a journey. I just need to figure out which path to take at this particular time.

Pumpkin Quest

Last Saturday my niece Pam and I took her daughter Shannon to the Elegant Farmer, which is located between Mukwonago & East Troy, Wisconsin. Basically, it is a large store known for its apple pies baked in paper bags. They are the best apple pies in the world! And, they have canned goods (I mean really canned goods), honeys, great deli stuff and wonderful pot pies. But, I digress.

The Elegant Farmer offers all types of family activities this time of the year, so it was very crowded. In fact, my gal pal, Terri, was there with her daughter and grandkids at basically the same time we were and we never saw them. You can take a tractor ride to pick your own pumpkins, kids can go on pony rides, make your own taffy apples, eat great food and shop. There are also trolley rides on an old time trolley. It was a fun experience to share with an almost 3 year old.

I love going there because I always purchase Sticky Fingers scone mixes. They make up into wonderful scones. They also have great canned cherries for pie filling. Ahh - there I go talking about food again.

Anyway, despite it being a cold and damp day, we had fun. Shannon got a pony ride, a ride on a wooden horse, she made her own taffy apple, we ate cherry brats and, of course, we bought pumpkins.

I had Shannon about an hour alone at my house. She fell asleep on my couch holding her Curious George stuffed toy and underneath my sampler quilt. Gracie curled up next to her. I forgot to snap a picture. It was adorable.

Look Familiar?

I made this lap quilt for my nephew, Patrick's, family. Pictured are Pam, Aaron, Patrick, and little Shannon. If the quilt looks familiar it is the same pattern I gave to my Aunt Virginia last month while I was in Colorado. The only difference is the backing material. This quilt was part of the mystery quilt group I participated in earlier this year. At first I thought I would make one large queen sized quilt, but then decided to make 2 lap size quilts and give them away. I had the recipients in mind already. I hope both Aunt Virginia and Patrick's family take a lot of good naps under these quilts!

And, just to show off sweet little Shannon, here she is with the holiday dress her Aunt Suzanne and I bought her. We have started a tradition of purchasing her holiday dress every year. She got it a little early this year. Truthfully, I was afraid I'd forget to give it to her as we bought it a year ago!

We tried to get Shannon to pretend she was sleeping, but she wasn't going to "nap" pretend or not! Here's the Halloween pillowcase I made for her.

Blue and White Forever!

Blue Danube plate with Broken Dishes fabrics. Yum!

I have always loved the mixture of blue and white, especially on fabric and dishes. My eye automatically is drawn to blue and white and I like a little yellow mixed in. Ever since I was a little girl, with the exception of a few years, I have had a blue and white bedroom. It's funny how certain things like this can call to you your whole life. Same thing regarding artwork with flowers and birds. If you look at the artwork in my house or little decorations, it is mostly flowers and birds.

Kitchen corner cabinet with display of my china. Close up of a vase

























When I was 17 I started collecting Blue Danube china. For over 40 years I considered it my "good china." When my parents moved into a independent living facility years ago, Mom gave me her good china. It is dainty and elegant and I love using it. My poor blue and white dishes were backed in boxes for years. Just over 4 years ago I had my kitchen completely remodeled, down to the wall studs. I picked out white cabinets with tons of glass doors, grayish blue Corian counter tops and yellow walls with splashes of red in artwork. I decided life is too short to keep things for "good" and never use them, so I donated my old CorningWare dishes to Goodwill and brought out my beloved Blue Danube china, which I still am collecting.


Antique creamer & sugar bowl & Blue Danube Irish coffee set





Last December my sister, Suzanne, and I went up to Dalongah, GA to check out a quilt store. I found a little quilt kit entitled "China Dishes." It has all blue and white fabric. I love it. Now, I am finally getting around to piecing it. I think the fabrics are beautiful and am having fun working on it. Once all of the "dishes" are made, I will have to arrange them before sewing them together. I'm excited about doing that process. All these pretty blue and white fabrics.

I am very careful when I shop for fabric, though. I really try to pick out other colors, such as in my Friendship Star quilt. Otherwise, they would all be various shades of blue or purple with white, yellow and red. Same thing with decorating my home. Not a bad thing, but maybe a little too much of a good thing!

My Little Room

My sewing room is finally coming together and I just love it. Phil helped me hang a few things on the walls, which really warms up the room.

This iris wall hanging is nothing but a panel kit. I just put on the batting and backing and sewed all along the lines of the pre-printed quilting pattern, added the binding and it was done. I love the way it turned out. I added the 2 little dragon fly buttons, which I think finish it off perfectly.

My little lady is properly hung and not tacked to the book shelf.

This little sampler I bought at a grocery store in Coloma, MI about a year ago for under $5!! It pretty much sums up my spiritually in the simplest words.

I wish I had more room so that I no longer had to spread out on my dining room table, but it is just a few steps away. This is working out great!

Tea Time Month Three

Here's the 3rd installment of the Tea Time block of the month. Again, I am not thrilled with the colors. It seems like there needs to be a "pop" of color and I don't think it is going to arrive. However, I am happy with the pattern.

Three more months to go and it will be finished. I am starting to get excited to see how it all turns out.

IT'S DONE! IT'S DONE!

Last fall, when I was taking my very first quilting class, I saw this 1840s reproduction fabric at Ye Olde Schoolhouse. After looking at it for several weeks, I decided to buy it and make a Friendship Star quilt. Since I really was a newbie and only had directions for one 12" block, Jeannie helped me figure out how much material I would need.

I finally started cutting the material last spring. I felt like I was cutting and sewing half square triangles forever. I cut and cut and cut. Then I sewed and sewed and sewed. Finally I was ready to piece all 72 squares.

I pieced in rows, eight across and nine down. I sewed the first row and stopped. Then I made enough blocks for 4 more rows and sewed them together. Four more rows to go or 36 more blocks. Then I stopped.

I finally gave myself a deadline of October 1st to finish. And, I made my deadline with 4 hours to spare!

It's not that I don't like this quilt, I really do. I love the nose gay fabric and the red stars. I think my problem was that I had/have too many other quilts going on. Lately I have been enjoying the fast gratification of adding borders to panels and having them quilted. They are fast to sew and fast to bind.

I have a lot of things I want to get done this month. One is to start a Broken Dishes wall hanging quilt. It is a kit I bought last December in Georgia. It is next in my ever increasing line of quilting projects. After that it is a lap quilt. So, it will probably be well after the holidays before I start another queen size quilt. By that time this Friendship Star quilt should be back from being quilted by Meandering Mary.

I like having several things going on at one time - in different stages, but too many can be overwhelming, which is what happened with the start and stop process of this quilt. Plus, it was the same pattern, block after block. I am starting to enjoy a little more challenge in my quilts. It's done now and I am happy!

Class of Color

Last night I took a class on color at The Patched Works. Color 101. It was presented by Amy of Blue Underground. She and her partners design quilt patterns. She was an excellent teacher and fun, too.

I needed this class. Sometimes I find a fabric and am then at a loss. Or, I think I find what I like and by the time I purchase all of the fabric, with the help of the quilt ladies, end up with something different and much, much better. They are much better at seeing which color/fabric goes or adds to other colors/fabrics. Of course, that's their jobs, but I can be very intimidated by this process.

Amy gave a lot of suggestions on how to look at color that I was impressed with. Now, I do see color in nature. I love looking at trees and seeing the hundred different shades of green or looking at a lake and seeing all the different shades of blue. Out in nature I can see all different shades, patterns and textures that work together. Color is a wonderful thing I think most of us take for granted. I believe I am good at "seeing" color. It is just picking it out in fabric that can drive me bonkers.

One suggestion Amy made that I am going to try is to sit down with a picture (of a drawing, advertisement, piece of art) and a color wheel and place a dot on the color wheel for each color I see. Amy had several examples and they were really impressive. I can see where this exercise would be very helpful in learning about shades and hues.

Amy also brought along tons of quilts to use as examples for her collection. That was interesting and fun. Those quilts were gorgeous. There were a quite a few I would have liked to tuck in my purse and taken home! LOL And, there were some I didn't care for. But, each example showed different techniques of color usage. Amy stress that it is OK to mix fabrics, too, which I am slowing learning on my own.

It was a fun evening. There were a lot of nice ladies in the class - many of them "newbie" quilters like me.

Learning more about color is something I would like to explore more now that I've taken Amy's class. That says a lot about the teacher! Thanks, Amy! And, thanks to The Patched Works for offering the class!

Fall

I really like fall. I think I enjoy this season even more than spring, but not as much as summer.

Here's some of the things I love about fall:

Apple cider, crisp apples, candy corn (Yikes! all food so far!), watching the squirrels gather food, cleaning up the garden, the sound of the leaves in the trees, watching the leaves change color, the changing colors of the birds such as the gold finches, hearing the geese flying overhead and watching their formation, smelling burring leaves, harvest, good sleeping weather, wanting to bake pies, perfect fall days with a slight crisp to the air and blue, blue skies, sleeping under more blankets, knowing that while the plants are straggly they are just getting ready for a long sleep, kids are in school, Halloween and everything related to it - all this and so much more.

What I don't like about fall? I live in Wisconsin. Winter is close behind!

Unknown Quilt (aka Quilt from Hell Project)

Blocks 1 and 2 - Homespun Block (top) and Georgetown Circle (the easy one bottom). Fat quarter was the brown fabric.


Jeannie, of Ye Olde Schoolhouse, gave us blocks 3 and 4 of the quilt we are making this year. To recap a previous post, she gives us one fat quarter a month and two block patterns. The only requirement is to make the blocks and use the fat quarter fabric in each block.


She also said that each month one block would be "easy" and one "more difficult." If you remember from a previous post, the directions are almost nonexistent.



Close up of the Homespun block, which, despite some real difficulty for me, I just love.


This month the "easy" block I did put together in a few hours. The "difficult" block took me at least 12 hours. I'm not kidding. Seriously, there are no instructions - just pictures to go by. Jeannie did give us a couple of key measurements such as the flying geese should be 2" x 3 1/2" but that is the extent of it.

Blocks 3 and 4 - Arrow Crown) (top) and Old Favorite (the easy one on the bottom) Fat quarter was the center square in each block





Arrow Crown block must have been designed by a very wicked quilter!

I am finding this very difficult, frustrating and hair pulling! However, I am learning about color placement and how to dissect a quilt block. So, while I may be bald by the time this quilt is finished I will have learned a lot!

I am also using more color and fabric in the difficult blocks and trying to make the easy blocks very simple (3 fabrics only thus far). Maybe I am making more work for myself, but I like the look.



Four blocks down, 20 more to go - if I survive.

Colorado Trip

Cousin Peg, Aunt Virginia, Cousin Ellen, Me, Sister Suzanne

We had a great time visiting my Aunt Virgina over the Labor Day holiday. She seemed to really like the quilt I made her and we had fun posing for the picture.

I always forgot how wonderful it is in Colorado. I love watching the mountains. We tried for a picnic at Echo Lake, but got rained on. However, we did enjoy the beauty of another area.

We made the short trip to Golden and toured the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum. The museum had moved a month before and are still raising funds to expand their exhibit area, but we really enjoyed the dozens of quilts they had on display. Fabulous quilts. We also went to 2 quilt stores while we were there and, of course, I bought fabric and a kit (thanks to my very "evil" sister and aunt! hehehe)

But the main thing was enjoying the company of my wonderful Aunt Virginia. Seeing Ellen again after many, many years was great. And, finally meeting Mary Kay and spending time with her and Peg was delightful

Check out Ellen's website. She is a first class mandolin and guitar player. Peg has a second career now as a writer of personal history.

And, the mountains. Ahhh, the mountains . . .

Go West, Young (?) Girls

I'm heading today to visit my Aunt Virginia in Little, CO. My sister, Suzanne, who lives in Atlanta will be meeting me at the Denver airport.


Aunt Virginia is my Mom's youngest sister and the last sibling of her family. She is 88 and a very remarkable woman. She loves her adopted state and loves going up to the mountains, participating on an annual camping and fly fishing trip every spring with 2 of her children. Up until a few years ago she still golfed (a passion of hers). She has traveled all over the world. Suzanne and I joke that we strive to be like our Aunt Virginia! (We are very serious though!) I adore hanging out with Aunt Virginia. She is smart, fun and a little sassy!


I'm looking forward to visiting with my cousins and their partners and hopefully, their children.


Now I don't mean sound like this will be the highlight of the trip, because it won't, but our plan is to go to Golden, CO and visit the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum. I squeal with delight every time I think of it. I have never been there before, but checked out the website. It looks fabulous.


I am sure we will get up to the mountains, also. For those of you who have ever spent time in the Colorado mountains, you will know what I mean when I say it is one of my very favorite places to be.
I have a surprise for Aunt Virginia, too. Pictures will be posted when I get back.

Hmmm, between my dear aunt, the mountains and the quilt museum, maybe I'll just stay there! Oops, forgot about my doggie girls. Guess I will return.

Tea Time Part 2

The 2 times I have received my block of the month material and pattern for this quilt, I have been disappointed in the colors of the fabric. I think, "Oh, they are so drab and and dull looking." And, each time after I finish piecing the block and get it all together I start to like it. While most of the fabric is something I would not choose, once together the quilt is turning into a very soft and pretty piece. I can't believe how vibrant the colors look in this picture! Click on it for a better look.

I enjoy BOMs. It takes a few hours to get the work done for the month and then I pack it away and forget about it for another month. However, I am starting a BOM called "Green Piece" in October. Again, I ordered it online through The Quilt Shoppe . This quilt will consist of 2 blocks to sew and 2 blocks of applique every month. While my Tea Time is a 6 month project, Green Piece will be sent out over the couse of 10 months.

Now, that will be challenging!

Office/Sewing Room

Please click on picture to really see how pretty this piece is.

I live in a house that is 121 years old. Over the years owners have remodeled and updated so that not much of the original character remains; however, the basic plan of the house is somewhat the same. It has relatively small rooms and hardly any closet space. It does have a cool built in china cabinet, wide woodwork, wood floors and cool stucco walls in 3 of the first floor rooms. I have a cool back hall pantry area and a great screened in porch. So, while it probably looks totally different from when it was built, it still has a funky character to it.

Off the dining room is a little 8' x 11' room with a cubby hole closet. Because of the little closet, it can be considered a 3rd bedroom. I have always used it as my "office." I have a beautiful antique piece that was suppose to be in my upstairs bedroom, but we could not maneuver it up the stairs on moving day 11 years ago. It is full of winter hats, gloves, mittens, purses, swimming suits, doggie coats and other miscellaneous junk.

Since I hope to retire next year and sell my house, I recently had my handyman come over and make a lot of repairs that needed to get done before I sell. I figure the repairs are now completed and it will be one less thing to worry about in spring when my house goes on the market.

He did some repair work on the ceiling in my office and changed the ceiling light fixture so that instead of being a pull chain it now can be turned on and off from a switch on the wall. What a concept!!!!

I also purchased a laptop so I would have more room on my desk. It is a huge desk and was my Dads. I decided to turn this room into a sewing room/office/storage place. Now-that is asking quite a lot of this little room, but it is working.

I removed all of my books from the bookcase and either gave them away packed them up. I kept only the bare essentials in my book land. I purchased decorative boxes to hold quilt patterns, blocks, kits and excess fabrics. I moved my sewing machine to the desk top and out of the kitchen. When I work on larger quilts, all I have to do is unplug the laptop and move it. I have just enough room to keep my ironing board up all of the time. No more ironing board in my kitchen! I still need my dining room table to lay out quilt blocks and for cutting, but that is only a couple of steps away. Now my kitchen will always be neat and tidy!

I tried to empty out or clean out the antique piece, but it is still full of stuff. I will make another attempt at emptying out 2 drawers and maybe 2 shelves inside.

My dining room is still full of fabric, cutting boards, rulers, a plastic storage drawer thingy full of fabric and other quilting related stuff, but I'm trying to keep it tidy. It really is an organized mess. No picture of that room!

I have some wall space available for quilted wall hangings in my new space. Once I get a rod, my little lady will be ready to hang on a wall and not tacked to the bookcase! I will soon start a large wall hanging for above the desk. (The room needs color.) The stained glass piece in the window, believe it or not, I just purchased on sale from Penney's. I love it as my Mom loved humming birds and there are books and a coffee mug incorporated into it - both things I love. So, I have a little of both my parents in the room.

Hopefully, when I retire I will have a bigger room for quilting and will not have to use other areas. Right now I am thrilled with this room!

Reading via Kindle

I love books.


One of my very first memories is being read to. I think it was my father reading to me, I really don't remember. But I do remember the book - The Poky Puppy, a Golden Book and the little puppy was fuzzy. I was probably hooked on reading from the first time I was ever read to.


From Golden books to Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, Little House on the Prairie, Caddie Woodlawn and all and everything in between. I loved to read. When I was little the Milwaukee Public Library system had a summer Billy Bookworm Club. Oh - I loved that and strived to read as much as I could each summer.


I truly believe that one of the best thing about America is that we have a free library system. We can walk into any library in any state, city or village, sit down and read to our hearts content. I rarely purchase a book unless I will use it for reference or it is one of my all time favorites like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.


And, the books. Thick, thin, large font or small. There is just something about holding a book, paging through it - even the smell of a new book at a bookstore makes me feel absolute delight. What adventures are within these pages? What laughter and/or tears? What will I learn? How will I feel when reading it? Will it stay with me long after I am finished?


My boyfriend also shares my love of reading. He reads every night before bed, lying on this tummy. It's kind of cute. He prefers non-fiction, historical books; however, we have shared books and it is fun to discuss them. Even if we are not reading the same books and don't plan to, we will talk with each other about what we are reading.


So, for my birthday he bought me a Kindle. A Kindle is an electronic book. It is about the size and weight of a paperback and you can download books from Amazon.com or other places. Most books cost to download, but it is cheaper than purchasing the actual book and there are lots of books you may download for free. You can page forward and backwards, download newspapers, blogs - all sorts of things. It has a back light so you can read in the dark and you can change the font types to your specifications. It's pretty cool.


I have to be honest and when he told me what he had bought me I was very disappointed. I have a rule: No presents that need to be plugged in unless requested and then think twice. He seems to have forgotten that as I got a GPS for Christmas. But, I digress. By the time I unwrapped it, I had checked out the website. I admit I was starting to get curious and excited. His logic was that I would be able to take it with me when traveling and I could download books from anywhere. He really was being thoughtful when he bought it for me.


I have completed my first book on Kindle. Luckily, it was a delightful little book that I really enjoyed - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, otherwise I may not have liked using the Kindle. And, I did enjoyed using it. It takes a litle while to get use to, but it worked out just fine. It will be great for traveling as it is easy to pack and carry. I like it and will use it a lot. It was a great gift.


However, for me, it cannot ever replace a real book. A Kindle will never, ever replace the joy of walking into a library or bookstore where I can walk up and down the rows of shelf after shelf of books, picking one up here and there, thumbing through pages and exploring what lays under the cover.



I hope years from now electronics don't replace all books and libraries. What a sad state our world will be in then.


P.S. - interesting observation. Notice I always say "use" a Kindle and "read" a book? Hmmm. . .

Underground Railroad Part 2

I got the first three blocks of the Underground Railroad completed.

It's fun as I don't feel any pressure to work on it so I can put it away for weeks at a time if I want. (But I won't!)

The first block to the left is Jacob's Ladder and the one next to it is Monkey's Wrench. In Eleanor Burn's book she calls Jacob's Ladder the Underground Railroad block. The Monkey's Wrench sure looks like a double Church Dash to me!


I was very nervous to attempt the Wagon Wheel. However, the instructions were very easy to follow and while it is not a perfect circle, I am very pleased with the way it turned out.

Only 12 more blocks to go!

Flowers

I love being surprised with flowers. I could have flowers in my house every day of the year. Because I have SAD I do buy myself budget bunches all winter during those long months and they help me make it through the long Wisconsin winter.

August 26th is a very special day for me. My boyfriend sent me these flowers with a very sweet and thoughtful card. The flowers are all yellow so I think it must be the "Sunshine Bouquet." Here in Wisconsin on the 26th it was cool, rainy and down right dreary. The flowers really brightened things up. I appreciated his thoughtfulness.

I kept them at work since I am there more than at home during the week. They filled my office with a wonderful scent. I brought them home on Friday. Oh, a big, bright balloon came with the flowers. How fun!

Thanks honey. For the flowers and remembering a very important day. You made it special!

Ancient Greeks Wrote Quilt Patterns?

I am happy to be part of the Friendship Ladies quilting group that meets once a month at Ye Olde Schoolhouse quilt store. As you may remember, we last worked on a Mystery Quilt and it was a lot of fun.

This go around the group, along with Jeannie, the store owner, decided to do 2 blocks a month. Each month Jeannie will give us 2 patterns and we will purchase one fat quarter that Jeannie picked out. We have to use the fabric in the fat quarter in each of the 2 blocks. The other fabrics in the blocks are our own choice. Each month it will be a new fat quarter fabric. This month we used beautiful fabric by Barbara Brackman for Moda (sorry I cut off the name of the fabric).

Sounds like fun, right? Well, I'm still a newbie quilter and these wonderful ladies have been quilting for many years. They can glance at a pattern and figure it out. Jeannie, God Bless her heart, handed me two patterns that I swear were designed by ancient Greek quilters. There are no instructions - just how much material to cut and a rather bad picture. Yikes! No measurements. No step-by-step instructions. No glossy colored pictures.

After seeing my blank and panicky look, Jeannie and Laurel (a wonderful lady who works for Jeannie) devised a diagram for the first block. Maybe they took Greek in high school, I don't know. On the second pattern they gave me some measurements.

Anyway, here are pictures of the patterns and here is one of my results. The brown fabric is the fabric that must be used in both blocks. I will admit I had fun going through my scraps. This block could have up to 5 fabrics, but I wanted it simple.

I know, I know, my center points are cut off. My grandmother use to say (and I have heard Jeannie say it too) "if you can't see it from a galloping horse it is just fine." (Well, that horse is going to have to be on the other side of the barn.) Do you that that might be ancient Greek philosophy? Hey - Maybe the patterns are hieroglyphics taken off an ancient Greek cave.

It's all Greek to me!

P.S. If any one know where these patterns came from, please advise! I promise not to tell Jeannie you squealed.