I've Made an Executive Decision . . . .

Remember this quilt, . . . . I started this quilt in December but refused to finish it because it wasn't my 100th quilt.

Between all the things that we all do to get ready for Christmas, whenever I could squeeze in the time I happily made ornament blocks in my sewing room.

The pattern I  used is "vintage holiday" by Camille Roskelley for thimble blossoms.

(link to Camille's store)

As I sometimes do, I changed Camille's pattern just a tad, I made my blocks smaller, made more blocks, and "hung" them from the sashing.

After days of feeling frustrated with where my other 100th quilt project was going, I decided to put a border on this quilt. After sewing the sides of the border to my top, I decided I didn't like that fabric, I think the print is too small for the center.  

(whew, is that ugly or what!)

So here's another fabric from the line, Roman Holiday,  it is a bigger print and looks nice I think.  The problem was that I only had two strips of this fabric and couldn't find anymore.  After looking at this on my design wall for a day or two, I decided the print was a nice size but still a distraction.

So I cut the border in half and got this, just the perfect little border to finish off this quilt.

This is Lifetime Quilt Number 100!

Boy does it feel good to say that.  After spending months and months of collecting blocks, drawing blocks, and trying to come up with a pattern to exceed all the unrealistic expectations I had created in my head, and making my sewing life stressful and myself miserable, it dawned on me that this Christmas Quilt was me and what I do, and the perfect quilt to be my 100th quilt.  This quilt has red, I changed the pattern to suit myself, and I love it, what more could I ask for from a quilt.

This quilt finished at 48" x 55".

The pattern is "vintage holiday" by Camille Rosekelley for thimble blossoms.

The fabric is Roman Holiday by 3 Sisters for Moda

It has approximately 418 pieces.

After spending (wasting) so much time on the perfect pattern for quilt 100 I'm at a loss as to what start next.  I usually have my next 6 quilt projects lined up, but I'm guessing now that this quilt is done everything will fall into place.

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Swoon Block

So what do these blocks make?

A Swoon Block!  

Which several of you correctly guessed.  Technically this block is a Star of Bethlehem, Bethlehem Star, Jewels in a Frame or Star of Magi block.  Camille's pattern is Swoon, but never in the pattern does she refer to the block by name, or call it a Swoon block.  Oh well, it will always be a Swoon block to me.

A Swoon block is very close to a Carpenters Star block, if the colored rectangles in the Swoon block were geese, you would have a Carpenters Star.  Several folks guess that.

So this is what I did with those pieces, I made this center, it's 28 inches square.

It doesn't exactly look like I thought it would, I'm hoping it all comes together with the next row of blocks, which should be more Swoon-like.

The winner of the pattern of her choice is Heather, and she chose the Thimbleblossom pattern "On a Whim".    Thanks to all for guessing and for the congratulations and wonderful anniversary stories.

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I'm Back at Home and Back at It . . .

I think I've come up with a plan for my 100th quilt. I've known ever since this quilt was on my radar that I wanted to create my own pattern for my 100th quilt.  Most of the ideas I played around with were for a medallion quilt using different blocks surrounding some sort of center.  I'm still going with my medallion quilt idea but I've decided to go with a one block quilt.  I think out of my first 99 quilts I have less than 10 one block quilts. I usually get bored half way through a one block quilt, but I have a few ideas that will make this one block quilt a little different and fun, I hope.

Here are the pieces for that one bock, and these are the pieces for my center.

I'm feeling pretty good about my latest idea because I have a plan, if I don't like this quilt I won't finish it, then it won't be my 100th quilt!  Let's hope I do like my latest idea and that I don't drag out this 100th quilt thing all year long.

Several folks ask me how I knew how much fabric to buy for my project since I didn't even have a pattern.  I'm starting with a fat quarter bundle and a layer cake of two French General families, Rouenneries Deux and Chateau Rouge and I know my quilt is going to be scrappy.  But if I need any additional fabric I feel confident that I can track some down or even use something from a new French General line, they all seem to go together.  I think you could do this with other families of fabric too, like Fig Tree fabric and Bonnie and Camille's fabric.

My background fabric is from the Rouenneries Deux by French General for Moda family.  The front of the fabric is just a shade darker than the back of the fabric.

The strip of fabric on the right is the back of the fabric.  So far I've sewed three pieces using the wrong side of the fabric.  (yes I fixed them, do you need to even ask?)

When the sun is shining brightly, the difference between the front and the back is obvious, but if it's a gray day, like most days in January where I live are, it's easy to get it wrong.  After resewing my third piece I made this little "cheat sheet".

I have these two pieces of fabric laying right next to my sewing machine under my Ott light.  Before I run any pieces through my sewing machine I'm checking the background fabric against these.  To make it even more mindless I even marked them, "F" for front, "B" for back!  I've not had to resew any pieces since I came up with this method.

I'm a little behind on my email and blogs, my husband and I took a trip last week to celebrate our 36th wedding anniversary.  I have no idea what I was thinking getting married the first of January, after all the holidays the last thing I'm usually wanting to do is plan another holiday, but the change of pace and weather were nice, I'm glad we celebrated but happy to be home.  My Christmas decorations are down, but not packed or put up, oh well.

I thought it would be fun to see if you could guess the one block I'm using for my 100th quilt.  Leave a comment with your best guess and I'll put all the correct guesses in a drawing for a pattern of your choice from the Fat Quarter Shop. The block goes by different names and I'll accept them all.  If the Fat Quarter Shop will ship to your address you're eligible to enter.  I"ll give you all week to think about it.

It feels so good to have nothing on my radar but sewing, the holidays are great, but there's something to be said for weeks calm and quiet, I plan to make the most of mine.

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Progress????

"A goal without a plan is just a wish"

 by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I've made a fabric decision for my 100th quilt, I think.

 Chateau Rouge and Rouenneries Deux by French General for Moda have the look and feel I'm hoping to go for.   I think that yellow/maze color in Chateau Rouge will be a nice change of pace and give me a little different look from the red and gray quilts I've made in the past, I hope.

" ~Wisdom is knowing what to do next

      ~Skill is knowing how to do it

         ~Virtue is doing it"

by David Starr Jordan

Here's hoping I'm very virtuous this week!

and finally,

"You create your own suffering", do I ever.

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