DRAWING #2

It always amazes me how some people can post on a blog every day or every other day. I was never very good at small talk and I feel like this is a place to put small talk. I'm not one to be on the phone every day, even though I think about my friends often. I call them when I have something specific to say or to catch up after not hearing from them for a while. I only like to write about something that imparts information to the reader.

My husband is just the opposite. He has a gift for gab. He is usually on the phone 3 or 4 (sometimes more) times a day with friends or family talking about politics or listening to their problems. He is a very good listener on the phone (but I don't always think he listens to me) and always has his opinion about things when people ask (and sometimes when they don't). He speaks his mind and always gives an honest answer whether or not they want to hear the truth. I always wished I could be like that. He is always telling me I should speak up for myself or people will walk all over me. I have gotten better as I get older. Especially when I was working in Special Education when I was in the head of a team of educators, who determined the future of a child's education. If I didn't stand up for my opinion, the team would not have respected my decision. I had to be confident that I knew what I was talking about so that others believed me too.

I was a shy child. The youngest of 3 children. My sister was the talker (and still is). She could tell you every little detail of things no matter how insignificant. If you had asked me in my younger days, whether I thought I would be speaking in front of large groups, I would have told you "no way". I have been back to groups, that I spoke to when I first started lecturing, and they tell me I have really come a long way from where I started. I still think I have a way to go to be the kind of speaker I want to be. I never thought when I first started quilting that I would be doing what I do today.

Okay, enough about me. Now down to business. I'll let you know more about me in future posts!

Patti Oakley was very excited about receiving her prize! (Well who wouldn't be excited about winning a prize.) Today's bundle is a little different than the one I showed yesterday. This P&B collection is called Bella Suedes. It has a variety of prints and read as tone-on-tones. If you don't know what that means; the colors in the fabric are very close together (different tones or shades of the same color). The bottom fabric looks blue in this photo but is actually grey with a black design.

I decided that if you wanted to use them in a quilt you would need a little more variety in the colors. I was playing with some of my patterns to see what the fabrics would look like in them. Many times we depend on a fabric pattern to help "sell" the look of the quilt. Designing with solids (or almost solids like batiks and tone-on-tones) is more of a challenge. When I work with those kind of fabrics, I have to make a quilt that lets the design of the block show off the fabrics instead of the other way around. I used my Mosaic Magic pattern. It was my very first published pattern and was picked up by Quiltwoman.com and can be found here: Mosaic Magic Pattern. It was originally published in McCall's Quilting magazine. The pattern has instructions for many different sizes from a wall to a king.

It has been my best selling pattern for at least 10 years! It can be used in so many ways.

It has a very simple block in it.

 

Here is what I came up with in two slightly different color settings.

                    

The fun thing about this block is that you can rotate it to create a myriad of designs.

Isn't that fun!!! The possibilities are endless. In my next blog after I pick a winner of the bundle along with my pattern, I will show you how to use my Cutting Corners template set to make the Flying Geese and half-square triangles in the block with very little fuss.

If you would like to be in the drawing for this, please leave a comment on the bottom of this post (click on comment) and tell me how you would use these fabrics or pattern. Please feel free to forward this blog to your quilting friends so they can participate too. Each drawing starts with a new group of participants, so the previous comments will not count towards this drawing.

Thank you for reading. And as always, do what you love and love what you do. Toby