Very Productive Labor Day

Bruce worked on Monday, so I spent the whole day in my newly furnished studio, where I made:

• A Turning 20 quilt top using my rather small stash of Kaffe Fasset fabrics
• 16 blocks of Bruce's new quilt
• 2 Amy Butler bags and started a third.

It all started with Margaret Hunt's blog. She's been whipping out Turning 20 quilts and using up her stash. It wasn't until she posted a picture of her Kaffe Fasset version that I got inspired. But where to get the pattern? Well, turns out as the Thursday Lunch Bunch (my fabulous "Crazy Eight" friends who meet for lunch every week at the mall's food court, then visit Sew Special) ventured into Sew Special what was in the window? A quilt using the very same pattern but taking advantage of Asian prints. The challenge was on!

I sent out an email to my friends challening them to complete a top before tonight's guild meeting. I was half-heartedly kidding, but the competitive person in me decided to whip one up. I think I made this top in about 4 hours!

Two things to remember when making this quilt: Rule #1: buy half yards instead of fat quarters, that way you'll have some left over for another project (I don't know if I could have sacrificed these gorgeous prints otherwise); Rule #2, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS TWICE BEFORE YOU CUT. The printed cutting guideline on the pattern isn't very clear: their fat quarter looks more like a square than a rectangle. If you cut the wrong side (as I did with a stack of 8 fats!), you've goofed up the whole thing. Another reason to follow my rule #1 above.

Then, I was off and running on the Amy Butler bags while I was washing the batik flannels for Bruce's quilt. I don't have a picture of the bags yet, but I'll post one soon.

Here is the start of Bruce's new quilt:










Pretty strips and 16 log cabin blocks. Only 40 more to go. I debated and debated over which layout to use and Bruce said he preferred random. I like it!