New kit this week

Okay I got a little wild this week. My new kit vivid living will be released Wed. 15% off to newletter subscribers.

Daisies & Lattice

 This quilt seems to be on every one's mind lately.

I've had a lot of e-mails after posting a picture of it in my studio, asking about it so I'll answer the questions here.

The quilt is named "Daisies & Lattice"

It is approx 80"x80"

Kathleen & I designed it a couple of years ago and we are hoping to have the pattern available soon.

A few fun facts.

The quilt won a blue ribbon here.

It also won viewers choice here and best of division here.

I am still really proud of this quilt, this was the first quilt that Kathleen and I designed and we really had no idea what we were doing. The applique is all turned under and all of the fling geese are 3 dimensional. 

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~Natalia
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The Joy of Simple Squares

First off, yes, it is May, and yes, those are Halloween squares. Again. ;-) This is the start of my daughter's Halloween quilt. I really just wanted to try a nice plain straight ahead patchwork square layout, so this is it. Those are 4.5 inch squares. It is a toddler-bed sized quilt.

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It will be my second quilt that I machine quilt myself. I am planning straight lines just off to the side of each seam. I may try glow-in-the-dark thread which I think would be really cool for a Halloween quilt, but part of me is saying, why would you want your amateur quilting attempt and crooked mistakes to glow? Wouldn't it be better if they just blended in? So it may be orange thread instead, we'll see.

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In the picture the squares are only sewn together in one direction. I'll try hard to make it line up nicely when it all goes together.

My studio!

Imagine the shock on my face this morning when Kathleen called me and said you may want to come check out the studio, we've made some changes. I have been patiently waiting to make changes but I was absolutely ecstatic that some kind fairies had done it for me!

I should have taken before pictures, it was in need of help.

Here are a few afters that I took this morning.

I love this one above! I actually have something cute on the wall above my conventional machine.

 I didn't post any pics of my long arm because it has a "secret" quilt on it right now and I can't spoil that! :)

Thank you again little fairies! I can't wait to go to work on Tuesday!

Hope you're having a nice weekend!

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~Natalia
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Coming Soon to a Planet Near You ...

... or Coming Eventually is more like it. But I do have a plan now. This drawing is about as detailed as anything gets for me before I start the cutting and piecing. And since I know it's not abundantly clear from my artwork ;-) it's a robot. It my outline for The Robot Quilt listed under the Planned Quilts 2010 in the blog sidebar.

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I think the quilt will be a lot of fun once I get started on it. I have a few fabrics picked out that I'll probably use. The problem is that I have more ideas than I do appropriate fabrics -- especially when it comes to wanting just a little snip of fabric to fussy cut. I have a few more pieces ordered. And I also have some others in my stash not shown here.

But to begin with, here are some of the metal fabrics to build the basic robot body.

Some geometric, space-age type stuff for who knows what.

Possibilities for the sky/atmosphere on another fantastical planet.
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I'm looking forward to getting started.

Home of the Brave Quilt Project

Memorial Day 2010

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave... while the land of the free is the home of the brave.    ~ from the national anthem of the United States of America, The Star-Spangled Banner, 5th stanza,  Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Throughout its history, the United States has remembered its military heroes in many ways, with plaques, parades, statues and memorials. The Home of the Brave Quilt Project was started to continue that proud tradition. We are a nationwide movement dedicated to honoring the fallen heroes of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq by making and presenting homemade quilts to their families. We want to show our gratitude for their service and provide a measure of comfort to their families with our quilts."

 The quilt is modeled on a Civil War Sanitary Commission Quilt, one of the five remaining quilts of its kind still in existence, which is now held by the Lincoln Memorial Shrine at the A. K. Smiley Library in Redlands, California. 

Above, we're showing three of the beautiful quilts made by Jean Loken, who is the Coordinator of the Minnesota Chapter of the Home of the Brave.  For information on the heroes who received the quilts, visit the Minnesota Fallen Heroes web pages.  To contribute to the project with a donation of money, material or time, visit the national project's home page.   Jean says that the project also relies on the occasional request from the families of our fallen to ask for a quilt: "Not all deaths of our service members occur on the battlefield, and when they don't, we often aren't aware of that."   To find a coordinator for your state, see the list of State Coordinators.

Credits and links:  The images are shown with the generous permission of Jean Loken.

Pissah fo' now, and points too!

I never, ever jam. Ever. We hates it, precious.

Lately I've been trying to get over my hatred of that role so I can be a better blocker. Last night I jammed twice during a scrimmage and I even got lead. I scored ten points, too! I'm almost indecently excited about that. The high point: taking the outside corner despite my better judgement, doing it completely on one foot that was juuuust inside the line, and through some miracle actually making it through the pack. Epic.

In general, I just had an all around good time. I went to skate with my favorite league, NHRD, at their regular practice. I was going to head out before the scrimmage started because they were playing the Pissahs, who we're bouting in a few weeks. I figured the Pissahs would want their team practice to be free of soon-to-be opponents, but they were playing short and invited me to join them. I don't see many Pissahs off the track, and it felt good to skate with old friends instead of against them.

Normally we scrimmage in our teams, and of course we practice and bout as teams. I often miss our once-a-week league practice, so I've watched my connection with anyone who isn't a Nut weaken over time. That makes me sad. My skater sisters are all on other teams, I miss skating with people who joined the league when I did, and I miss all of the freshies I "mama'ed."

Working closely with my team has made been good for our playing, and I love that. Still, it makes it hard to see outside of that little bubble sometimes. It's too easy to forget that we're all one league.

The final day and some frolic!

May 28th at midnight the huge 35% blow out sale will end!

Stock up wile the sale lasts.

Today I quilted these two Frolic quilts.

I think they are darling, maybe because I love Frolic.

 Hope you enjoy the pictures! 

Have a happy holiday weekend!

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~Natalia
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See you in Sydney

What's this photo got to do with Sydney? It's actually Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island off the Queensland coast, and the tot on the left is our daughter who is now nearly 30. (You can hear "Thanks, Mum!" in the background).

It's the photo Kathy used for her quilt which is to be exhibited at at Sydney Craft and Quilt Show, Sydney Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour Wednesday 16 to Sunday 20 June.

The Kool Kats will also be at Stand 27 Row I. Kathy is taking a daily class on making quick quilts using Bali fabric pre-cuts at 2.30pm at Workshop 3. Class participants will receive special offers from the KoolKat stand. We'll have other great specials at our stand. Hope to see you there!

Getting closer to the Weekend!!!!!!

Hello! Quilting Friends!!!
Here it is Thursday, and I have many things I have been doing. One working on my quilting Applique blocks. Gosh, that feels great to do this again. Computer seems to be working okay too.
Three times now, it crashed on me. Lost many things…yet was able to keep a lot too. It is a lot of hard long hours putting the computer back to where it was before going down.
Have also…. been looking forward to this weekend. A cookout down at my parent’s home. My mom finally is walking again, after breaking her leg in three places. She is very lucky… and she is thrilled to be able to fuss in her home again.
Sunday, very early Denny my hubby is going out on his first charter as a Captain. He is so excited! Due to all of our hard times,…we had to wait until it got better for us. He has an 8-hour trip planned. He is so silly these days getting ready for this trip. It makes me laugh.
Well I am off to make something for supper... and get back to my blocks…after I fold clothes from the dryer. Prayers are with many who are having difficult times. Especially a little boy Zach… who is so ill right now. To Barb, her daughter… and her family.

Everyone have a great day and evening….

Hugs Morgan

For my star lovers!

I know that there are a few of you that love stars.

So here is another Buggy Barn Star quilt that I quilted today.

Hope you enjoy!

Have you made a Buggy Barn quilt yet?

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~Natalia
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