Design Wall Wednesday

Apparently all of the kinks are not out of the system.  The following should have shown up yesterday.  I'm not sure what happened, but there is NO WAY that it was operator error.  You believe me, don't you?

Here it is, the first of my Design Wall Wednesday posts. I'm hoping that you will be inspired, but I'm hoping even more that you will share with me what you have on your design wall - or floor - or table - or shoved in your tote bag. Comments are great, but photos are even better! If you aren't sure how to post a photo (I feel your pain), email it to me at karen@thequiltcompany.com.

While you are at it, if you have used any of my patterns to make a project, email me a photo of those too. I would love to post them on our shop Facebook page. Other Facebook friends LOVE seeing your version of the patterns - so share! Don't forget to friend The Quilt Company on Facebook while you are there. You will hear from me more often! Be proud of what you have done!

It's been a zingy spring! I had to finish this batik project that I started last January at Kaye England's Florida seminar in time for Quilt Market in May. This was a fun quilt to make. I had no idea what I was making when I started the blocks. The goal was to work with Kaye's Half Rectangle and Bias Triangle rulers, otherwise known as Peaky and Spike. I've named it "Oh Kaye". I love the way this one finished up - but I am going to spare you the photos of all of the discarded border ideas! This quilt is off being photographed for the gallery section of Kaye's new book that is due out in July.

This one will be in the book too! After "Oh Kaye" was delivered to Kaye at Market she told me that she wanted this one too. I had finished the center section at the seminar, but it still needed borders, backing, quilting and binding. Not wanting to abuse my favorite long arm quilter any more than necessary, I decided to quilt this one myself on the BERNINA 830. To avoid having light thread in the dark areas and dark in the light areas I drew a "loopy" design that fits right in the stars on the computer, digitized it using the BERNINA Version 6 software and quilted it in the Jumbo Hoop! There is a reason that our store tag line is "It's all in having the right tools!"

The first weekend of June was the last class in our First Friday/Saturday Club. This is our version of the $5 quilt. Participants paid $5 for the first block. If they made the block and returned the following month they got the next block for free. They could make each of the 9 squares for $5 just by doing their homework. I'm not sure that anyone expected the quilt to look like this when they were finished! I love it! We used the Quick Trim ruler that I designed for Creative Grids to make the $5 blocks into circles that were then mounted to squares. Once again, not hard at all when you have the right tools!

Then there was the Shop Hop quilt for the Western PA Shop Hop that starts next week. This is my version of what you can do with the patterns for the buildings that everyone will collect as they hop around town. We will be providing the assembly instructions for free to all hoppers, but you have to collect the building patterns from the 10 participating shops!

That brings you up to date!