Moving Into the New Year

Well - it is now mid-month. My daughter is back at school - she is a swimmer and is back for winter practice. She is actually in Key Largo for the week where they intended to practice in an outdoor pool. It was too cold on Wednesday to practice outside - all these northern kids are still very cold!! Classes don't start til the 23rd.
My son is going back on Friday for classes started next Wednesday - we HOPE this is his last semester. 
Next week, just back to DH and me! But both of them are coming home for the summer. I am glad (I think!)

I am having a great time selling Texture Magic. Most of the stores take right to it. It is great. I will teach my first class in April at The Quilted Crow.  Can't wait for that.  I have learned a lot about direct selling from this experience.  My focus in the next two weeks will be to get to the local guilds and try some shows.  I also have two more proposals for classes to follow up on.

I am working on my TQS BOM - the Hugs & Kisses Applique, while restarting last years pieced BOM, and doing two other BOM at LQS - in addition to the list I am keeping at the side of the blog. And my most pressing project is picking the fabrics for the New England Quilt Museum Guild Challenge quilt I have designed for our guild. I have the design, just have to finish picking the fabric. I will incorporate TM in the swag border of this quilt.



Here are some great New Years pictures we took on our walk New Year's Day in Barnstable on Cape Cod. It was a gray day, but the ocean and salt marshes were still spectacular.  Kind of a quiet intensity.

Hopefully I will have more to share in the quilting realm soon

Peace

Mary

Turing Twenty Quilts and the TQS BOM

Well, finally had some time to work on quilts. My ankle has been up and down. If I don't keep it elevated most of the time, by the evening, my foot is rigid and very swollen. So today, no work, a little quilting and got caught up with the pictures to go with everything.

I now have the tops done for my son and my daughters's Turning Twenty quilts. Just have to get going on DHs. I loved making these quilts they work up so quickly. The wonderful longarmer I am going to use, will also piece the backing. I cannot work with large expanses of fabric yet, so this is a service she offers along with her quilting. I can't wait. I will try to go to the guild meeting next week and take both quilts to her.
Here are the pictures - the purple one is for my daughter, the one with the green border is for my son. Both are flannel quilts.















The TQS BOM - I am working on TQS 2009 BOM - it is a beautiful pieced quilt. My focus fabric is an Asian fabric I had in my stash. I am trying to use mostly stash fabrics, as the quilt can be very scrappy. I did order some fabric from an online fabric store that offered a lot of Asian Fabrics and was pleased with the what I received, I was concerned about the color matching what you see on line. I will select the fabrics for each month as I go along, using as much of my stash as I can.
The directions provided by Sue Garman are OUTSTANDING! I hadn't done paper piecing in a while and did the test piece. It was a little house block. It was a very worth while activity, I needed to re-learn how to use my add an eighth and the add a quarter ruler - very useful tools for paper piecing. The photo below is the little house, and then below that are the fabrics I will use in the Feathered Star block in the center of the quilt.















I will post the star when it is done.