Bad blogger, no donuts

Somehow it has been months since I posted here last.  I offer no stellar excuses; I'm just finding my life has gotten busier than it has been since the shop closed in 2008.  It's mostly good things: family, travel, sewing, spinning, and oh yes, my latest big project, losing the weight I've gained since last fall.  It's an old story you're all sick of hearing about, so I won't go there.

False start

In June, I decided to tackle the Marcelle Medallion quilt pattern that's been a big thing in the quilting world these last months.  It's featured in Alexia Marcelle Abegg's great book, Liberty Love, an homage to the many fabulous Tana Lawn fabrics created by Liberty of London over the years.  It's a pattern that I would never have dreamed of tackling three years ago, when I started quilting, but felt ready to try this summer.  My quilting buddy, Terri, was here, and together we launched off into the unknown.

Better idea

First step:  find all possible candidate fabrics and stack them nicely on my desk (this looked this good for only about an hour).




Second step:  cut pattern shapes out of template plastic.  Note: make sure they're copied to correct size so you don't screw up like I did the first time.

Third: just start cutting and sewing.  First attempt looked OK, but was the wrong gauge, so I bagged it and started over. 

Finished top

One month later, I finally finished it.  I am tickled with how it came out; I learned a lot and am looking forward to time to tackle another.  Oh...and the false start ended up being well on its way to becoming a pillow cover.  Yay!