Fellow Quilters,

This week I have been participating in Quiltmaker’s “100 Blocks Volume 13” blog tour.  If this is your first visit to my blog – Welcome!  If you also visited on Tuesday, then Welcome back!  To all of you who commented on Tuesday’s blog, thank you.  I enjoyed reading each and every comment, as you told me about your favorite jewels.  Some of you mentioned family and friends.  Many, many of you said that your favorite piece of jewelry is your wedding ring – truly heart-warming!  I will be selecting the winners from Tuesday’s post shortly.

For today’s post, I scanned the issue of Volume 13, selecting blocks that were designed by some of the pattern designers that partner with Northcott.  I came up with 6 blocks, and recolored them in Toscana, the fabric collection that Northcott has advertised in the issue.  Toscana is a fantastic texture that looks like suede and feels like silk, and comes in 135 delicious shades.  I chose a selection of pinks, ranging from pale Pinky Swear to deep Miami Beet.  Here are the 6 blocks:

Dream Catcher by Chris Hoover

Corner Block by Celine Perkins

Flashlights by Daphne Greig

Z-Z-Z- by Kat Wilson Tucker

Jaded Jewels by Patti Carey

Pinwheel Plus by Kate Colleran

Then I started combining the blocks into different settings.  The results were, um, interesting.  Even though all of the blocks are 12″ they didn’t want to “play together” very nicely.  I made a sampler, making the background dark, and added sashing between the blocks to separate them (like kids!):

sampler

It was quite busy!  I tried a couple of 2-block combinations with light and

dark grounds:

Jaded Jewels & Flashlights quilt

Dream Catcher & Pinwheel Plus with dark ground

Here is the same quilt with a light ground:

Dream Catcher & Pinwheel Plus quilt

What a difference!  Here is one more combination:

Pinwheel Plus & Z-Z-Z

I have copy of “100 Blocks Volume 13” to give away, and I will also give away a couple of packets of these lovely Toscana pink fabrics, perfect for Spring!  For a chance to win, please post a comment on my blog, telling me which BLOCK above is your favorite and which QUILT above is your favorite.  The deadline to post a comment is Sunday May 8th, which is also Mother’s Day.  To all of the moms – Happy Mother’s Day!

The other bloggers participating in this tour also have prizes, and great posts to boot!  Please visit them using the Quilty Pleasures blog link.  And thanks for stopping by!  See you soon.

Cheers,

Patti

Fellow Quilters,

This week, the 13th volume of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks hits the newsstand, and many of the designers featured in this issue (including yours truly!) are participating in the blog tour.  I love, love, love these tours!  I get to have a conversation with you, sharing some quilting ideas, and asking you to share as well.  Your comments are such a pleasure to read.  For many of you, as for me, quilting is a thread that joins many aspects of your life.  Your quilts and stories inspire me.  They motivate me to keep doing what I’m doing, and enjoy the process.

Over the past 4 months, quilting has taken me to the other side of the world and back.  Hubby and I spent 7 incredible weeks touring just about every corner of New Zealand, visiting roughly 20 patchwork shops along the way.  We then boarded a cruise ship for 2 weeks, and I was immersed in all things quilty as our Quilt Camp at Sea group sailed from Auckland to Sydney.  Upon arrival in Australia, Hubby and I toured numerous wineries and quilt shops (seriously – does it get any better?!?) before heading to A Mountain Quiltfest in Pigeon Forge, TN for another quilt-filled week.  After a couple of side trips (Memphis & Nashville), I headed to Paducah for 5 days at Quilt Week.  Ohmygosh!!  It is Mecca for quilters.  My 2 colleagues and I met literally thousands of quilters in the Northcott booth, and shared quilting tips, inspiration, fabrics and stories with them.  So much fun!

So, what does any of this have to do with jewels, you ask?  Well, New Zealand is a jewel of a country.  Yes, I know that for most of us, it is a very long plane ride away, but it is worth every minute.  I highly recommend adding it to the top of your bucket list.  It is spectacular, and has inspired a few more quilts to be added to my To Do list (I may need to take a landscape quilting class first).

In Australia, I was hoping to acquire a pair of opal earrings to replace the ones I lost.  Alas, I came home without any new earrings.  Perhaps a return trip is in my future.

During all of my travels this year, I have met countless delightful quilters and quilt shop staff – all jewels!

Oh yes, and my block in “100 Blocks Volume 13” is Jaded Jewels,
called this because it looks faceted when shades of one color are used for
the prism-shaped pieces.  I really like color – all colors – and I think I own more turquoise-colored jewelry than any other color. Naturally, I chose the turquoise, or peacock, colorway of Artisan Spirit Shimmer for my block.  With 9 different values from light to dark, it was easy to create my block, choosing 6 of my favorites.  This block is much easier than it looks, and I had it sewn together in no time.  I even came up with a couple of quilt ideas:

Above is a lap-sized quilt, and below is a bed runner.  I am really liking bed runners these days – they keep my feet and shins toasty without making the rest of me too warm.

Each of the bloggers participating in Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks Volume 13 blog tour will be giving away a copy of the magazine.  For a chance to win, please leave a comment on my blog, telling my about your favorite jewel or piece of jewelry.  I will even include a bundle of Artisan Spirit Shimmer fabrics in your favorite color.  To see all of the colors of Shimmer, visit  Northcott – Shimmer .

Have fun visiting all of the other blogs, and please drop by again on Friday for another chance to win, when I do another post for the tour.

Cheers,

Patti