Friday Book Review: Amish-Inspired Quilts

For a long, long time now I've been adding sewing and quilting books to a wish list on Amazon, as reminders to myself of books I think look interesting and that I'd like to take a closer look at or purchase.  I like to look through craft books before I buy them so that I know it's actually money well spent (meaning I want to make several projects in the book), so there are lots of books on the list that aren't on my bookshelf because I haven't seen them in local shops or bookstores.  There are too many books that have tantalizing covers, but then nothing else inside that I'm interested in.

A couple of months ago I had a flash of brilliance.  Why not check out the books from the library as a method of previewing all those books sitting on my list?  So, that's what I did.  And after looking through all those books, I thought it might be fun to share my findings.  So begins a series of Friday Book Reviews.  First up:

Amish-Inspired Quilts by Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins

I like a lot of the work by Piece O' Cake Designs; lots of bright colors and pretty applique designs, and this book didn't disappoint.

One of my favorite patterns in the book is the one featured on the cover, Lorna's Vine:

I especially like the multiple shades of green used for the leaves; it gives a lot more life to the quilt than if just one shade had been used.

Becky and Linda also took a few of the designs and made small 'fragment' quilts from them; they look quite modern made up in bright solids; two of my favorites include 

Vine #9

and this flying geese variation; this is a close-up of some of the individual "geese".  I'm not usually that excited by traditional flying geese blocks, but seeing multiple fabrics used to make up each unit really made me want to get out some fabric and play.

 

If you're looking for a modern take on Amish design, or are just looking for some inspiration on working with solids, I'd definitely recommend checking this book out.  Not every pattern was a favorite, but there were more than enough to keep my interest.  More images of quilts in the book can be seen on Piece O' Cake's website, here.

I'll leave you with one last favorite; this great feathered border:

Trick or Treating

This was Ada's first year trick-or-treating.  Last year I got her all dressed up and waited for the trick-or-treaters to arrive, but not one kid came to our door.  So this year we went out.

On Saturday we trick-or-treated at some of the shops in Maple Grove.  This was her first time getting fully dressed in her costume.

Our little Triceratops.

And then Sunday everyone gathered at my sister's house nearby and Ada went trick-or-treating with her cousins again, this time walking around the neighborhood.  After the initial confusion of trying to go into everyone else's house [we realized we don't typically knock on someone's door and then immediately leave :)], Ada got the hang of things and thoroughly enjoyed herself.  She never actually said "trick-or-treat", but she did say thank you at each stop. :)  And she held hands while walking, as long as it was Grandma's hand she was holding. :)

The absolute best part of this costume is the tail; I'm pretty sure I've never seen anything cuter than that little tail wagging as she walked down the street. :)

And of course it wouldn't be a Halloween post without the pumpkin:

Fall Frenzy

Thanks to my wonderful husband spending lots of time outdoors with the sweeper this year, I'm spending a lot less time on this:

And more on this:

Finishing up quilting a children's charity quilt.

Making Ada a winter blankie; this one happens to be a QT Cuddler.  Talk about EASY; I seriously think this may be the first project of my life that I purchased, started, and COMPLETED the same day.  There were a couple straight edges to the fabrics before I started, but honestly I didn't even finish squaring up the two fabrics together; they were slightly different sizes, but it mattered not.  I just pinned, sewed, turned right side out, closed the hole, topstitched and then wrapped it around Ada, gave her a snuggle and taught her to say "snowman".

We had a great Modern Quilt Guild meeting this month, focusing on applique.  I went over both machine and hand applique techniques, doing demos for both, and then we had a leaf applique challenge.  Pillows were started, quilt tops were completed, and there was a little cowboy costume making thrown into the mix as seen above. :)

I'm also finishing up Ada's Halloween costume; she's been putting on various pieces each day for the last few days and running around the house, so I have hope that she'll stay all dressed up for a while when we put the whole thing on on Halloween.  Here's a little preview of part of the head gear she was modeling tonight:

All that and progress on the craft room remodel as well.  This... 

and the rest of my fabric is now all neatly organized in the closet.  Can't wait to share some pics once I get the rest of the room put back together after all this sewing!

Yay Mom!

So proud of my mom, who finished her first quilt top last month:

Way to go Mom!

A Week (and a Day) in Pictures

...and a fair number of words.

Sunday (9/4)

Everyone gathered at Grandma and Grandpa's for lunch and an afternoon of hanging out :

Ada LOVED the watermelon; it was the only thing she wanted to eat all afternoon.

Then time for the slide; she wasn't too sure about it while going down,

but was SUPER proud of herself when her feet touched the ground.

I swear this bar was way higher when I was 8.

Monday (9/5)

Aside from the trip to my parents on Sunday, the rest of the holiday weekend was spent removing the last of the wallpaper and cleaning lots of nasty glue off the walls in my craft room.  So relieved to finally be done!

Tuesday (9/6)

Young Mom's Sewing Night at the quilt shop; pretty light crowd with all the back-to-school craziness going on last week.

Progress!

Wednesday (9/7)

Daycare was closed part of Wednesday, so I took the afternoon off to hang out with Ada.  She currently loves having all her quilts and blankets spread out on the floor of her room; then we have to practice sleeping on them (while making snoring sounds of course). :)  And she's very into "shoes"; hence the random shoes scattered throughout every room.

The pink blanket was made by Chris' godmother for Ada, the yellow and white one was made by my mom, the bug quilt was made by Chris' mom, and the circles quilt by my friend Katie.

She also loves carrying the footstool all over the house, then puts it down and announces she's going to "sit".  On Wednesday she decided to use it as a slide, saying a slow "weee" as she slid down the stool and landed on her knees.

After she went down for her nap I decided to tackle removing (most of) the rest of the fabric from my craft room's closet.

We won't talk about the stack of large tubs full of fabric that were already packed up...at least not until they're all unpacked and looking pretty on my new shelves. :)

Luckily the cat decided to take a nap on the couch. (He has a thing for fabric too and normally pounces on any fabric he can get his little paws and teeth on.)

Thursday (9/9)

Speaking of the cat...

Thursday was one of those days...you know, the kind where all you really want to do when you get home is just sit for FIVE MINUTES by yourself and escape in your new, shiny (Stitch) magazine.  And then as soon as you open the cover your kid starts screaming, so you set the magazine down, only to return five minutes later to find the cat EATING said magazine.  So now all you really want is a rather large glass of wine, but since you can't share that with your 16-month old, you give up, make a bag of popcorn, put on a Pixar movie you haven't already watched 10 times in the last month, and pretend to "read" those quilting books you picked up from the library, even though you're being interrupted every few minutes by a little someone who is demanding yet another cup of popcorn.

Friday (9/10)

It was definitely already feeling like fall last week.  Ada was wearing new shoes and a new (to her) shirt, and loved it (she kept touching her shirt and telling us about it).  But - she was NOT in the mood to have her picture taken.

Luckily she was a little more agreeable outside:

Saturday (9/11)

I dropped Ada off with my mom, sister, and nieces (those 2 actually belong to my other sister) at a huge garage sale in Hopkins.  She hung out with them while I went into Minneapolis for my first of six Hand Applique classes at Glad Creations.

It's really nice to be doing some handwork again, although I definitely need more practice.  This is the first piece of a little beginner's sample; after I master this I'll be on to my "real" project for the class.

Areas for improvement: stitches are showing on the inside curve, I made the typical beginner right-hander's mistake of flattening the lower right part of the outside curve, and no matter how many times I tried, I just couldn't get that top corner to tuck without threads sticking out.

Sunday (9/12)

Some pictures of Ada in another new fall outfit while we were trying to give the cat some exercise in the porch. It was rather cold so she had her jacket on and hood pulled up, which of course just added to her cuteness. :)

(Love how the shoes are in focus on this one.)