Feathering your Nest

Many of us have had the experience of “Nesting” while expecting a child. Nesting is the female’s natural instinct to clean, organize and prepare the “Nest” for Baby’s arrival.  Lord knows at 55, I am definitely not “expecting”, so why am I “Nesting?”

You heard last week about how I reorganized my small sewing room.  Small is relative, right?  I had many comments from quilters who sew on the dining room table, in RVs and on a card table in the TV room.  Sometimes I forget just how lucky I am to have a dedicated sewing room in my Basement Bat Cave!  

When I was nesting, cleaning, and organizing, I came across a few samples for RCA ideas that I had kicked around years ago! 

The first is a “Card Trick Variation” using circles instead of pieced squares that I quickly named Card Trick Too.  This cute little block could be a really fun quilt!  I can also picture it as part of a larger scrappy quilt with odd-sized blocks, that would use up some of the other playtime blocks I have created over the years!

The second photo is from a small sample of Joseph’s Coat that I made about 10 years ago.  I wanted to see how easy it would be to layout this one-patch quilt using a pattern cutting board.  Look closely, you can see the blue lines on the pattern cutting board under the white background fabric.  Fabulous!  It was so quick and easy to layout, I just might need to make this into another quilt!

But you all know me too well! I have a zillion ideas, and a hundred “patterns in waiting” but too little time to get the samples stitched and the patterns written.  I know you can relate to that!  

That is why I am grateful for all of you!  My customers and especially the members of Ahead of the Curve have motivated me to browse through my “Idea folders” and pull out a few little gems that will eventually make the way into patterns.

The last of these little GEMS is a half-done Christmas Gradations Quilt!  When I wrote and filmed the Gradations Online Course last year, I made these red and green blocks with the intention of using up red scraps and repeating this group of nine blocks four times to make a queen-sized Christmas Quilt for my bed.  

I’m excited to lead a new group of Quilters on the Gradations Journey!  If the My Magical Garden quilt group was a little too intense for you this year (we started that group back in February), then the Gradations Group may be just what you need to dust off your Petite Leaves Galore template and put it to work for you!  I’ll be making another nine red and green blocks during the 6-week course starting on April 14.  

If you want to join me, you can get all the details of the course here!  When you register before March 30, you will get the two bonus weeks (machine quilting with Leaves Galore and Bindings) and that means a FINISHED quilt in just 8 weeks!  

I love a good “TIDY UP” to uncover UFOS, “Useful Future Opportunities” using my “Unlimited Fabric Obsession!”  

I hope you will take this opportunity to start and finish this QUICK-WIN applique quilt with me starting on April 14!      

Happy Spring

Sue Pelland

 

PS:  Make your quilt in these gorgeous Spring Floral Colors with Hyacinth Gradations from Sew Batik!  Get your Kit HERE!