Weekend Tops

I love cheater cloth. The Christmas snowmen took me all of about 15 minutes to put borders on. It's the cutest fabric though. It had to go home with me when I saw it at the store.

This is my attempt at a disappearing 9 patch. I think I must have misread something in the instructions. Oh well, turned out cute none the less.

Close up of the funny dogs on the material. The material says things like Fleas Navidad and Happy Howlidays. Again, too cute not to take home.

Then today I went to the mailbox and was greeted by a package. Below is the strips that I got from my swap partner Amber from Swap-bot. I can't wait to get busy and make something. Thanks Amber!!!

Well, I'm probably done posting for the week since I've managed to post 3 times today.

Have a great week!!!

Shopping, Shopping, Shopping

I did a little reckless fabric shopping this weekend. Managed to take in Urban Arts & Crafts in Kansas City, Missouri. This store has a wonderful selection of Amy Butler fabric. Instead I purchased a piece of Michael Miller kids fabric.



After I got home, it dawned on me why I liked it so much. I made a quilt for a friend's new baby out of the same line.



Quilter's Station in Lee's Summit, Missouri, was on the list also. Taking a 3 year old was entertaining to everyone in the store, especially since there is an incredible fondness for fabric. The current obsession is with horses, so all I could hear her screaming from one rack of fabric was "Mommy, I MUST have this fabric." How could I refuse? I will use it to make a pillowcase for her bed. Everyone was laughing when this discovery was made.



The last stop was Prairie Point in Shawnee, Kansas, for the end of year sale. This is where some serious damage was done. Jelly rolls are my new favorite thing, which I would say is bordering on an obsession. I really like the Moda Oak & Reel fabric line and since it was on sale, how could I not take it home? Then there was the whole display of Valentine's fabric. Again, I couldn't pass it up. More cheater cloth that I can't seem to live without.

Cheater Fabric

I have been pondering why cheater cloth is really called cheater cloth. I have come to the realization that working with cheater cloth is sometimes more difficult than making all the blocks from scratch. My friend came to work today with a quilt that she picked up last week while in Denver. She explained that the store was selling numerous class samples in order to make room for the new 2008 class samples. When she unfolded the quilt, I had to smile because it's cheater fabric that I have in my stash. I think I collected blue fabric for my sashing rather than green.

I realized that I have a lot of cheater fabric in my stash. Maybe 2008 can be the year of "cheater" quilts.

Speaking of 2008, I've been thinking about all of the unfinished projects I have in plastic shoe boxes. I really need to make a list and commit to finishing some of the many things I've started. While looking at the boxes and their contents, I encountered the unfinished New York Beauty from a class I took about 3 years ago. I'm committing that this will be the first top I complete in 2008. Unfortunately, there are only 4 completed blocks and I think I have about 20 (or more) to go.

After looking at the unfinished projects, it dawned on me that I have a lot of finished tops that just need to be quilt. Since I'm such a glutton for punishment, I opened the box they are living in and decided to count. 20 finished tops that need to be quilted. YIKES. I didn't count the 3 quilts that I have in the pile that aren't mine.

With that said, I should have plenty to blog about in 2008.