Southern: A State of Mind

For those of you who may not know me personally, I am Southern. Born and reared in the deep South. For a lot a people that may not mean much, however, for a Southerner that says it all. No matter where the Army moved me, no matter that we retired in Kansas, I am still a Southerner. Always have been, always will be. It is not a location thing, it is a mind-set.

(at this point you may begin hearing a deep southern voice positively dripping with charm)

Having said that, have you seen the new Gone With The Wind fabric? Did you know that 2011 is the 150th anniversary of the War of Yankee Aggression? Well it is! It is also the 70th anniversary of the movie Gone With The Wind. When you think about that you realize that when the movie first came out there were possibly people who actually remembered that war. Wow! I saw it the first time on New Year's Eve of 1961, the 100th anniversary.

Anyway, is there a woman anywhere who does not dream of having a man look at her as Rhett Butler looked at Scarlett? Just makes you positively swoon, now doesn't it?

And those beautiful magnolia blossoms? I can almost smell their heavenly fragrance.

The beautiful quilt using this fabric that is in the pattern of the Tennessee Waltz also makes you think of a more gentile time when men treated ladies as though they were truly ladies. When the strongest language a lady uttered was a "well fiddledey dee" and you did not hear gentlemen use strong language either, except in extreme circumstances when Rhett tells Scarlett, "well frankly, my dear, I don't give a d*#%".

So, while you enjoy these lovely fabrics and the quilt, I think I will have a nice mint julep and rest in the shade, since a lady never wants to have freckles, and remember that

"afterall, tomorrow is another day".

EASY BREEZY QUILTIN'

Now that Spring has finally arrived, most of us want to spend some time in our gardens. However, we do not want to stop quilting. So how do we do it all?

I think we do it the easy way. We purchase plants at the nursery rather than starting our gardens from seeds and get new hanging baskets rather than trying to do them ouselves. (At least that is how I simplify my gardening and insure it has a better chance of living).

Quilting is no different. We can simplify. We have found several easy breezy patterns that take only one yard of five different fabrics each. We then put together numerous combinations of colors to make it even easier to do.

These quilts take very little time and effort yet yield a great quilt. This is a good way to knock out some of those graduation quilts, maybe one for Mother's Day. They truly are fast and fun. I made one in an evening. The colors we selected are also indicative of a garden in full bloom.

They will be like potato chips, you cannot have only one.

ALL THAT JAZZ

We just completed the 12th annual quilt shop hop. Quilters were out in force and having a ball. I have been thinking and trying to decide what it was that excited our customers so much. I am not certain that it was any one thing, but a lot of things.

One thing that I think was very important was our EXCLUSIVE fabric. Our beautiful music motif batik from Hoffman is filled with a song to sing. We sold over 450 yards in a very short time. We have placed a reorder and will have it in stock in July. If you would like some of this gorgeous fabric, please pre-order so we can be certain to hold it for you.

TWO QUILTS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!

Have you ever wished you could quilt faster? Make even more quilts? Well, I have a way for you to do just that. It will also help you use some of that wonderful stash of fabrics with which you just cannot part. You know the part I am talking about....the small, little bitty pieces.

Well, first take a few minutes one day and cut those little goodies into the same size, such as 2 1/2" squares or 3" or whatever you want. If you have a bunch of leftover shapes, such as half square triangles, cut those into the same size also. Anything works so long as they are all the same size.

Next get yourself a cute box, or an old cigar box will work. Put this near your sewing machine.

We were all taught (I hope you were) to keep a scrap of fabric under your presser foot when not sewing and also to sew across a piece of fabric and then feed your piecing into this. This is to keep the feed dogs from deciding to eat up the corners of your quilt pieces. You know the part where you end up loosing your religion cussing at the torn up corners. You keep using that little piece of fabric over and over until you have this 'cookie' of fabric covered in thread (think of all the money wasted on that thread).

With this method of making two for the price of one, you will no longer use that piece of fabric or waste all that thread.

Instead you will begin your piecing with two squares that you have cut from your scraps.

Layer these face to face and line them up with your presser foot, sew across and then begin your piecing for your quilt #1. The main one.

When you get to the end of your pieced part, line up two more of the little scrap squares and sew across and stop. Cut off the first two squares that you have sewn together and throw them into your cute little box.

After you have been doing this for awhile, you will have a box full of two-patches. Take some time and press them to one side.

When you are ready to piece on quilt #1 again, layer these 2-patches together face to face and sew across as you did before. Now when you cut them apart, you will have a cute little box full of 4-patches.

You keep doing this until you have a cute little box full of multi patches. One day you can take a few minutes and sew these together to make a quilt #2.

You have made all the quilt blocks without wasting any thread or fabric, and just as important, you have not wasted any time. Now don't get too matchy-matchy or it begins to be work, just let them land where they will, it will be more fun this way.

Remember, when you begin to piece these multi-patches together, begin them with even more little patches you have cut from your scraps and you are beginning quilt #3.

These make great scrap quilts all by themselves or you can add sashings and borders. You can have patches that are all half square triangles or just triangles, it does not matter, whatever shape you choose. And if your sewing machine decides to 'eat' the corner of a patch, so what, throw it away, it was just scraps anyway.

If you do not save scraps or don't have a stash (what? is there someone like this?), or just want to be really lazy, then you can order the little pre-cut 2 1/2" squares from Moda in our bake shop. They are the perfect size and all the colors coordinate to make a more coordinated scrap quilt. What fun!

Now aren't you glad you learned how to make two quilts for the price of one? Aren't you anxious to begin the next one?