I don't know what my problem is lately with the slide shows but I absolutely cannot get them to work. So I've just loaded my pics of Mary's Trunk Show the regular way. I was going to say old fashioned way but nothing about a blog is old fashioned.
Mary of Mary's Cottage Quilts is a local and national quilt designer. Mary has a website and a blog. I met Mary once before. She's a delight and I really love her quilts. Mary's background is in graphic design and you can really tell her talents when you look at her quilts.
One of the things I really loved about the trunk show was Mary's quilt patterns that she has made in 2 or more color combinations/fabrics. It is really fun to see the design emerge



I really liked this quilt. The blue with the pink flowers is stunning.
Here is Mary telling us her story and her road to making her own quilt business.



Love this Kaffe fabric paired with this design.



This was one of my favorite quilts.

I love the one on the left especially.


This "Eye Spy" has Mason written on the side. Not my Mason, of course.


I posted the best pictures from her trunk show. There were more, of course, but these really give you a feel for how lovely Mary's quilts are and what a great designer she is.

Thanks so much for coming to Alpine Mary!

-nanette

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What is your favorite fruit? I have a hard time choosing. I love raspberries, strawberries, pineapple and chocolate (of course, isn't that a fruit?ha). However, I really think peaches are my very favorite of all.And it is peach season at the Hive. We have a little orchard at our house with several peach trees. We learned years ago that Red Haven variety are the sweetest, hold up best when bottled or dried, and are easy to peel and fun to eat. My question is why does peach season come on just as my kids (my helpers) go back to school? hmmmm Conspiracy I think. Well, I will not be doing much sewing this weekend. I'll be up to my elbows in sticky, juicy, wonderful but time consuming peach preservation.
I was looking at the outside of the red haven peaches and thinking how many beautiful colors make up a peach skin. The inside is a pretty color too. But the outside is a fabulous blend of wonderful color. And that brings me to fabric. After all it is Friday. Recently I acquired the above fruit fabric (don't you love fruit fabric) in an oil cloth. I was going to make a bag with it but I might save this to cover my little cutting table next time as there is just barely enough. Isn't the little peach cute in the fabric. Well all the fruit is cute. But seeing this fabric I thought about how many of my fabrics have a peachy theme or color?So I pulled a few fabrics from my shelves to compare to the peach. Above both fabrics have a sort of traditional peach color inside each fabric. I have used little bits of both these fabrics in a couple projects.I would say these fabrics have the more traditional color we think of when we say "peach". Peach is between orange and pink but there are so many shades of colors in that little space on the color wheel.The tulip fabric is more peachy but also has pink and red in it. And the bud fabric on the left is very pinky peach in the background, more pink. But when compared to the peach skin, both fabric colors are found there I think.
My sweet friend Brenda down under at Bits and Pieces sent me the most lovely "house" fabric. Why are all my most favorite quilts made in Japan? Thanks so much Brenda I love it! Can't you see this fabric used in one of my cottages? I love the colors too. And it has that dark peachy pink as well. Can't wait to use this.

It is a weekend to catch the end of summer. Not much sewing will be done here, but more reaping the bounties of our summer garden.

-nanette

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I've been avoiding looking at the calendar lately hoping that the days will stop ticking by for the summer and that I'll stall the upcoming wedding. Well. It doesn't work. Last night I was sewing away on my diamonds and my phone rang. It was my friend Laura wondering where I was. I was completely baffled. She was sitting at the Alpine Quilt group waiting for me. WHAAAT? How did I miss that it was the last Tuesday of the month! I had figured that next Tuesday was the 31st. WRONG. I jumped up and ran to quilt group.
I didn't have my game on. I had been messing with camera settings. And because I was late I not only missed some of show-n-tell but my pics started out being bad, very bad.

I think this quilt had appliqued blocks in the middle of the little squares. Laura had to point that out to me because I was fiddling with my camera.
The wonderful and fabulous Rae Anne showing her quilt.
A sweet baby quilt. I think this is Bonnie's. Tricia (left in yellow jacket) is my wonderful friend holding up the quilt on the left. I love the colors in this quilt. It reminds me of ribbon candy or something.
Jodi with 1 of her quilts. The other pic didn't turn out.
I really love the fruit and the 9 patches in this quilt. It is beautiful.
Love this quilt. Love the colors and the sweet down home feel.
This flimsy is from the Girl Group. They have such fun.
This is Kim's quilt with Texture Magic.
The fabulous Flora and her quilt with "old" fabric. Love it.
I think this is Paula's quilt? I talk too much I guess. I miss the commentary.
Flora's quilt. So striking. Good job Flora.

Stay tuned Monday for quilts from Mary of Mary's Cottage Quilts. Mary has a blog too, and lives north of me several cities and was sweet enough to come to Alpine and bring her quilts last night and tell her story. I've met Mary before and she is cute and inspiring. I felt so glad I didn't miss her trunk show. More on this Monday's post. Hopefully by then I'll get my pictures more organized.

-nanette

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This is slow going girls. Slower than I'm used to. You're going to get sick of my progress by the time I get all 8 points completed, put together, bordered and quilted. I'm just warning you.
I'm mostly satisfied with how it is turning out. And I'm unpicking less in this 2nd group of diamonds.
Pinning right where I need to stitch has helped me. It helps to stick the pin right into the existing stitching lines and checking both sides to make sure the seams are where they need to be in relationship to each other.
It's turning out a little wild. A little scrappy. I'm not sure at this point about borders yet. We'll see. But It has to be very plain.
Monday both Pam and Monica mentioned in their comments about the Bethlehem Star pattern in the Quilts Quilts Quilts book. It is a great basic quilt book that should probably be in every quilter's library. Why didn't I think of looking in my book before buying a new pattern!? I will try not to make that mistake again.
It helped me to read through the pattern though and I will be changing how I put my next group of strips together.
I do like the stars on the outside border too. Though I'm not sure I'll do that. But it was good to see how this quilt is finished off in the book. I may be surfing google looking for pictures of Bethlehem and Lone Star quilts. It is fun to see what is out there.

So now, back to sewing diamonds.

-nanette

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Natalie you aren't supposed to read this post. Stop right there.

I really knew better than to start a diamond quilt project when I've never done one before. Not now. Not when I'm so busy with so many things. I remember Terri talking about her diamonds more than a year ago. And I thought "I'm not doing one of those - ever!" Ha. So I know diamonds are tricky.
I really knew better but when I saw this Lone Star quilt above at Alpine Days this month I was moved to eat my words. Sherri told me that Fig Tree had a good pattern for a Lone Star. So I ordered the pattern. And then I started the quilt.
But because I wanted mine to look less like a 3 color quilt and more like the scrappier vintage version from Alpine Days I did run into a few problems. I've done my share of unpicking this weekend.
Lining up the diamonds is not even the biggest problem. It is following directions and changing them as I go. I want my diamonds bigger and since I'm using different fabric the diagrams have been a little confusing. But I'll get the hang of it yet. I'm not turning back. I have lots of this quilt still to go. Since this will be a wedding present I don't have time to keep making mistakes and unpicking. I've got to buckle down and concentrate. It is fun though. If it wasn't fun I wouldn't do it.

-nanette

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