Red Sky at Night QAL

   Are you following "Tales of Cloth" with her Red Sky at Night Quiltalong?  I am and I love all the blocks we have done.

   Last week's block was called "Lady of the Lake".

The Lady of the Lake originates from the Middle Ages, a character starring in the myths of Merlin and King Arthur. She was as bewitching and mystical as the name suggests, yet her personality is split. In some versions of the legend, she used Merlin's infatuation with her to learn his magic, then traps him inside a stone, in others, she represents justice and wisdom and is the one to give Arthur his sword. Lord Alfred Tennyson rewrote these myths in Idylls of the King.

In 1810, Walter Scott wrote the poem, The Lady of the Lake that drew on the old legend. It became hugely successful through the 1800s, and is believed to be the inspiration behind the quilt block that was first published in 1900.

     This week's block is called "Prairie Queen".  

I found it interesting when I looked up the use of the term Prairie Queen to find that it didn't refer to youth or beauty or some kind of pageant, but to female leaders, the significant women running their households, providing for their families, creating heirlooms, and contributing to the community through their churches or charity groups.

Jodi researches the blocks and why they are called what they are.  

I'm anxious to see how all these red blocks will look when they're all set together.

Low Volume/Plus Quilt

     I haven't done a block swap in a long time.  I've done a one on one swap but not a "many block" swap in probably years.  I saw on Instagram back in the winter that a girl I knew was hosting a Low Volume/Plus block swap and having TONS of low volume fabrics I decided to join.   We could send as many blocks as we wanted so I did about 22 and made a few for myself from my favorite fabrics.  I have had them back for a few weeks now and have wanted to throw them up on the design wall since the day they came home but have resisted since I had other things on my plate...........Well, I decided on Monday that I HAD to see them all laid out....so off I went and threw them up!

Look at those blocks!!!!!!!    And yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, they are all sewn together.

The quilt top measures 67-1/2 X 79-1/2.  Each block was 11-3/4 if I remember correctly.  

 Look at the variety of low volume backgrounds......  I was in LV heaven last night while sewing them all together.....

I didn't have anything appropriate for the back so this morning I went out and found this "WORLD MAPS" fabric by Sue Schlabach by Windham Fabrics.  It's going to look awesome with all the low volume fabrics!   I picked up the stripe from the same line to use as binding.  Now it's time to mail it off to my quilter!   

And here's a little Olivia sighting.....  Her aunt Sarah brought her that cute London onesie back from her vacation and I guess you can tell from the look on her face that she liked it :)

Leader/Enders

     I've asked before but I'll ask again....Do you Leader/Ender while you're sewing?
I remember about 11-12 years ago at a quilt retreat I went to I heard 2 of my BFF's talking about what they were doing with their Leader/Enders and I was thinking in my head "what are you talking about?".   I did ask and got an explanation but I truly didn't "get" the whole thing so I didn't jump on the bandwagon.  I must also admit that I don't ALWAYS do it now either but I have a few projects I'd like to make that call for lots of small scrappy blocks so I have been doing some cutting and sewing.....

        I found a quilt on a blog and sent my friend Robin the link to it and asked her if she could "hook me up" thru her quilt program.  This mock up is probably 8 years old and has been used to make 2 quilts so far......with # 3 in the works.  

I have LOTS of 2 inch kona snow squares and every quilt I've made over the last couple of years has a scrap of it cut up waiting to be incorporated into this top.  

I recently took all my pieces and assembled 4 blocks with 100 squares in each block.

This was my long term project until this week.............

Bonnie Hunter announced her 2015 Leader/Ender Challenge.....TUMBLERS!

I love little tumblers!

I remember back in December or January I'd seen a McCalls Quilting Magazine with a Civil War like tumbler quilt on the cover so I started using my Go Cutter with scraps and figured I'd make one just like the magazine.  Well, one project led to another and the tumblers got put away and forgotten about  

I have a great variety of tumblers to use for the challenge so I'll work on them for now.  

Do you Leader/Ender?

And here's 7 month old Olivia.....cute huh?