My First Mini Quilt

I completed my first paper-pieced miniature quilt at the retreat last weekend. It's from the book Paper Pieced Mini Quilts by Wendy Vosters. The blue fabric I brought with me for the sky didn't work against the other colors, as the hue was off. So I had to go shopping in Melissa's store at The Compass Centre. She had the perfect batik for the sky, and of course, the name on the fabric bolt was "Sky." I had to quilt around the little red barn with black thread to make it pop and then made sure to quilt a door. It's not a barn without a door.

p.s. I got locked out of my bedroom again at The Compass Centre! It happened first in March, then it happened again this month! Are my roommates trying to tell me something? I know it isn't personal because another quilter was locked out with me this time. Thankfully I now know where Melissa hides keys, so my roommate was able to get the door unlocked. Those door locks have a hair trigger apparently and no one knows they've hit the lock button because they're so well placed behind the handles.

Blocks Finished for PS2 Quilt Along

Only 6 more blocks to go!

Quilt Retreat

Howdy from The Compass Centre at Mt. Calm, Texas. I downloaded an App that's supposed to make it easy to blog from my iPhone. I'll be here all weekend and might even finish a project or two. Hopefully I can even figure out how to upload photos to my blog and to my Flickr group.

UNDER THE DOME: It took me over a month to read this finely woven novel, but I finally have all the answers to what and who (but not why). I literally could not put it down for the last 400 pages. I gave it 5 stars on the survey! This is definitely a page turner if you have the time to devote to it. Synopsis: A small town is inexplicably sealed off from the rest of the world. As the "dome" comes down, family members are separated from one another, planes crash, children are orphaned, cars explode on impact with the dome. No one understands what happened, but a few of the Chester's Mill citizens and one itinerant former Iraq vet try to band together to find out. Corrupt politicians, inept police, plus a cast of likeable characters make for a very interesting tale of life inside the dome. Stephen King is very good at making the readers intensely hate the villains and cheer for the good guys. Another great read by the master of supernatural storytelling. You won't put it down until you know what or who is behind the dome!

Tah Dah!

Here's my center block from the P2 Modern Solids Quilt-Along! This week, Ryan and Charlie challenged us to make the center block our own by finding inspiration from vintage quilts, websites, or books. I used Mary Ellen Hopkins' "The It's Okay To Sit on Your Quilt Book." I chose a 6-patch "Album" block, but modified it a little bit by making the center my cardinal focal color instead of a background color.

Thanks to Rhonda Hughes at Corner Square Quilts in Cedar Hill, Tx, I was fortunate enough to have purchased Brenda Henning's "Triangulations 2.0 Half Square and Quarter Square" software which made sewing the half-square triangles a breeze! I just chose the size of finished square I needed (2" finished in this instance), printed out that page of half-square triangles on vellum, placed the two fabrics (red and white) right sides together under the printed paper, added a couple of pins for stability, and followed the dotted lines for sewing. In just minutes, I was able to cut the triangles apart on the solid lines using my rotary cutter. The software is one of the best quilting purchases I've ever made.