The swimming beach at Big Bay State Park on Madeline Island

Lake Superior from Big Bay State Park on Madeline Island

Lake Siskiwit, Cornucopia, Wisconsin

Lost Creek Falls, Cornucopia, Wisconsin

Post vacation blues

We were away on a two week vacation. We camped on Madeline Island and stayed in a cabin on a lake for ten days. We kayaked every day, swam in Lake Superior and in the lake by the cabin, and hiked to Lost Creek Falls in Cornucopia. It was a great vacation. I will post pics soon.

I took new photos of the quilt I am working on. These are much closer to what the quilt looks like. It is bright, but not as bright as the first photos I uploaded.

Second baby quilt

I am nearly finished with the second baby quilt I have started. My friend Julia is pregnant with her first, due in early October. She has no idea I am making it, and every time she comes over I have to frantically hide all evidence of it.

I got the idea for this quilt from Kaffe Fasset's book "Passionate Patchwork". I think the pattern is Pastel Bubbles. I wanted bright colors, and the pattern he had worked better for lighter, more muted colors. His pattern called for rows of pinwheels, as well as the center section with circles and the four-square blocks with circles. I made enough pinwheels to add another row of them all around, but it looked way too crazy. And, the quilt seemed big enough without the extra row. So now I have 30+ pinwheel blocks, but I will find something to do with them.


This picture doesn't show the quilting very well. I will have to take more at an angle. I am nearly done with all the hand quilting, and only have part of one edge to finish on the border. Its been so hot though, that I haven't worked on it all lately.

First quilt

I made my first quilt a few years ago--a queen size machine-quilted rail fence pattern quilt. It was a present for my partner, and I was in over my head. My friend's mom helped me make the entire thing--I kept it at her house and only worked on it with her.

I loved picking out the fabric, and I was excited to work on it, but I hated being in front of the sewing machine. So I wasn't sure I would want to make another quilt. But when our good friends got pregnant, I decided to make another quilt. I created the design, and it turned out pretty nicely, I think.

I hand-quilted this baby quilt, and I loved doing that. Its become clear that I love fabrics, I love hand quilting, and I love all parts of making quilts except any that requires sitting in front of the sewing machine.

This quilt was perfect because I only had to machine sew the five sections together. Other than that, it was hand-appliqued and hand quilted.