So what do you think?

Which sashing looks the best? Help me decide. This one is a light green gingham like thing from DS from JoAnns. This one is a kind of dull green with dots.

A bright pink with dots. April Cornell from JoAnns.

Followed by an older Michael Miller light aqua dot.

Or what I originally thought I was going to use -- a kind of acid green texture.

I thought taking pics of all of them and looking at them on the screen as well as on the floor would help. But of course the colours on the screen are not like real life, so it hasn't helped. But you can, what do you think? Let's crowdsource this question!

Let's finish the Emmett quilt show pictures

This was my very favourite quilt at the show. Mr THQ said it looked like a formica table top from the fifties and it kind of does -- the colours certainly are very fifties and it kind of has that boomerang look. It is a Buggy Barn and when I came home and looked it up it appears that the fabric choices I was so enamoured of were all part of the kit. So at least I don't have to be quite so envious of the colour choices -- after all, they were done by a PROFESSIONAL. I always like samplers. Lot's of applique on this one. I like how the borders go all roundy.

Not my colours at all seeing how this one comes across as pastel, but I loved the churn dash border.

This one said it had been made a while back and the colours show that. I have made these kinds of hearts. They are fun and easy.

Isn't this a cute little one? I love the border.

This one was up high, at least way too high for me to get a good look at it. I like the snowy looking backgrounds.

More Buggy Barn. Of course, I have 4 BB books but none of them are the ones that have the quilts from this show that I liked. Go figure. Nice cats but what I really love is the funky flowers. I had seen this one in the most recent "Quilt Sampler" magazine in one of the pictures. It wasn't labeled but I figured it was a BB and now I know that it is.

Don't you find when you look at all the shop pics in that magazine that they never identify the quilt you want to know about? I have called shops in the past to get pattern names but they take the pics so far in advance that sometimes it is hard to get the answer, and even harder to get the pattern.

Another little one. More my colours. I once tried to make all the little quilts in one of the Little Quilts books and got about half way. I guess I should resurrect that project. Small ones are almost instant gratification. And I can pin baste them on my cutting table so I don't have to get all my stuff out and moved around in the dining room.

See, another Buggy Barn. I would never in a hundred bazillion years thought of doing any BB pattern in neutrals. Of course I would never in a hundred bazillion years think of doing anything in neutrals. But this is really striking and I like it a lot.

Another green and red one.

And I don't really like the colours of this one at all but I like the pattern. It really has a 3 dimensional look to me even though it is flat. The description said it took 2 special rulers!

This one has yo yos as flower centers. I liked the addition of the lavender colour in it.

And another fun applique quilt. I really like the sunflowers on this one.

Well, that does it for Emmett this year. We are heading up to Council on Thursday for their show and then the weekend brings the Boise show. So be prepared for lots and lots of quilt show pictures. June is a great month!

Let's go to the Emmett quilt show, shall we?

Hard to believe that's already time for the Emmett Cherry Festival which means quilt show. Cherries were not ready again this year as the weather has not cooperated at all so we will have to make another trip for them in a week or two. Meanwhile let's go to the show. Here is a little bit of a closer look at this one. You know I love scrap quilts but I really really like that all the tan bits in this quilt are the same. Love the colours. Very autumnal. Speaking of autumnal, I always thought I was a winter, not that I really ever cared enough to get my colours "done" but I had a book from the library written by the stylist for "Mad Men" and she had a web link for checking out your colours. Of course I have lost it now and it only goes by hair colour but according to it I am an autumn. While my clothes don't particularly show it my taste in quilts sure does!

I love this one. I love the sort of half rail fence blocks. And my other favourite colours for quilts has to be reds and greens of which this quilt has an abundance.

Yeah, I know, I forgot to rotate this one. Just ignore the flowers on their side! I love churn dashes. I think they have passed stars as my favourite block.

This one is so happy.

And I love these colours and the polka dots. This was a Christmas line last year or the year before wasn't it? I remember thinking I wasn't sure about the aqua but the polka dots really do it for me. Oh, that purple around the edges is the quilt behind it, so don't go thinking someone added a purple border!

Here is a closer look at those polka dots.

Cute, cute, cute. I have never seen this pattern which kind of surprises me as I love Halloween quilts. You can't see it but the skeleton had a gold lame tooth.

Cute stitchery.

Red and green. And my now second favourite block -- stars. This had some purple in it. The corner posts and some in the star blocks and it looked great. The sashing is a tiny lined plaid that was tan, red, green, and purple.

This is just the first installment. I have about as many pictures left to share but thought I should divide it up into two posts. The Emmett show is not real big but they always have quilts I like. Of course, you only get to see the ones I liked -- a curated display!

While I was waiting

for the holiday sale so I could buy my 12 yards of bias tape, I of course decided to start something else. After all, what else do you do when the multiple things you are working on are in a holding pattern? Remember when I decided to work on all my kits that were hanging around? That didn't go too far, now did it? Anyway, this pattern came in a kit with the panel so I decided to work on it. All the fabric except the panel were brushed homespun plaids. I didn't like most of them but have to admit the colours were super with the panel. If they weren't by the panel designer they were chosen well. Anyway, all the squares were 4" finished and used the Thangle method for the HST. I decided not to make the bear's block because I did not want to make all those tiny HSTs. So it was on to the star blocks on the bottom. Now you know I love star blocks and have made at least a bazillion of them. So, what happened?

You would think I would have noticed something amiss before I had sewn all 11 of them together. But, no. So the decision was to rip them out or do something else. Little homespun pieces do not rip out well so these went in the trash and I decided on the something else. Next morning I did dig them out because that seemed so wasteful. Grrr. Anyway, the top did get finished and I like it a lot despite not liking so much of the fabric. I wonder what I would have chosen if this had not been a kit? Unanswerable.

We had done some thrifting not too long ago and I keep forgetting to take a picture of this bowl. It is so wonderfully retro that I had to have it. I haven't a clue what to do with it since I am not much for pastels, but it's now mine.

Back to quilting. Here is the center block with all the applique completed. And as it turns out I like the fact that the curve of the vine and the curve of the cat's tail go the same direction. So that turned out to be a good mistake. I am glad I left it alone.

And today I got the blocks sewn into place. All that is left now is the borders which are FULL of applique. When I cut this out many months ago I cut 4.5" borders instead of the called for 6.5". I have no idea why I did that and now need to decide whether to use them or find more black fabric and cut new ones. This quilt has had way too many decisions I think.

But I am liking it a lot. I don't think it needs the additional applique. Just some plain black to set off the stars would be sufficient. And that would keep it slightly smaller. It is a big one. I really have a dilemma about quilting it, too. My usual stipple does not seem right. Maybe some shadow quilting. Like I said, too many decisions on this one. I expect it will have to hang around for a while now until I feel like making some of those decisions!

This cracked me up...

And I'm sorry the picture is a bit blurry. I had a hard time getting the picture. I got this book from the library and this is what I found. Oh, and I didn't read the chapter. I was really not liking the book and had been mostly skimming so I figured this was good advice. One of the things I have decided as I have gotten older is that it is OKAY to not finish a book I don't like. So I don't. I have managed to get more applique on this guy. I had to stop here until I could get out and get the 12 yards of 1/4" bias tape. I wanted to get it at the Hancock's on Decoration Day because it was on sale for 40% off and there was a 10% off your entire purchase coupon.

So I fused and cut out the rest of the applique pieces. There is a lot of machine blanket stitching in my future, isn't there? Look how nicely these are sorted. I decided that with so many pieces it was imperative to sort. That bag on the right is the rest of what goes on the center section above. The rest is for borders once the quilt is together.
Did you see that Connecting Threads is having their 40% off book sale? I have pretty much stopped buying fabric there. I used to buy a lot of their little fat quarter sets with patterns. But I just have not liked their own fabric -- nothing about quality -- none of the fabric lines have appealed to me at all.

But I love books. You already have realized that I am sure. So this is what I ordered. Well, I think I had 2 or 3 times this many in my basket but I culled down to this. I like to stay just a little over the $50 mark so I can get free shipping without feeling totally profligate with the spending. I have quite a few Nancy Halverson books and just love her things although I have never made a single thing. But one of these days I will. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I have been reading in lots of blogs discussions about Denise Schmidt fabric now being available through JoAnn's. I am not really a Denise Schmidt fan so I really don't have an opinion as to whether she is "selling out" or not. If I were trying to make a living as a quilt pattern and fabric designer I am sure I would be on the lookout for any way to continue to support myself. Anyway, since JoAnn's also had good sales on Decoration Day I stopped there too and found these that I like. That top one is now with a stack of red white and blue fabrics that have been huddling together for a while. I have to decide to make something with them other than a nice stack to look at!
It turns out that I do own one DS pattern. I bought it when I was in SC visiting my daughter and she took me to a cute quilt shop. Her patterns are unusually expensive I think and looking at this one now I am not sure why I bought it. In general I am a "think about it shopper." I go and look at something, do not buy it, and then go back. Sometimes many times. If it is still there when I finally decide to buy it then I buy it. But when I am at a store that I know I can't go back to I get into a "buy it now, buy it now mode. There will never be another chance." So sometimes I end up with out of character things like this pattern.
I got this top together, too. It also needs bias tape so it has been on hold, too. I am still deciding between matched and mis-matched buttons. At JoAnn's buttons were all half price, too, so I bought the little sacks of black ones thinking I could then be matchy matchy if I want to be. You would think that out of 2 packs of 130 buttons there would be 57 alike. No, two more packages would be needed. So much for an easy and inexpensive choice.
And of course while these two were on hold I started in on two more projects. They will have to wait for their show and tell until next time.