Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Well, it is not a ranch, it is a little acreage. I finally was able to set aside the work that pays and the settling in stuff and sew. Here is the quilt top I made this week.

It is the Swirling Medallion pattern from the Quilting Modern book. Although I set out to simply play with this wonderful Briar Rose fabric bundle and learn from my book, it seems that I cannot stick to patterns and I added the extra rounds - the purple and green. And I did not piece the background with a bunch of squares, I cut strips that were long enough to finish the rows.



Yup, two almost the same pictures, but it's cute don't you think, and I have been practicing my photography as my FQR photography teacher Judith advised (Judith - today was a cloudy day even).

I need to decide about the border of the background Kona snow - the pattern calls for one square wide of background all round or maybe I should make this bigger. It is about 42" square right now. I am leaning toward enough to just bring this little quilt to a 50" square.

This morning I drew the winner in my giveway for the $25 Gift Certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop. Congratulations to Lisa who blogs at Lisa in Port Hope. Thank you to the Fat Quarter Shop for sponsoring the giveaway and to all of you for the great suggestions of what I should buy.

I guess you want to know what I bought. Well I have to tell you first that I had another gift certificate from a friend, and I had the 20% discount code for the Fat Quarter Shop that Fat Quarterly has posted on their blog this week (anyone can use it, just saying, go here to get it).

I tell you all that before I confess that this is what I bought:

Yup, the whole bundles. It was such a hard choice. I also feel compelled to mention that I might have already recently bought some Lush Uptown, Road 15 and Waterfront Park. Total fabric binge this summer, I blame it in part on the fact that I sticking to the diet that Diane suggested - which is working by the way but slowly.

I recently bought a huge cone of Aurafil thread from Cindy at Fluffy Sheep Quilting and she brought it and some other large spools (I never buy just one of anything it seems) to the Fat Quarterly retreat for me.

So I thought I would show you how I set it up without fancy hardware - it is too big to fit on the little machine that lives here. The thread sits in a plastic container and threads through a belt hardware piece which I attached to the bottom hook of that artsy beach wood piece that hangs there. And I totally cleaned up my huge mess of threads and bits and tools before I took the photo, my sewing area is seldom this neat.



That is where you can often find me while I am out here, in the gazebo under the walnut tree. The wifi reaches my computer there so I can work or use the computer for fun, knit or nap, and it is shady until about 5 p.m. - so it is a perfect spot. But today is rainy and cloudy so it is fine to be inside sewing and stuff.

Enjoy your weekend!

Best,

Leanne