Amy Butler gone awry?

I love Amy Butler fabrics. I didn't at first but they snuck up on me and now I think they are great. With my last quilting venture (very small because I was at least awake enough to realize the crazy blend of patterns and colours I was creating), I got a little carried away. Not to say I don't like the end product but it is a bit of a shock to the senses. After I'd sewn it together I thought that it might have been a little less crazy if I had put strips of some nice quiet solid between the blocks. But who wants to rip everything out? I blame Kaffe Fasset's thousand colour quilts that manage to look great! He makes it look so easy. The pattern is from one of his books. I would link to it but was out way too late last night at a murder mystery party and am uninterested in leaving my vegetative state in front of the computer!

Best Hangover Ever

I finally found a quilt that made sense with my stash of yellow and blue Mark Lipinski fabric. It's inspired by Denise Shmidt's Drunk Love in a Log Cabin but I made up the pattern as I went along. It was actually very fun not to have

to be exact with the corners. And I really like this fabric. I stippled it with a yellow thread and I think it turned out very nicely.

I'm very excited a sock club Kristen and Natalie and I are organizing. We're getting bored of knitting the same basic sock pattern over and over again and want to use up some stash (although I think this actually gives me an excuse to buy some yarn since I'm not sure I have 6 skeins lying around the house). We're each going to find 2 patterns each and get going on one a month for 6 months. This will be a bit of a challenge for me in between a heavy curling schedule and Christmas knitting but that's half the fun. I think.

It's a good thing I like the colours

I'm working on a quilt right now that is waaaaaaay too annoying. It is a Kaffe Fassett diamonds quilt and it is driving me crazy. I quite enjoy Kaffe Fassett's books but there is sort of an expectation in them that you know what you are doing. Generally, this works for me but I can't figure out how to line up the diamond corners. I've looked on the web and can't find any ideas. Maybe I'll go over to my local quilt shop and get some advice. The only thing that keeps me going is the fact that I love the fabrics. Mostly Kaffe Fassett but some others I had in the stash. I've told myself to do one row a week and work on something else in between.

The something else today might be these cute Christmas trees first seen on Mad About Patchwork. I discovered this online store and blog on Friday at the Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival. I went after work and, thanks to my friend Natalie, paid 1/2 price for the entry.

I sped through the booths. Lots of paper crafting, which I like but tend to avoid or I'd have yet another stash problem. Lots of sewing machines but while those at the show are certainly fancy and can probably make coffee, mine works just fine.

There wasn't much knitting. Even less than last year, I would guess. The quilting booths were nice but I didn't find too much that stood out. I did buy some Japanese prints from Kallisti, a company I bought some Zimbabwean fabrics from last year (still in my collection waiting for inspiration). And I bought a pretty kit from Mad About Patchwork. The positive thing about speeding through the show ... since I don't linger, I don't spend too much money!