Working on my "Minnesota Hotdish" quilt top today

 Today I continue to work on my quilt top and am very pleased at how it is coming together.  It began as an idea in color, then picking a pattern, buying the fabrics then cutting and piecing the blocks together and finally arranging them in blocks of 4. (I did this so that the one directional print I have will be going in the right direction when the top is pieced together. 

This is my directional print.  Birds.  I do like the effect it has.  Today I was at my monthly crafting gathering at my community center and 2 of the ladies were hand quilting.  I got a good tip from my friend Jean.  She draws her quilting pattern on each strip or block before piecing it together with a pencil.  Wow! what a great tip so I thought I might try that by doing it on my completed blocks of 4.  I already had been thinking about what I wanted in each center so now to decide on a pattern.  I just love to get together with other crafters and share information.  Tomorrow is my quilting group at the "Pointe" and I can't wait to show them my progress on this quilt.

A great day for quilting and bloging

Getting Ready to Strip Piece my blocks

"Minnesota Hot-Dish"

It was cooler out this morning as I sat on my screened in porch around 6am having my breakfast and coffee. I love this early am time to myself. there was a gentle breeze making my windchimes tinkle and the tall grass outside my porch sway as the birds woke up. My nieghbor hood is quiet with hardly a stir unlike my neighbors off my back patio who are already leaving for work. After breakfast I find myself in my studio working on my latest quilt, it is blue, white and tan. I have 40 - 9" blocks made so far with only 40 more blocks to go before I can piece my top together. My kitty "honey" comes in from the porch to visit me and crawls behind my sewing machines to cuddle on the floor while I strip piece these blocks together .
After finishing another 20 blocks strip piecing and ironing them I took a nap, checked out other blogs on the computer and looked at pintrest, I also checked Craftsy on the block of the month class. This month of July she was doing a dresden plate block. It looked fairly simple and I thing I might try one later today so I printed out the template and pasted it on some stiff carboard.
After Lunch I checked out this blog: Oh, Franson by Elizabeth Hartman who has a quilt "Sparkle Punch" that is featured in July/August 2012 of "Love of Quilting Magazine" by Fons & Porter. Elizabeth Hartman is a self-taught quilter from Portland, Oregon and Author of The Practical Guide to Patchwork. Modern Patchwork: 12 Quilts to Take You Beyond the Basics