Right now, I’m working on a project using the Twelve Oaks line by Judy Rothermel from Marcus Fabrics.

I love to make scrappy quilts and you know one of my favorite things are Civil War era fabrics.  Although I try hard not to plan toooo much, I have to plan just a little.

A secret to making quilts that look scrappy without losing your mind is to choose  “sets” of fabric and use them to make repeats of blocks. You don’t have to make every single block different.

Another tip to keep scrappy things organized is to set all the pieces for one block on a paper plate.  You can easily stack the plates and work through them at the sewing machine without getting things mixed up!

I guess this is turning into a tips and tricks blog today!  An extremely useful tool that I discovered while blog surfing one day is this triangle trimmer by Quilt in a Day.  The horizontal and vertical lines that help you align the seams on the triangle (or hourglass) block before you cut.

And that tape that you see, that’s Nexcare first aid tape, it keeps the ruler from slipping.  A tip from Carrie Nelson over at La Vie en Rosie.

Even when you think you are pretty accurate with your stitching you can come up with a good pile of trimmings!

I hope to be able to show you the finished product soon…  now I better get back to work!

I spent the weekend unpacking the rest of the boxes from market and reorganizing my storage room.  The next job is to get things going in the studio.  I have a list!  One pattern is ready to be written and tested.  There are two other quilts on the design wall and a few bag ideas are floating around in my head. I have some fabric that is calling my name!

School is out in two weeks.  At that point, I have more supervision – by my three teens – than I know what to do with.  One of the challenges of working from a home studio!