With less than two weeks until the Lancaster AQS quilt show, I’m getting really excited.

Lancaster is about an 8 hour drive from Ottawa, with a few quick rest stops. Definitely doable in one day, however, I’m planning to leave a day early, take my time and explore a few areas along the way, such as Scranton, Bethlehem, Allentown and Reading.

Here’s what I have booked:

• The Quilter’s Link Wednesday, March 24, 9:00 – 10:00 am
• Floral Delight (Course/Workshop), Thursday, March 25, 8:30 am – 4:00 pm
• The Quilt-As-You-Go Advantage (Lecture), Friday, March 26, 3:00 – 4:00 pm
• All Star Review Saturday, March 27, 1:00 – 3:00 pm

The Floral Delight class is with Linda M. Poole. Here’s what I’ll be making:

I have only been to one other large quilt show before: the Nashville AQS show in 2008. I had an absolutely fabulous time, and returned home loaded with goodies, new friendships and inspired like never before.

There are so many wonderful quilt shows throughout the United States (and even a few here in Canada). Do you have a favourite show? Best experience, worst experience? What show would you love to go to but haven’t yet? (For me that’s Road 2 California and Paducah!)

Join us at Quilter’s Daily Blog Along and share your quilt show experiences.

P.S. Anyone else coming to Lancaster? I’d love to meet-up.

Since I can’t enter this week’s quilts for little girls contest, I wanted to share with you some of the quilts I’ve made for my nieces.

I have two nieces, Lucy just turned 4 last Saturday, and Alice is 1.5, she’ll be two on Halloween. While I don’t live close to them, my sister does a fabulous job sharing their lives with me via pictures, videos, daily chatting, and her blog.

Lucy and Alice showing off their Olympic gear

For Lucy’s fourth birthday, I made her an art portfolio from Geta Grama’s fabulous tutorial.

I filled it with sketch pads, markers, construction paper and STICKERS!

Since I mailed the package to Lucy, my sister let her open it before her birthday. Here’s the video. “I think it’s made out of fabric!”

Lucy had a princess/fairy/barbie birthday party on the weekend. Here’s the fabulously creative cake my sister made … and more pictures of little girl cuteness.

For Lucy’s third birthday, I made her this doll quilt and used another of Geta’s tutorials for the fabric baskets.

For Christmas 2008, Alice received an Elmo quilt:

And for Lucy I made a Dora quilt:

As the girls get older, I’ll start to make them more complex keepsake quilts. For now, I want to make them things they can use, love and enjoy.

What about you? What have you made for the little ones in your life? Do they have favourite colours? Lucy is definitely a pink and purple girl. We’ll have to wait until Alice can communicate her colour choices. I do think she’ll follow in her sister’s footsteps, at least initially.

Join us at the new Quilter’s Daily Blog Along. The idea is that each day a new prompt will be posted, to give you inspiration for your next blog post. On your blog, write a post using the daily prompt as a guide. Then head over to the blog along site and add a link to your post in the comments for the specific day.

Today’s prompt is Quilting for Kids.

P.S. Today (Thursday) is the last day to enter this week’s themed quilt contest: Quilts for Little Girls.

I have a confession to make … I’ve never participated in a block of the month (or similar type) quilt project. I know, shock, and I call myself a quilter. Well, that’s about to change, as I’ve committed to two that I’m really excited about. These are both block of the weeks.

First up is Rachel’s Pinwheel Sampler Quilt Along. The instructions will be posted once a week, for 12 or so weeks.

I’ve decided to make mine with 1930s reproduction fabrics with solid white as my background.

Instructions for the first block have been posted already. You’ll also want to check out Rachel’s half square triangle tutorial. There’s also a Flickr group where you can follow along too.

Next up is Anina’s Pinwheel Party. This will be a weekly project starting March 1st and last 13 weeks.

I’ll be using solid bright fabrics with a black background.

I’ve done very little applique, so have not committing myself to these fabulous projects (yet!).

Erin’s Florabunda Block of the Month is absolutely beyond gorgeous.

Block 1 and Block 2 have been posted already. But really, Erin has so many fabulous tutorials, I highly recommend starting at the beginning of her site with a pot of coffee. You won’t be disappointed.

My good friend Anita from the Netherlands is doing this project. Here are her first two blocks. Aren’t they beautiful.

Over on the Aurifil Buzz blog, Pat Sloan is doing a Meadow Breeze block of the month. The first block has been posted already.

Reeze is doing a Tulip Tiles block of the month. I just love this one too. Hurry and download the instructions for the first two blocks, as they will not be available forever.

What about you? Are you currently working on any Block of the Month/Week projects? What have you done in the past? Do you love them or hate them. What I find so amazing about the ones I’ve featured above, is the fabulous tutorials that go along with the projects.

Join us at the new Quilter’s Daily Blog Along. The idea is that each day a new prompt will be posted, to give you inspiration for your next blog post. On your blog, write a post using the daily prompt as a guide. Then head over to the blog along site and add a link to your post in the comments for the specific day.

Today’s prompt, from me, is Block of the Month (or Week) Quilt Alongs.

Yesterday, I dropped off two more charity quilts for Victoria’s Quilts Canada. Last week, their headoffice, located here in Ottawa, received requests for 80 quilts… in one week! They definitely need more quilters. It’s a fabulous organization, if you can help out, I’m sure they would appreciate it.

These two quilts were made with the charms donated from quilter’s around the world in the Charms for Charity contest I did at the end of 2008/early 2009. With those charms, I also donated 6 NICU blankets last year, and another full-sized quilt for Victoria’s Quilts Canada.

My little quilting for charity group has a couple more quilts just about done too. These ladies have done an amazing job, never having quilted before we started our group last year. I’m so proud of them. I’ll be sure to post photos next month.

The first quilt I dropped off yesterday is called Flowers in the Wind. I used the Tri Recs Tool for this quilt. It was perfect for the charms, and the side bits cut off the ends I was able to use for a top and bottom border. No wasted fabrics!

I met a friend for lunch yesterday and she remarked, “I recognize that fabric”. Yes, you do. The border, binding and sashing fabrics were from my first bed quilt. I’m happy to say that the fabric is all gone! Finally.

For the quilting, I did a large meander/stipple over the entire surface. It went pretty quick, and was a perfect free motion practice experience on a large quilt.

The second quilt is Sidebars 1. This is a pretty easy quilt to do, and I’ll be trimming up some more charms and writing out the instructions for the ladies in my group to make one too.

For the quilting, I stitched in the ditch around the sashing, then did free motion X’s in the centre. I’ve decided I HATE stitching in the ditch, it just takes way too long. I also echoed several straight lines in the outer border.

And a close-up:

Join us in the brand new Quilter’s Daily Blog Along. The idea is that each day a new prompt will be posted, to give you inspiration for your next blog post. On your blog, write a post using the daily prompt as a guide. Then head over to the blog along site and add a link to your post in the comments for the specific day.

Today’s prompt, from me, is Charity Quilts. I’d love to hear and see the charity quilts you’ve made.

Here’s the fall mini quilt I sent to my partner Chris in Alabama.

The fabrics: a gorgeous leaf print, that was in my stash, sadly without selvedge so I’m not sure where it came from. The three coordinating fabrics are from Ricky Tims’ Rhapsodie Colorée III line.

The 1/2 square triangles finished at 1.5″. They were pieced using Brenda Henning’s Triangulations CD. I love this CD, makes 1/2 square and 1/4 square triangles in various sizes… so accurate!

I quilted in the ditch around each seam and echoed straight lines in the outer border.

Here’s the gorgeous mini quilt I received from Rebecca in Australia.

A close up of the swirls, which I love:

Here’s a mini magic tiles quilt with batiks that will be used as an angel quilt. Magic tiles is a pattern by Kathleen Bissett. To complete the pattern correctly you would start with 12 fabrics and end up with 12 blocks. I did this one as a test, to see if 9 fabrics would work too (it didn’t, but I still like it). My starting blocks were 6″ square.

Congratulations to Yvonne of Belgium for winning last week’s weekly themed quilt contest, Two-Coloured Quilts, with her very unique I and Y challenge quilt.

Thanks to Jojo’s Quilt and Gift Shoppe for their donation of a Metro Market fabric bundle. Thanks also to the 758 voters that cast their ballot over the weekend. It was an exciting contest.

This week’s theme is Snow, Ice, Cold… quilts that make us go Brrrrrrr! To enter, read the rules and guidelines, then submit your quilt photo. Voting will start on Friday and last until Sunday night.

This week’s contest is sponsored by my good friend Geta Grama from Romania. Many of you will already be familiar with her as she’s had several of her free tutorials featured here. I am also the very lucky owner of one of her shadow trapunto quilts.

Last year, Geta published her first Shadow Trapunto e-book, which is fabulous by the way. Now, she’s released a new set of patterns, called Pockets with Love. The pockets are made using origami (the traditional Japanese art of paper folding ). She adapted the technique to fabrics and instead of a single piece of paper, you use two (or three) pieces of fabric. They are super cute and super easy to make. These are perfect for Valentine’s Day, Easter or Christmas as you could hide little treats in the pockets.

The winner of this week’s contest will receive one set of Geta’s Pockets with Love patterns, including the bonus Jolly Bag pattern. Check out the fabulous bags she’s made.

Here’s Geta’s latest free tutorial from her blog, a gorgeous portfolio. Perfect for any little girl. I do believe this would make a great present for my almost 4 year old niece’s birthday later this month. Of course, you can change the fabrics for the artistic little boy in your life too.

If you want to be a sponsor, contact me.

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