I only needed...

Earlier this year, I found Shiisa Quilts in Bloomington.  It's a wonderful quilt shop with a large selection of Kona Bay Oriental fabrics, perfect for the fractured quilts that have been on my mind recently.  They also have a great selection of other fabrics in "my colors," bright primary colors and lucious jewel tones, along with plenty of prints to go with the wide variety of neutrals that are in the shop.  They are also the Bernina dealer closest to home and when they sent out a 30% off coupon on Bernina accessories, I finally had to go buy the quarter inch foot I've been eyeing for some time.

Deb agreed to go with me after teaching her last class of the day.  It was wonderful having someone along for the ride and we got caught up on all of the happenings now that school has started.  We got to the shop in good time and I got the foot:

Here's what I went to purchase.

It's coming up on time for Camp Margaret at the Beach where I work with my niece on one or two sewing projects.  This year will be easier (for me, anyhow).  For Christmas, Diane got a wonderful collection of sewing supplies from Aunt Margaret including SCISSORS THAT WORK (last year, we had rusted scissors that didn't cut well and were pretty dangerous).  We used the Singer sewing machine that I grew up with - only had to go to the hardware store once to locate some o-rings to replace the rotted o-ring on the bobbin winder.  It was a challenge but with a little ingenuity, we got it to work.  Despite the funny sewing implements we had last year, Diane made a Quillow (quilt that can be folded into its own pocket to become a pillow) and a tote bag.  She did a wonderful job on both of those items.

This year, the Snap Bags will be one of the projects and I had been thinking about a second project.  It struck me that a fractured wall hanging might be the ticket.  If we only cut the panels one time, the sewing is easy and there isn't really any matching of seam lines.  That will give her plenty of rotary cutting experience and straight sewing experience.  So, here's what I bought in preparation for this year's excursion:

There are two different panels - one in blue on the left with it's backing below it and another in purple tones on the right.  The backing for it is the wonderful purple with gold swirls  Too bold for the front but just great for backing.  I actually bought two sets of the mountains on the right so I could create one and then have one set for Diane.  That way, I can test the strip width and get the borders sorted out ahead of time.

 
It was so exciting to have the materials, that I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my set of the purple mountain panels.  Here's the work in progress:

This isn't quite as exciting as the first single fracture I did and I think it's because it's more a still life picture and doesn't have much movement in it.  And it really is purple with a green sky.  Against by silver/gray rug, it doesn't really show that as well.  It was still interesting and fun to create, however.  Technique is from the Fabulous Fractures book by Brenda Esslinger.

Borders are still needed.  I do think the yellow/gold color will be the inner border but I want to look a little bit more for the outer border.  I'm not sure the purple will do it but I'll audition it along with some other fabrics from my stash before I make the final decision. 

In the meantime, it's back to one of the UFO's I'm getting close to finishing.  That's exciting, too!

Cheers!
Margaret