Happy National Quilting Day!

Dunkel is so excited that it's National Quilting Day! He's totally wrapped up in celebrating!

Since I have had strings on the brain lately, I thought I'd show a string quilt that I made a few years ago. I made this at a quilt retreat with my friend KV, just like we'll be doing next weekend. I wanted to see how big we had made these blocks , and just see what it looked like. I really haven't seen it in about 2 years, due to moving - it's been in a box. It's hard to tell exactly on the block measurement because the quilt has crinkled up since washing, but most of the blocks measure at 9 inches.

These strings are about 20 years worth of memories. They're from other quilting/sewing projects, pillowcases, clothes for the kids or me, and even some from friends. As we were making the blocks, some of the other quilters at the retreat would bring us their strings and say "Here, put this in too"! I had two huge bags full of strings, and let me tell you, it was a job to get them all ironed and ready to sew! But it was worth it.

I've included some closeup shots of my favorite blocks. Some of these fabrics are pretty dated! How many of these do YOU have??

When we were making these blocks, we'd lay them out on the floor to see how they looked, and everyone had such fun coming to see them and finding all the conversational prints. Even the people who run the retreat place came to see them, and they were amazed at the variety of prints and fun fabrics. I think we forget that people that don't know quilters have no idea of what kinds of fabrics are available now. And I think that they think we're a little nuts! Of course, they may be right!

I love this Monopoly fabric! I made a fabric game board for my DS when he was in the Air Force that he could easily take with him for "down time", because Monopoly was his all-time favorite game. They used to get stuck in places when their plane needed repairs, and he complained of having nothing to do. (Trust Mom to try and take care of that!)

After making this quilt, I started buying a little extra fabric when I bought, so I would have enough to throw some in the string bin. Is that cheating??

Dunkel gets to be the star today, because I actually got a decent picture of him. Not great, but decent. He dislikes having his picture taken and won't hold still at all. I had to sneak up on him, pretending I was shooting the quilt. Little does he know. . . .

I think I'll go celebrate the rest of National Quilting Day in the quilt studio!