The Milkmaid

I just have to show you the beautiful milking stool that my daughter made. Well, she didn't construct it, but she did do the wonderful wood-burning. Her goat had kids on the 18th of February and she has now become a "milkmaid". She's milking the nanny goat and bottle-feeding the kids.

Here's the top of the stool, really showing the Celtic knotwork that she designed. I think she's got a real talent for wood-burning. If you want to read about how she designed and did this, or if you want to see pictures of the baby goats, visit her blog here.

After I finished the doll quilts that I showed in the last post, I had a hard time getting back to work on what I'm supposed to be sewing. I was cruising through the blogs I read and saw this great spiderweb quilt that Amandajean of Crazy Mom Quilts blog is making. You can see it here.

She said she got the pattern from Quiltville, so I had to go see how it was made, of course! I've used lots of Bonnie's patterns and have always enjoyed them. This spiderweb quilt really intrigued me when I read how Bonnie came up with the 'kite'-shaped piece in the center, and that she uses "used" printer paper for the background. So I had to play around with it. The block above is one I did first. (Sorry for the poor quality of the photo - that's what I get when I try to photograph at night.) I thought it was fun to do, but I'm not real thrilled with the over-all look of all those old fabrics. So I had to try another:

This one gets me much more excited! I love the polka-dot center and all those bright, happy fabrics! If (and that's a big IF) I ever make a spiderweb quilt, this is what I will use for it. The block uses the smallest strings and takes quite a bit of time. I don't have that many bright strings yet, so this project is being shelved until the "right" time. But, I have to say, it's an easy pattern to do, and even removing the paper base is easy, if you follow Bonnie's directions.

I have some links to share with you:

First, my friend KR sent me a link to another wonderful group doing bras for Breast Cancer. This group is from South Carolina and they did the Artful Bras Project. Take a look here. And be sure to read the titles - some of these are just a hoot! What a talented group of women!

Moda has a new blog - well, fairly new to me anyway. They have lots of guest designers, and I think most everything is made with the pre-cut packs that Moda is becoming famous for. You know, layer cakes, jelly rolls, etc. Thus the name "Moda Bake Shop" for the blog. They have some very cute projects. . .check it out!

Lastly, I saw this amazing video on someone else's blog - sorry, I don't remember where it was. But it's so cute I have to share it too. If you love color, and what quilter doesn't, you'll love this. It's a nice "fix" of tropical color as winter drags on too long. It's brought to you by the same guys that did the diet Coke and Mentos experiment. Click here to see it. Warning: this may cause an overwhelming urge to go buy sticky notes!

OK, back to the quilt studio for me. I have projects to get done!