Happy Halloween!

ceramic pumpkins by my DH, The Potter

Wishing you a Halloween that's all treats, no tricks!

Happy Halloween!

photo from Morguefile

Hoping you have an oooky, spooky day!  

All treats, no tricks!

Finishing a Flimsy

I've gotten back to my Halloween Trips quilt top.  I need to get this one finished up soon.  I've had the top put together for awhile, but the holdup was the border. I finally decided what I wanted to do for the border.  Then I decided to find some fabric in my stash that would work, rather than go buy fabric.  I finally found a piece I've had for at least 10 - 15 years, and I had enough of it, if I was very careful.  Yay for shopping the stash!  The border is a little skinnier than what I usually like to do, and I did have to piece together some strips to have enough on the last two corners. . . . I just squeaked by!

I took my inspiration from Joe Tulips' awesome Zombie quilt, making some "stealth-mode" flying geese.  I have them by every corner, and they are all made with all the different black fabrics that are in the body of the quilt.  They're not all that easy to see, but fun to find when you do see them.  

Dunkel

I'm actually making this Halloween quilt to fit my bed, instead of being the same size as my design wall, which most of my quilts turn out to be.  When I was putting the top on the bed to check the size, I had some "help", of course.  So you're also seeing the quilt that is on the bed as well. (you can see the photo of that one here)  Sorry for the blurry photos - the kitties are getting good at avoiding the camera anymore.

Shade

Because this top is way too big for my design wall, I had to move furniture and lay it out on the living room "design floor".  Here I am starting the pieced back of the quilt. I just started putting pieces on top of the quilt top.  That way I'll know when it's the right size without having to measure.  Lazy?  Maybe.  (Yes, this photo looks weird.  It's upside-down from how I took the photo while I was standing on the staircase.)  I decided that I really don't need all those Halloween panels hanging around in the stash, but I still like them.  So putting them on the back of this quilt is a good way to use them.  Besides, I like 2-sided quilts.  

I'm almost done with the back now - it has taken me 2 weeks, off and on, to get this done.  Of course, the cats have frolicked though this layout a couple of times now, but it's generally the same.  The worst part of this whole process is trudging down the stairs to measure and lay out the pieces, then up the stairs to cut more pieces and sew, repeating endlessly.  This is much harder than just piecing the top, and I've often wondered just WHY I'm doing this! *sigh*  I know it will be worth it in the end, and I'm using up lots of bits from my stash, so I persevere.  I hope to have this done and in the mail by tomorrow. 

I wonder how many more trips up and down the stairs that will take?  Does that count as an aerobic workout? 

This and That

Last week was the biggest thing in this area for quilting and sewing - Sew Expo.  I went with my friend C. on the first day.  We didn't do any of the classes or see anything other than some of the vendors.  I really didn't "need" anything, and she was just looking for a baby quilt pattern.  So we just kind of wandered around seeing all the sights.

At the Just Imagination booth, filled with wonderful, luscious hand-dyed fabrics, there was a small quilt top on display that C. really liked.  It was made with only 2 fabrics, but because of the nature of the hand-dyed fabric, it had lots of variations and interest.  It was done in intense blues and rusts. We got to talking to Judy Robertson, who makes all those wonderful hand-dyed fabrics, and found out what pattern she had used to make the sample.

Then we wandered over to a booth selling quilt books and got the last copy of the book (40 Fabulous Quick-Cut Quilts by Evelyn Sloppy) that the pattern for that quilt was in!  

I brought it home to make a sample block of the pattern.  I didn't get any of the hand-dyed fabrics ($26/yard!), so I used some batiks.  I just picked some with strong contrast.  And green and purple are always good together to me.  It was a very simple block to make, and there were great directions in the book.  It's all done with 2 1/2 inch strips.  By the way, I recommend this book!  Lots of great patterns in here, and they're all pretty simple and straightforward to make.

It looks like this will be the quilt my guild will be making for the raffle quilt to raise money for the local arts group/gallery.  I don't know what colors we'll be using, but I'll show you when I know!

I also found some things that I couldn't live without!  I got some zippers (2 for $1), a texture stamp, a stamp pad cleaner, foil, some metallic paints, a new seam ripper (wore out the other one making the Halloween Trips) and a cute pattern for a chicken or pig or bunny stuffy.  I think they'll make cute pincushions.  Maybe a little voodoo doll-ish to stick pins in them, but still cute.

Here is the final layout of the Halloween Trip blocks.  DH and The Kid did the final arrangement for me.  They wanted those bands of color to kind of match up.  I like it, so I left it.  I have 3 rows sewn together and the last two will get done tonight. And I even have an idea for the border now.  Just have to pull fabrics for it!  I'm relieved excited that this one is almost together.  I'm ready to do something else now.  Short-attention-span quilting!

Last, but not least, here are the fabrics I received from Nifty over at Nifty Quilts.  We did a little vintage fabric swap.  Go visit her blog and see all the great fabrics she's got to work with now!  These fill out my selection nicely.  I was short on the grey/pink combo, and I'm always in love with dots.  Dots on dots are even better!

Happy quilting!

Thursday Update

I've been so crazy busy the last few weeks that I haven't gotten around to posting.  I have so much to share with you!  I'm going to break it up into a few posts, I think.  My brain seems to be "out to lunch" lately.  LOL

I've been so busy that I haven't had much time in the Quilt Studio.  But I've managed some time this week.

I am up to 9 blocks now on my Halloween Trip, which makes me 1 under the halfway point.  However, I have two more blocks in-process since this picture was taken.

I have so many strips cut for this quilt!  I'm planning on 20 blocks for this, but may keep on sewing until all the strips are used, and then see what I can do.  Maybe another one or two small tops!  These are big blocks - 15 inches finished - so it wouldn't take many for a quilt sized for a DGD.

Of course, no photo shoot is complete with the quilt inspector! He seemed to approve.

Here's a birthday card I made for a friend a couple of weeks ago.  I made the painted paper and then found the butterfly sticker that worked with it.  That made it quick and easy, and my friend really liked it too.  Good all the way around!

Two weeks ago I went to visit my sister.  It had been 6 months since we'd seen each other, which is silly since we live only 3 hours apart.  It was really fun to spend the weekend together.  We went to an art gallery, a quilt/fabric store, stayed up too late and talked our heads off (as usual!).  But more on that later.

In the middle of all this, we finally got around to exchanging our birthday and Christmas presents.  This was one of the gifts from my sister.  It's either a little quilt or a tabletopper.  It's about 30 inches square.  Now I just need to decide what I'm going to do with it.  Applique something in the middle?  Or just quilt it and put it on the table?  It's in my colors (blues and olive green), which you can't really tell from the photo.  The weather is being dark and grey, and lousy for photo-taking, which is typical of Washington in the winter.  I tried to brighten the photo some, but it's not true colors.

That's it for today.  I'll be back in a few days with more photos to share.  Meanwhile, happy quilting!

M.I.A.

Yes, I've been Missing In Action this month.  I've had such a busy month! 

My quilt studio looks like a disaster happened in there.  There's stacks of fabrics everywhere, and there's stacks of plastic bins (with more fabric in them) stacked in the way too.  My design wall fell down.  I had a piece of flannel pinned to the wall over the closet and when I was looking for a book, I pulled the pins out.  Rats.  The problem was that, when I moved in 4 years ago, I just unpacked the books and shoved them on the shelves in the closet with no organization.  I was going to get back to it one of these days and never did.  So I took the opportunity and organized my large quilt book collection. Much better!  Now the design wall is hanging from a curtain rod and can be pulled back out of the way to get into the closet.  However, I just need to find a stronger curtain rod, because this one is cheap and is bowing badly. 

But in spite of the fact that I've accomplished very little this month, I do have a few finishes and other things to show you.

Back in September, I started playing around with a Halloween version of the Scrappy Trip pattern by Quiltville.  I cut my strips at 3 inches, instead of 2.5 inches, just to show off the fabrics better and have the quilt go faster.  So these blocks will finish at 15 inches. 

I was making myself a kit of something to sew for after I have surgery on my former broken arm, but that surgery hasn't happened yet.  I wanted needed something to sew one day, and finally hauled this out.  So far I have 5 blocks made (I did one after I took this picture).  It's taken me 3 weeks to get this far, as I've had so little time in the quilt studio.  I have to make 20 blocks total, so I don't know if it will be done for this year!

I finished my applique from the class with Gwen.  But then I wondered: does this need some leaves on it?  What do you think?

I finished my wool basket project.  Now I just need to decide what I'm going to do with it.  Initially I was going to frame it, but I can't find a needlework frame of the right size.  So, the way I see it, I have 2 options.  1. wrap it around a stretched canvas and staple

OR

2. make this the center of a wallhanging.

I can't decide what I want to do right now, so this will be percolating for a bit.

I finished the June Block Lotto blocks and posted them just barely in time!  Wow, the whole month has just flown by.  I'm not quite sure where it went.  But I almost missed this!  I'm hoping to do better for July.  I love the way these blocks turned out.  I love the colors, and the block is easy, fun and has some interesting possiblities for setting. 

Here are some of the potholders that I've made for my guild's quilt show this fall.  The red one in the back is my first attempt at chenille.  I think it came out pretty good.  The black and white was a practice Disappearing 4-Patch and the cow fabric is on the back of those.  And then 2 selvage potholders, with some selvages that my friend K in Calif sent me.  I think they're so cute! 

I have 2 more potholder in process, and will probably be making some more too.  The ladies in the guild had never heard of using selvages before, and I think they thought I was a little nuts.  Now they're giving me selvages!  Yay!

Last September, I started this Disappearing 9-Patch I Spy project.  It was supposed to be for a guild challenge, but I didn't get it finished in time.  Now, I've finally got all my 9-patch blocks for my GD's quilt made and sliced up.  They're ready to be trimmed to the same size and put up on the newly-functional design wall.

I'm still stalling on my guild's "Element of Nature" challenge and it's due mid-July.  I know I'm not the only one that hasn't started yet.  But I mostly know what I'm doing and am all ready to start.  I just need a few days with no other commitments.  I've had jury duty this week, so that has pretty much kept me either busy or too distracted to do anything.  I'm hopeful for next week!

This is a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly that DH found in the front yard on the rhododenron.  At least I think that's what it is, based on what I saw on Google images.  If you know better, please let me know.  Isn't it beautiful? 

Not Much Happening. . .

. . . around Haus Indigo lately.  I haven't done much sewing to speak of for a while.  I've been working on my exchange blocks, and I'm about half done with them.  I'll be showing them soon. 

I did manage to finish this little quilt:

This is Boo! # 4 - and the last one.  I think I still have some pumpkin fabric left, but I'm done making these.  I made one for my DDGs, one for my DD, and I gave an unfinished one to Purple Pam a few years ago (in trade for some fabrics, I think).  This one is for me.  I didn't stress over the quilting on this one - I just wanted it done! 

I think I quilted too unevenly.  Now that I have this up in the hallway, it's obvious that it doesn't hang straight at all.  Ooops!
 

Here is one of the visitors to our bird feeder lately.  This is an Evening Grosbeak.  We've had three of them here in the last few days.  They like to sit in the feeder and hog all the sunflower seeds.  As a matter of fact, the  WhatBird website says these birds have been observed eating 96 sunflower seeds in five minutes.  I believe this, because they are definitely greedy guts birds!  I don't know if they're passing through on their way South, or if they'll be staying the winter.  That may depend on how quickly I keep the feeder refilled!

I've been out in the yard trimming plants and cleaning up.  We had a dry spell for a few days and I thought I'd better take advantage of it.  Here is probably my last geranium bloom for this year.  We've been close to freezing lately, and the geraniums will croak when it does freeze.

I trimmed the hydrangeas back severely, as they were too leggy and were just kind of laying on the ground.  The one outside the kitchen window was over my head and blocking the view from inside the house.  They are mere shadows of themselves now.  I did save this one last blossom.  It was just starting to open.  I think it got confused by the weather.  I also had one blossom pop out on my azalea.  Crazy.

Now that we've had some close-to-freezing temps overnight for a few days and a little rain the last day or so, the trees and bushes are finally starting to show some color.  We'd been just kind of fading into fall - leaves just turning brown and falling.  I think a Fall like that is kind of sad.  So I'm very happy to see the colors.  It always puts me in a good mood.  I love a colorful Fall.  I'm going to try to get some photos in the next few days - when it stops raining, hopefully!

Speaking of colorful . . . 

A week ago I taught a fabric-dyeing workshop for my guild.  I didn't get a large turnout - only 5 people.  But I'm more comfortable with fewer people anyway.  It was kind of difficult, as we were outside and the wind kept getting stronger and stronger.  The paint containers (paper cups) kept blowing over.  (We couldn't find any rocks to put in the cups either.)  I was so excited/nervous to do this workshop that I never got the camera out of my bag, so I have no photos to show you.  But this piece (photo above) is the last piece of fabric we dyed.  It's about a fat quarter in size, more or less, and was a white-on-white.  I just took the last of the dyes and poured them onto the plastic-covered table and started smooshing the fabric on top.  When we used all that up, then we smooshed the paint brushes into the fabric too.  It was a ton of fun, and I think this piece came out the best!  I liked this so much, I think I'll just do this at the beginning the next time I dye!

p.s.  Yay! for the Texas Rangers!  And Go Giants!

September Already?!

Hey!  What happened to August??  Where'd it go?  I was just getting used to summer, and now it's leaving!  I want more August, please.

Seriously, August seems to have just evaporated!  I guess it was a busy month.  Pottery camp went very well, and both boys seemed to have had a good time.  Lots of pottery was made, lots of fish were caught (and released), and plenty of canoe time was had.  No one got homesick and no one got hurt so I'd call that pretty successful.  The only glitch was the last few days of Boy #2, when we had some major septic issues.  But he was a trooper and never complained.  At least I didn't hear him complaining over my complaining.  We finally got things all sorted out and squared away, after 3 days and many $$$.  Did you ever notice that plumbers are hard to find over the weekend?  And how come the septic only has issues on the weekend?  Sure made me miss city sewer systems!  Oh well, I guess it's the price we pay to enjoy the country life.

After that, the rest of the month is kind of a blur.  I really don't remember anything much.  I was having some allergy issues, and just trying to get caught up after pottery camp and the septic issues (lots of laundry).  And, to add insult, yesterday, Aug 31st, our high temperature was 58* F and it rained all day.  A little foretaste of what's to come.  I swear, some of the trees are starting to turn, the flowers are all on their last legs, and it's starting to feel a little "autumn-y".  I'm not ready!

Not a lot of sewing has been occuring here, what with all the other stuff going on.  Plus, I was kind of "sewn out" after the two challenge quilts.  And, I've been working on some secret projects, so I can't show you much of what has been happening in the studio.  So, the last two days, my brain has seemed to kick in (finally) and I had some ideas.  So, I made up some sample blocks to test my ideas.

Here is my first block for an I Spy quilt for my DGD #2.  I'm way over-due on making her one of these.  Big Sister got hers when she was two, and DGD #2 is 5 now and starting kindergarten.  So, I finally got started on it.  It's a Disappearing 9-Patch, and this is the configuration I'm thinking of using.  The white fabric and the purple dots fabric will be consistent throughout the quilt - the purple matches her bedroom.  I've now cut way more I Spy blocks than I need for the quilt, so I'll have to thin the herd a bit as I sew.  I learned on my first I Spy quilt to not have all the squares going in the same direction (Thanks, Katie!).  It makes the quilt more interesting, and easier to put together, which is the big factor for me.  Especially with this block!

I'm going to be participating in a block exchange with my friends from California, including Purple Pam and Roberta.  We'll be using brights.  Here's just a sample of what I've picked out.  Think they're bright enough??  This one is gonna be fun!  (And why won't this picture go in the center like the other ones??)

And lastly, this increasingly fall-like weather is making me think of Halloween.  I love Halloween, and seeing a pile of cute Halloween fabrics over at Tonya's blog got my brain engaged.  I love Bonnie's free patterns at Quiltville and Scrappy Trips is one of my favorites.  I've made two of them already.  So, I got to thinking. what if I used 3 inch cut strips instead of 2 1/2 inch?  That would make a bigger block, which would make it even faster to make a quilt.  And it would show off some of the bigger Halloween prints better too.  So, I had to test it out. 

Yep, it works!  Of course, my brain wasn't totally with me on the first block.  I cut everything at 3 1/2 inches instead of 3 inches.  Rats! --- Do over!  The 2nd time was much better.  I used up some really crummy fabrics to test, so no biggie that it didn't work the first time.  This makes a 15 inch finished block, so I only need 20 blocks instead of 35 or so.  This would also work for the Scrappy Bargello, which is calling to me lately.  Who knows. . . I might get so excited that I'll cut for both quilts!  That would make a pretty good dent in my Halloween fabrics.

So, I guess I'm getting excited about sewing again.  Now I just need to get in the studio and start cutting and sewing.  Let the fabric fly!

BOO!

My Boo! quilt is finally finished. It took me 2 years to do it! Of course, there was moving in there too. This is my first one, kind of. And I have another one to finish yet. I made one of these tops (my original) and gave it to Purple Pam as a trade for something. Then I made one for my DD. Then I made one for me - this one. It didn't get finished that year, 2006 I believe it was. It got packed up for the move. Then last fall, I totally forgot that I had started one ('moving brain'), so I started another one! Then I found this one as I was unpacking this year.

Are you confused yet??



This top was already pin basted when I "found" it, so I decided to just quilt it and get it done. I stalled on this for awhile, because I knew that whatever I quilted in the border would really show, as it's solid black. But I decided that finished was better than perfect and just did it. I did a wandering meander and it came out much better than I thought it would! And it only took like 15 minutes to do the entire border. Don't know why I stalled so long on it! I don't think the border quilting really shows up too well in these pictures, so don't know if you can see it.

I did a new-to-me binding technique on this that I learned in one of my guild workshops. You sew an accent strip to the binding fabric, then apply the binding on the back of the quilt. When you turn it to the front, you just machine stitch in the ditch between the binding and the accent fabric and it's all done! The way to do the corners was a little tricky to wrap my brain around, but it worked and I'm happy with the way it turned out.


I just thought this fabric was so cute when I saw it, that I had to get it. Love these jack o'lantern faces!

I made these letters with some stencils that I found at WallyMart. The letters are 3 inches high.

I used a spooky tree fabric that I love on the back, and I used a fusible for the quickie label, and it worked like a charm. I need to do more of these labels!

This wallhanging has gone to live with my granddaughters. I may get the other one done this year, but probably not. It gives me something to look forward to! (riiiight)

I've been working some on my project for Tonya's Quilt Together. Here's what I have so far:

My 1st attempt at free-pieced letters. These were just a test. I think the "H" is too small and the "M" is too big, but not too terrible for my first try. I found it harder than I thought it would be!

I've decided to do a version of a witch's pantry for my project. These are my 1st attempts at making jars. They also are harder than I thought they would be. And not as "wonky" as I wanted, either. But, it's an on-going process and I expect I'll learn a lot as I go through this project. I'm pretty jazzed about doing this!

That's all for now. Happy quilting, everyone!

Can You Stand Another....

fall/Halloween quilt?? It seems I never run out!
I purchased these hand-silkscreened blocks from a vendor at Pacific International Quilt Festival some years ago. I thought they were such cute folk art. (I actually bought lots more pieces, but haven't used most of them yet!) I put them with some pumpkin fabric that I really like. It's just big enough to fit a skinny piece of wall, which I just happen to have!
A closeup so you can really appreciate the detail in these little blocks.

I haven't been doing too much this week. I over-did on some hand work (quilting and applique) last weekend and am now suffering with a tendonitis flareup in my hands. Aside from the discomfort, it's just a pain to not be able to do much. I can type a little, and do the rotary cutter and sewing machine, but not iron or cut with scissors. So, I've sorted some fabrics and generally made a mess in the quilt studio. I did finally find an embroidery hoop! I have somewhere in the neighborhood of a dozen hoops, and couldn't find a single one. But I finally found one in another project! Yay! Now, when my hands feel better, I can finish the block that I needed the hoop for.

I started quilting another Halloween wallhanging. (The "Boo!" quilt, Pam!) I've gotten the center done, but now I'm kind of stuck on what to do on the border, especially since my hands aren't really cooperating. The border is solid black, so any quilting will really show up well. So, both the quilt and my hands are resting whilst I cogitate on it. I may end up not doing free-motion and just doing simple lines with the walking foot. That should be easier on my hands. But boring, probably.

Our weather has turned quite fall-like this week. We've been cold at night - last night our low was 32 degrees! And the high isn't much above the 50 degree mark. Seems like we turned cold pretty quickly this fall. We're starting to get some good color on the trees, but have another week or more before it peaks. But just beautiful sunny weather yesterday and today. Yay for sun! And, just so you know, I really didn't expect to ever hear myself say that. I got over-done on sunshine in California. No problem with that here in Washington!

Just to show you that I'm not totally obsessing with fall quilts, here's one that doesn't even come close to fall.


This was a color challenge in which we blindly drew paint chips out of a paper bag to determine the colors we had to work with. I drew two colors pretty close to each other. At first it was hard to find the colors I needed, but after going to a couple of quilt shows (and the multiple vendors at each one), I was OK on fabrics. (Shopping for quilting somehow has never been a hardship, except maybe on the checkbook!)
I can't remember if I paper-pieced this one or not. It was a hard one to do as far as figuring out what I needed to do on each block, for color placement. I got easily confused on this one! I had a lot of false starts on these blocks. I also wasn't thrilled with the white background, but it seemed to work the best with these colors.
So, I added the buttons to the corners to kind of jazz it up a little. That was fun to do, figuring out all the different ways you could sew on a button!

I had a hard time deciding how to quilt this one. I ended up doing minimal quilting on it. It's just a little wallhanging, about the size of a placemat, so that's not a big deal. But I was quite pleased with how the border quilting worked. The first time I had tried that, and it came out better than I thought it would. Can't complain about that, can I?

I had so much fun with this challenge that I actually made 2 quilts! And my DD made one too. I think it was only her 2nd or 3rd quilt. Someday I'll show you my other quilt, and maybe DD will let me show hers too.

The Frost Is On The Pumpkin...

Guess what? I love fall, and Halloween! Maybe because my birthday is this time of year, maybe because I like cool weather, maybe - who knows?? I love a crisp fall day, with the leaves falling and the smell of smoke. Something about it just really speaks to me and makes me happy. Every year I seem compelled to make yet another fall/Halloween wallhanging. Maybe someday I'll even make a full-size quilt! Because this time of year makes me want to cuddle up into a cozy quilt with my kitties and a good book. I've seen a lot of great fall/Halloween quilts around blogland this fall. They're very inspiring. Now, if I only had more time!

I made the quilt with the yellow kitty 2 or 3 years ago. The cat looks like my daughter's cat Hamlet, except I think Hamlet is perhaps more pumpkin-shaped than this. (sorry, sweetie!)
I started this quilt with the dark kitty not long after Hamlet's, but never quite got it finished. This one is Shade, because we didn't have Dunkel then. When I was going through my (many) bins of projects, I found this again. It only needed the eyes and whiskers added. I finally got it done! Yay! Another finish! But, after I took this picture, I changed the eyes to brighter green buttons. I forgot to take another picture. Oops! But just try to imagine how it looks, OK?

This is a little stenciled quilt that I bought one year at a quilt show. I think it's a great little quilt, and I love the little buttons. I have to be careful where I put it, because the kitties want to chew on the stick.
I found this link to a quilt show on someone's blog a bit ago. Unfortunately, I can't remember where. It's a quilt show put on by The Country Loft quilt shop in La Mesa, California. Actually you can see the shows from a number of years. (Just scroll down on the menu on the left to see "Quilt Show".) Very fun!

Crazy Aunt Purl had a very thoughtful post today about consumerism, credit cards, and "stuff". I really enjoyed her take on it, and mostly agree with her. Here's another essay on "stuff" by Paul Graham. Having just moved in recent memory, I can understand this "stuff" stuff. I have too much stuff. It can become a burden and a hindrance. I haven't even unpacked all of my stuff because I'm enjoying the minimalism. Don't get me wrong - I still have lots of stuff out. I just don't have it ALL out. We have sorted and culled many times since we moved into this house, and I still have more to do, in almost every room, not to mention the garage! We have more than we really need. I think we quilters often buy more fabric than we really need, just because it calls to us. We need to stock up for when we can't afford more fabric, or to have a choice of fabrics for our art, or whatever our rationalization is. I know I have. And not just fabric, but books, tools, patterns, toys - really, just about anything used for quilting. I don't have any answers. I've really tried hard to not buy fabric just to have it, but it's a hard habit to break. Sadly, it's my addiction. Well, besides chocolate. But, I'm out of room for any more quilt-y stuff. Like the bumper sticker says, "You can't have it all - where will you put it?"

I'm trying Tonya's suggestions on my photos this time and sized them to 800 pixels. I've used 3% of my space for photos in 9 months. One thing I've learned is that there's a bug in Blogger. If you load your photos in the center position, and then move them, they are no longer clickable to a bigger size. I don't know why. If you load them on the left or right, you can move them and then still click on them, but your text gets goofy going around the photos. So, hopefully this will work.

One last link for you. I found pictures of "liberated" churn dash quilts on Flickr. Very fun to see!