I though this would be a perfect day to update my blog and share with you some pictures from my recent visit to Tennessee.

 I had a chance to stop at an antique store where I stumbled on a bed full of quilts. One of them was a signature quilt from the 1931, it was so sweet.

 As I was posting the pictures for you to enjoy, I stopped and called my mom, I wonder what reminded me!

This block brought warm memories of my quilting beginnings as I used to sign my quilts “Mom” with a heart for an O since all my first quilts were made to cuddle my little ones.

 As I walked thru the antique store, quilts seemed to be everywhere.

 This is the quilt that I brought home with me – it was so worn that I felt it need to be retired at my retreat. It reminds me of the peonies that are just preparing to bloom.

We have completed our Silhouette Challenge and it has been the most amazing experience to be part of your creativity. I am so blessed to have so many wonderful quilters taking part in our challenge. I think that everyone deserves a prize and applause, but for now we have five new “Scrappy Fireworks” books that five lucky participants will receive.
We have had a random drawing and the lucky winners that will be notified are:

Lynda Hermann
Maree Ratcliff
Martha Mumaw
Letitia Plesoianu
Lynn Diamente

Congratulations to everyone and thank you for participating, I am so proud of you! I have combined all of the photos to an album below that I hope you will be able to view. I am new at this so please forgive me and let me know if I have missed anything.

Two days left until we leave for Kansas City - Spring Market 2012, I better start packing…

Thank you for all of the fantastic project photos you are sending to me made with the Fabric Silhouettes, I am truly enjoying your creativity! Please keep sending photos to my email edyta@laundrybasketquilts.com, I will collect all of them and create a post on the blog for everyone to enjoy next month. We will also have our drawing to find out who will receive an early copy of “Scrappy Fireworks”

 It’s raining outside and I’m dancing in puddles of fabulous fabric inside!

 Samples of my new collection “Dancing in the Rain” have arrived and I am enjoying the process of creating something fun for Spring Market! It always starts like puddles of color…

…and after a bit of dancing, splashing, and stomping my feet –  it slowly begins to take shape.

With a gentle touch and a bit of patience, it finally becomes the expression that I am looking for. This is one of the 3 table toppers in our new pattern “Rainy Day Trio”.

 Everything in the spring looks better after rain; I glanced through the window and saw my daughter, Anna, dancing in the rain with her camera catching these beautiful blossoms.

 The bleeding hearts that are in full bloom this time of year are one of my favorites.

Using “Dancing in the Rain – Layer Cake” squares I created this “Dancing Umbrella” quilt (pattern availiable mid May)  - my Mom always said, “If you can make one, you can make a dozen!” I like to think that she was referring to quilting blocks or cookies with that statement. Speaking of cookies, I think I am going to need some for an extra boost of energy to finish all of the projects I have dreamed up for the new collection “Dancing in the Rain”. I can’t wait to share all of them with you soon!

I even got a minute to stop on the side of the road and enjoy springtime in Texas.

I love the fields of  blue and white, I have never seen the white poppies before, they are beautiful.

My special treat from Michael was to have a morning at an antique show, it reminded me of an Easter egg hunt as I browsed through many different booths and found a little bit of everything from buttons to hidden treasures.

What fun! – You could say I found a whole wagon load of quilts with colors as bright and happy as Easter eggs. See the slide-show below for a few of the quilts that I saw at the show.

Click on the photo to advance or wait for the show to run.

I love going to flea markets and antique shows, a simple bouquet of flowers in an unusual pot becomes an inspiration.

In the end of my Easter hunt, I was one happy girl – while I didn’t have any chocolate eggs in my basket, I did find this fantastic quilt!

I love the colors and the size of the pieces that are 1/2″ finished, I just could not leave this one behind and had to bring it home with me…

At home, the true egg hunt was underway!

My girls tried something new this year for coloring our eggs, we wrapped them in pieces of old silk ties, then boiled them in a water/vinegar solution to cook.

It was amazing how the colors and patterns from the silk was transferred to the eggs!

Then we proceeded with the traditional egg coloring to create our rainbow eggs.

Easter Sunday turned out to be a wonderful day, with family and beautiful weather – you can’t ask for more. I hope your day was great as well!

Thank you so much for your amazing response and willingness to pour your creative energy into our fun challenge! All of the spots are filled and we are printing your labels and getting your sample packages ready to ship!

A little bit of rain and a couple of warm sunny days and Michigan spring is in full bloom…

…just in time for our local Quilt Show here in Marshall, MI.

I am getting my favorite scrappy quilts ready for the show - some old…

…and some new from our new book, it was so much fun to photograph them last summer.

I am really excited about this quilting event in Marshall, MI and looking forward to take part in it, I hope to see you there!

I’ve found sprouts in my gardens this  morning, a sure sign spring is just around the corner and a great inspiration for a new quilt. 

In my studio, my quilt garden of “Prairie Peony” is in full bloom. I sure have enjoyed applique this winter.

A few years ago when I first started using my “Applique Silhouette” stencils, I had it good, but now with the combination of fabric “Silhouettes” and “Applique Silhouette” stencils, I think I’ve reached applique heaven!

 It was so much fun to applique my Rainbow Star, and work on this wonderful new product “Fabric Silhouettes”.

 I came across a wonderful box of early sample pieces of “Silhouettes” in beautiful batiks, I think this is a perfect time to let you have some fun with these shapes, so lets have a little challenge!

The Challenge is:
Show me how you will use fabric silhouettes in any creative way that you would like! 
You can embellish any sewing or quilting project, scrapbook, or create an applique block (10″ finished size please). You can add more shapes using Applique Silhouette stencils or anything else you can think of - put your creative hat on and just have fun with them.

When you are completed, take a picture and email it to me, deadline for your project is May 1st 2012.  We will post the pictures of your projects on our blog for everyone to enjoy and there will be a drawing for 5 lucky participants to win our new book “Scrappy Fireworks” that will be released in May 2012.

If you would like to take on this challenge, please send me an email at edyta@laundrybasketquilts.com with the subject of the email:

Spring Silhouette Challenge

Be sure to include your mailing address in the body of the email and we will send the first 100 applicants a small sample bag of fabric “Silhouettes” on March 26th for you to start designing with – please note that shapes will vary in each bag.

As I look forward to see how you welcome the challenge, I am going back to applique heaven working on my next block of the month I call “Spring Sprouts”!

Thank you for stopping , be sure to peek again and see my progress.

 Next step of course is the quilting! I am going to use Hobbs Silk Batting in this quilt to give a very nice “pop” to the applique once it is quilted.

Max’s new friend stopped by to see the quilt also, I think she is day-dreaming of spring and flowers.

 My newest goodies have just arrived! Our new batik collection “Over the Rainbow” (releases May 2012) is the “crayon box” for all of my latest projects and there are plenty of them for you to enjoy!

 If you would like to see more about this new fabric collection please enjoy the video below.

 I love rainbows, I think that you will agree with me that there is something special about them that takes your breath away.

I love quilting, but even more, I love quilting with chocolate, don’t you agree?

Making great progress, I have completed all of the borders for one of my new quilts!

 Just one of the borders alone will make a great table runner. Today I am working on the inner border from 4 patches - I can’t wait to put the whole quilt together and share with you on Monday!

What a fantastic winter we’re having here in Michigan, while we haven’t been able to do winter activities like skiing, the kids have been enjoying their favorite outdoor activities.
Anna continues to improve on her unicycle…

…and Michael is almost as good as his Dad on roller blades.

In the mean time, Max has managed to make a new friend. My husband Michael found this cute cat scratching on the back door one night when it was -7 degrees F. He let her in to warm herself up that night and she now visits us on a regular basis.

Have a great weekend!

I hope you are enjoying your favorite chocolates and dreaming of quilting pleasures!

 My husband Michael treated me for a Heavenly Crisp (my favorite candy bar) and some relaxing time to sew. I am head over heels in love with my new fabric “Silhouettes” and I’m planning to spend some quality time with them today!

“Silhouettes”, a new treat from Laundry Basket Quilts, are laser cut fabric shapes with pre-applied fusible web; ready to arrange, fuse, and applique. I know, I know – no tracing, no cutting and no fussing required, I am feeling spoiled and pampered this Valentines Day!

I just pick my favorite shape.

Peel the paper from the back.

Place on my background and use an iron to fuse.

Now for my favorite step – Stitching!

Sometimes I use decorative stitches to go around the shapes.

When I want to hide my stitch I use a zigzag and invisible thread.

When you are in love there is no boundries, my Silhouettes have inspired many new projects and I can’t wait to share them with you!

Please stop back to see my finished project in a couple days!

We have winners! 3 of you will received the border bundle from our Indian Summer collection that is used for the border of the Moda Sampler Quilt.

The winners have been notified by email and are:

Our studio feels like Santa’s Workshop right now, we have been cutting, packing and preparing lots of beautiful kits and bundles for our website.

I have saved a little time for fun though, below is one of the blocks I created for my new applique quilt.

I had some leftovers from my Twinkle Star Quilt (Fall 2011, Love Letter collection) that I decorated with Applique Silhouettes. This is one of many blocks for this new quilt - be sure to stop back and see my progress!

Congratulations to the winners and Happy Holidays to everyone!

 Winter has arrived here in MI and we have been blessed with our first “Snow Day”.

 I call it an unexpected gift from Mother Nature that covers the earth with a soft blanket of snow and invites us for a day of fun.

 Our ”Sled Dog” in his favorite sweater…

OK, he’s clearly a slightly spoiled “Sled Dog”.

SO much fun to have making “Snow Angels”… or having a snowball fight!

Now time to play inside, holidays are coming and I am finishing last minute projects using my new collection “Snow Day” – what a coincidence! This wonderful group of batiks in winter night blues, hot milk lights, chestnut browns, and fun images of a special day just arrived on my doorstep. (Available in shops next summer)

 For me, this is a great inspiration to create beautiful quilts during a play-day in my sewing room; small projects like the table runners above and also bigger ones like the ”Snowflake” quilt below. Patterns for each will be available soon.

Holidays are all about giving, let’s start with a recipe card for this cute block that
I call “Funnel Cake“.

I used the block on the front of the Small-Big Tote which was featured
in my Country Fair Post.

 I also love what Lissa (right side) and Debbie (hiding behind quilt) did with all of the recipe card blocks, creating this beautiful sampler quilt. The fabrics in the borders and binding are from my “Indian Summer” collection which is available in stores right now.

Please share your Christmas Wish in the comments below and three of you (random drawing) on December 15th will win fabrics for the borders and binding of this Moda Sampler from Laundry Basket Quilts and Moda.

Thank you for stopping and be sure to visit all of the wonderful Moda blogs on this hop.

Friends