Sneak Peak

Finished quilt top

               

Finished quilt top 

Is it possible that the colors in a quilt keep you up at night?  The energy in this particular piece keeps me buzzing along with my sweet Bernina till the wee hours of the night.  And since my husband is such great quilting company (we chat about the day while he plays Underworld Empire and I quilt), a Saturday night spent quilting is guiltless!

This is a modified jelly roll race using 3 inch strips (instead of the traditional 2 inch strips).  Plus its double the number of strips (60 vs 30). I made the regular jelly roll race size last year with 2 inch strips and it just wasn't big enough.  So I doubled up and alas improvisation has served me well.  It measures 83"x 80".  Fabric is from Jay McCarroll's Habitat mixed with a few other good finds that warmed up the fabric line.

I basted the quilt with 505 spray (my staple), and gave it some extra pin basting about every 10 inches for good measure.  One last press, and I started the quilting tonight using straight lines about 1/2 inch from the seams.  

Stay tuned!

Oh and please excuse the poor quality iphotos. 

Let them be eaten by bears

Peter Brown Hoffmeister was a troubled teen who carried guns to high school in the 1990's.  His mother forbid video games, saying they would "dumb him down".  These were the days before Call of Duty and Halo and the like.  And although he got into many fights and was expelled from school, he never shot or wounded anyone with a weapon, even though he admittedly thought about it many times.  In fact he turned his life around, became a high school teacher and wrote a book titled Let Them Be Eaten By Bears, A Fearless Guide to Taking Our Kids Into The Great Outdoors.  He goes back to my favorite remedy for bringing young boys back from the brink in today's tough world of violence.  He is also the author of End of Boys, writes a sharp blog about related issues and for the Huffington Post.  Check him out.