A belated Quilt Market post.  Why? Because I spent the week after Market in Iowa!  Yes, IOWA!  And I loved it.  But more about that in an upcoming post–or two.

The day before Market starts is a crazy day of classes and presentation called Schoolhouse.  I presented two Schoolhouses, one for Fabric Shop Network on a program I’ve written called Stash Pot Pie.  The other was for Timeless Treasures, who manufactures my fabric designs.  My friend, Karen Montgomery, also designs for Timeless.  Her  presentation was right before mine.  We both showed up in the hallway a little early, only to discover we had dressed alike!

My new Dear Dorothy fabrics and quilt looked great in the Timeless Treasures booth.  It’s so fun to see my name up there–almost as much fun as seeing it on the selvage!  The quilt is a free to download pattern on my website, and, of course, kits are available!  The dresses are from patterns by Izzy and Ivy.

I also discovered some of my toile fabrics used by the talented designers from Beach Garden Quilts.

There was a new exhibitor there, Chitter Chatter Designs.  Mom’s the designer, but her daughter and her mother were both there helping her.

This was my favorite new booth, Hemma Designs.

I don’t know what I liked best–the fact the “Hemma” is Swedish for “At Home” or their fresh, new designs.

Make new friends, but keep the old…….

Here I am with Jill Mead, editor of Quilts and More, Elizabeth Stumbo graphic designer for Quilt Sampler, Linzee MacRae, Pam Viera and Monica.  Hmm, I wonder what’s afoot?

You probably already know that my sista friend, Monica, had her first fabric line debut at this market–Holiday Happy.

Her Gnome-A-Claus is so adorable!

I know someone who’d love a green sewing table!

And in the quilt exhibit area, was this quilt, entitled Remembering Sweden by Helena Sheffer.  If you’ve ever been to Stockholm’s Old Town, you’d recognize it immediately.

And, oh, I even had dinner in Hell’s Kitchen!

I just had an email from one of my newsletter subscribers reminding me of a speedy way to make nine-patches.  I’d seen it done years ago, and forgotten all about it.  With this method, you get two nine-patches at a time.  How perfect for our Summer Nine-Patch Project! Now you can make two blocks a day faster than making one block the traditional way.  That means you’ll either end up with twice as many blocks, or you’ll only have to sew every other day!  Thanks, Peggy, for the reminder.

Here’s a tutorial on how to make the Two-For-One Nine-Patch blocks.  The example is for a 9″ finished block, but at the end of the tutorial, I’ll give you the formula (and chart) so you can make any size block you want.

1.  Layer a light and dark fabric, right sides together, and cut a 10-1/2″ square.

2. Using a 1/4″ seam allowance, join the squares together on two opposite sides.

3. Take the to your cutting board and measure in 3-1/2″ from one stitched side.  Cut.

4. Measure in 3-1/2″ from the other stitched side and cut.  You will have two stitched segments and two unstitched strips.

5. Press the stitched segments toward the dark fabric.  Add a contrasting strip to one side of each block.

6. Stitch and press toward the dark fabric.

7. Place the two segments right sides together with the seams running in the same direction.  If you pressed everything toward the dark fabric, the seams will nest together.

8. Now stitch together across the previously made seams.  Stitch both opposite sides.

9. Cut 3-1/2″ from each seamed edge.

10. Press toward the side with the most dark fabric.  Add the unstitched strips to the pieced segments, dark to light.

11. Voila!  You have two mirror image blocks!

Here’s the formula for cutting the squares.  Take the size of the strip that you would cut for a regular nine-patch block and multiply times 3–it’s that simple.  In our example, we would have cut strips 3-1/2″, so 3-1/2″ x 3 is 10-1/2″, the size of our square.

Here’s a chart to make it a little easier.  Block sizes given are for finished blocks.

For 3″ blocks, start with a 4-1/2″ square

For 4-1/2″ blocks, start with a 6″ square

For 6″ blocks, start with a 7-1/2″ square

For 9″ blocks, start with a 10-1/2″ square

For 12″ blocks, start with a 13-1/2″ square

Have fun and be sure to join the Facebook group and post pictures of your blocks!

Sign up for my email newsletter at annalena.com.

If you’re like me, it can be hard to find time to sew in the summer when there are so many distractions.  Well, this summer, why don’t you join The Nine-Patch Project?

What’s the Nine-Patch Project?  There really are no rules.  It’s just a commitment to make one nine-patch block each day this summer!  If you do this from June 1 through August 31, you’ll have 92 nine-patch blocks at the end of summer!

What size should they be?  Make your nine-patches any size you want.  Here are the sizes of squares to cut for various sized blocks:

Cut 1 1/2″ squares for 3″ Blocks
Cut 2″ squares for 4 1/2″ Blocks
Cut 2 1/2″ squares for 6″ Blocks
Cut 3 1/2″ squares for 9″ Blocks
Cut 4 1/2″ squares for 12″ Blocks

What fabric should I use?  Anything goes.  Use all the same fabric, use up strips and squares from your stash.  Surely you must have some.  You can be color controlled or completely scrappy.  You can do light/dark, dark/light, you can use two colors in each block or you can use nine different fabrics in each block.  It’s up to you.

What if I miss a day?  Make two the next!  Miss a week, make seven next week.  C’mon, they’re nine-patches.  Nothing could be easier!  This is a no-stress, anything goes project meant to be nothing but fun.

There’s even a Facebook page where you can sign up to join the fun.  9-Patch Project at Facebook here.  You can post pictures of your blocks and be inspired by the pictures others post.  Several of my web  friends are involved in this project, and in the end, we’ll give you some ideas for setting your blocks together.  Don’t overlook the power of the nine-patch!

Here’s a vintage nine-patch quilt that’s in my collection.  Very scrappy, but every center is yellow.

Here’s my version of the above quilt, just using orange for my centers and setting the blocks on point.

Here’s a controlled scrappy that I saw on the internet.  Again, all the centers are the same.

Here’s another on-point version made by Marla.

I sure hope you’ll join in the fun!

Our show-and-tell at Redwork recently was Dish Towels.  I especially love the days-of-the-week themes.

I believe this pattern is by Grace Drayton, who also drew the Campbell Soup kids.

I love the expression on the face of this little Dutch girl.

I’m not sure she’s cut out for housekeeping!

Melinda had these.  I think they’re most unusual.  It’s from the rhyme, “This little pig went to market, this little pig stayed home, this little pig ate roast beef, this little pig had none and this little pig cried ‘wee, wee, wee’ all the way home!”  I remember it from my childhood!

Melinda also had these towels made from a 1940′s pattern called “A Sweet Little Miss.”  It’s the basis for my Merry Margaret patterns.

Here’s a set of mine, where I drew Merry Margaret doing her chores.  I call the pattern All Week Long.

Here are some pretty flower pots with matching fabrics from Happy.

Tea pots seem to have been a popular motif.

Some in Redwork.

Some in pretty colors.

Some in Bluework.

Well, you get the idea!

These are cute with the kitty faces.

I loved these canisters.

Melinda made this for me several years ago.

This bluebird is adorable!

But I think the most unusual was these mushrooms!

Our dear family friend, Lil, became ill last fall and recently passed away.  When she went into a nursing home, it fell to Bob and me to clean out her house and ready it for sale.  It’s a cute, two story house with a very open plan, and the living space upstairs.  Lil had lived there for 23 years, along with many cats.  And, oh, Lil was a smoker!

We decided we had to remove all carpets, draperies, bedding, etc., and start over.  I didn’t take many before pictures, but here’s the living room after we (read Bob) had torn up two layers of carpeting, the first glued down.

All the woodwork in the house was dark and the walls were white.

The kitchen cabinets were also dark, with very plain door and drawer fronts.

I wanted to give them some style, so we decided some Shaker detail would be nice.

Once painted white, they looked terrific!  Eventually we added brushed nickel hardware and replaced the countertop, too.

The cleaning started last fall, but the actual remodel started in March, and we are now one project away from being finished.

Welcome to Gull Cottage!  The front door is new, as is the exterior paint on the house.

A beachy touch in the entry–and a new light fixture.  In fact, all through the house the light fixtures have been replaced.

Once you enter the house, you turn left and head up the stairs.

You’re greeted by a spectacular wall of windows facing toward the ocean.  If you look closely, you’ll see the outside trim was blue.  We’ve changed it to a dark gray.

At first I had a wicker chair by the stove, but replaced it with this chair.  And notice the hardwood laminate floor that
Bob put in in the entire upstairs.

The wood burning stove is a great feature.  It did have red tile under it, but we replaced that with this new hearth pad.

The new sofa sits with its back to the stair railing, now painted white.

On the opposite wall is the dinette.  I love the wicker, iron and glass set.

The kitchen is small but efficient.  I love the painted cabinets.  The bar is on wheels, so you have great versatility.

We replaced the kitchen counter top.

Since the bedroom and living room were open to each other, we got this track and panel system from Ikea.

You can slide the panels open, if you prefer.  And look how cute Lil’s desk looks tucked into the little nook that was created!

Queen sized bed.

Opposite the foot of the bed–closet on the left, bathroom on the right.

The bath off the bedroom.  I love the Ocean Breezes art that I found.

We upgraded this countertop to granite.

The vinyl floor looks like tile.  We used the same flooring in the entry and downstair bath.

Downstairs is another large, open room.  The only thing left to do is finish the headboards we are making and painting them and the night stands white.

I found a great fabric that matched the bedding and made valances.

Update – June 6.  Bob made these headboards.  Don’t they look adorable?

Here’s the carpet we put in the downstairs.

The downstairs sitting area.

There was no bathroom downstairs, so we took some room from the garage and added a nice bath.

That allowed us to add this big closet.

Which houses the washer, dryer and hot water heater.

We even finished sheet rocking the garage.

And I spread bark and topsoil in all the beds.

It was a lot of hard work, but I love the way it turned out.  I also learned that I’m not ready to start flipping houses for a living!

It’s been a ton of work, but this is what the Anne Frank room looks like now.

Yes, there are still empty totes, but that’s because I’ve only emptied eight of the huge drawers that used to be in there.  There are 20 more to go, but there’s still a lot of shelf space on the new shelving Bob installed.

And the plastic racks for quilts and quilt tops are working out great!

They go down the center of the room.  Every quilt and quilt top is neatly folded and stored in its proper place.  Wow, I never thought I’d say that!

The Swedish immigrant’s trunk is nice and orderly once again.

But I’m not finished.  The sorting goes on…….

If you look closely at the wood paneled wall in this guest room, you can see the hinges on the door that lead to the Anne Frank room.

Anna Lena Land is become more organized everyday.

Last Saturday we emptied out the attic storage room–the room we call The Anne Frank Room because of the hidden door.  The big, deep drawer units that were in there weren’t the best for organized storage, and Bob is building me shelves.  The plan is that everything that goes back in will be ORGANIZED!  Of course there were some quilts in there.

Since my nephew, Cole, always spends a few days with me after Christmas, and we usually need a project, our project turned out to be organizing the quilts!  He made Excel Spreadsheets for five categories of quilts–Quilts from Karen’s Fabric, Quilts from Karen’s Books, Newly Made Quilts, Quilts from the 1920′s – 1950′s and Quilts Pre 1920.  Each spreadsheet has a spot for the name of the quilt, it’s size, where it’s stored and a place for notes.  Then the fun began–sorting, photographing and tagging!  But not just the quilts that were in the Anne Frank room.  Oh, no!  We did them all.  The quilts from my Swedish immigrant trunk.  Honest, there is a trunk under all those quilts!

The quilts in the studio.

The quilts in the TV cabinet.

We brought the last of the quilts home that were still at the Anna Lena store!

And the biggest stacks of all–the quilts from my books!  On the left, the quilts from Bundles of Fun.  In the middle, the quilts from Fat Quarter Fun.  On the right, quilts from Quilts From My Garden.  Why did I think it was a good idea to make each quilt twice–in different colorways–to see how different they could look?!?

Right now there are quilts EVERYWHERE!  It takes longer to fold them up neatly and store them than it did to open them up and photograph them!

But I brought home my baby crib, and some are going in there.

Quilts from my books are stored at my mom and dad’s house.  The Swedish trunk is full.  The guest beds all have quilts on them.  I’m even going to be selling some of them.  That’s what this stack is.

I’m sure I’ll come across a few more, but I’ll add them to the great spreadsheets Cole made, and it will be so nice to know where everything is!  Thanks, Cole, for making Anna Lena Land a little more organized!

Wow, I’m in the new Fons and Porter magazine–and I didn’t even know it.

I got suspicious last week when I started getting lots of orders for the Sweet Pea bundles and dress panel.  Then my friend Loretta came for our Redwork Christmas Party, and she had a copy of the magazine!  Jean Nolte designed the quilt, and all the little dresses are embellished with ribbon or rickrack or lace or aprons or pinafores.  It’s just adorable!

I always have fun making samples with my own fabric lines, but it’s so exciting to see what other people do with it.  Thank you, Jean.

I’ve been saving the selvages from my fabrics and I’m getting quite a bin full.

A long time ago I made this fun Quilt In A Cup, but I haven’t done anything else–until now!

It’s really fun to see my name and Anna Lena’s on the selvages.  I’ve been wanting to do something with them, but it seems like there’s never time for a project that isn’t FOR something–to support a fabric line, for a class, for a book.  So, a few days ago, I decided to heck with everything else, I’m making something with my selvages!  The result is this little bag.

It was more of an experiment than a real project, and I’d do some things differently if I did it again. But it’s kind of cute and I did learn a cool thing when quilting the orange polka dot fabric for the bottom.  If you look at the polka dots just right, they make a perfect diagonal line!  So, I sat down at my Elna and just followed every other line of dots to do my grid quilting, and it worked perfectly.

I think you can see it better from the back.

I’m going to remember that for a future project!