I want a drunkard's path die. I think I might actually want it more than the isosceles triangle die I ordered a couple of days ago. Because look at these. Especially Berry Strudel and Chocolate Go Round. And Dottie and Many Paths and Friends and Flowers. I like this layout too...and this one has 500 different fabrics in it...and I found one with strings...and there's devil's puzzle (along with a bunch other other layouts)...

I did not know there were so many things you could do with that block. I've got enough self control not to order myself a die, but I might start cutting templates out of cereal boxes before long.

I'm celebrating!

It's my birthday and my husband was scheduled to work a long overtime shift, so I'm enjoying myself by spending the day on a quilt that's just for me.

That Double Irish Chain with the sawtooth stars makes my heart go pitty-pat. I want one! Without the borders, which don't do a thing for me.



The original quilt, according to the library book, was made by Harriet Sophia Fyler Spicer in 1854. As soon as I saw it, I decided that I wanted one in blue and white. There's no pattern, so it took me a couple of days to figure out how to make the stars fit inside the chain, but I think I've finally got the math right and I've pulled enough dark blue fabrics from my stash.

I've done a Double Irish Chain before, and I've got most of my stars pieced, so I should be able to pull this off.

A couple of days ago, I was reading Love Laugh Quilt and saw one of those quilts that just makes me sigh "i want i want i want..." But I couldn't immediately figure out how it was done, so I gave up the idea and clicked onto something else. There's nothing like two or three days of messed up DSL to make you feel like following pretty rabbit trails.

Today, there's a tutorial that shows exactly how to make those spiral log cabin blocks. I've got just the right fabric to play around with when I try my own version.

This quilt at Nap Time News also caught my imagination. I found a couple of big hunks of striped fabric when I was sorting through a box of scraps last night and had no clue what to do with them. My stripes aren't nearly as neat looking as hers, but I think I'll see how they look in this pattern. And to make things even easier, it turns out that the pattern is in One Yard Wonders, which I bought Alex for Christmas.

And then I saw a link to Simply Strippy at Quiltville. I don't know if I somehow missed that pattern all of the other times I was drooling over that site, or if I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to appreciate it, but those pictures of antique quilts have got my mind whirling.

I've been meaning to take decent pictures of the finished baby quilts, but after stumbling across all of this neat stuff, I think I'd rather go quilt.

I'm in quilt lust again -- this time it's a quilt over at Exuberant Color. I love the big black corner squares, and the wild combination of narrow strips and the whole half-log cabin thing.

Maybe it's because as I've been sorting through my scraps to cut squares for the baby quilts I keep finding strings to add to that bin.

Maybe it's because this looks more possible than the log cabin quilt I saw a picture of at the quilt shop last weekend, the one with 7/8" strips. Not that I don't still want to tackle one of those...

The plan for today was to get up before the kids so I could cut scraps and listen to the commentary for the zombie movie Bill and I watched last night, but my body convinced me that I needed sleep more than I needed zombie enlightenment. And the phone rang during nap time, so I couldn't watch it then, either.

I never did get to the fabric today. But I feel a lot more functional, I've rounded up most of the library books that are due back this week, and dinner is simmering on the stove. Tonight's experiment is Depression Era Corn Chowder, except I left out the onions and added chicken. Don't know how it'll taste, but it smells nice.

Last week, we tried slow cooker tarragon chicken, in a dutch oven on the range because someone stole the knob to my crock pot and pliers didn't look like they'd work. It was the yummiest thing to come out of my kitchen in a long time -- not counting Bill's cooking, which is always better.

There was also a cranberry pot roast the next night, but the best thing I can say about that is that it didn't poison anyone.