Monday Musings - Quilts & Projects!
Good morning, and Happy Spring! On this snowy spring morning, I have a fun and fast project for you to update your dining table - direct from Wendy Sheppard's new book, Quilts & Projects from precuts or stash by Landauer. 
To see the other blogs in the hop (and the projects that go along with them), please visit the following blogs:March 14th, Island Batik's main blog page here.March 15th, The Fit Quilter - The Crossings QuiltMarch 16th, Pamela Quilts - Flight of Colors PillowsMarch 17th, MooseStash Quilting - Care for a Cuppa QuiltMarch 18th - Bejeweled Quilts - Birds of a Feather PlacematMarch 21st - You're Here!March 22nd - Beaquilter - Childhood Memories QuiltsMarch 23rd - DOUBLE POST - Freemotion by the River and KISSed Quilts - Winter Blues Quilt. Two chances to win a book!March 24th - Mary Mack Made Mine - Stars over Columbia QuiltMarch 25th - Lemon Tree Snippets - Count My Blessings QuiltThis book blog hop project was offered to the Island Batik Ambassadors, and we had the chance to pick our top 3 projects. I had a difficult time selecting which ones I wanted to work with (this book will become a well used resource in my library!), and I was thrilled to get my first choice, the 
Birds of A Feather Table Runner. If you're following along the hop, there's a table runner pattern in the same motif that Barb Gaddy profiled last week, and I know I've got some placemats in my future.For this project, I used the Sweet Georgia Peach line, which is a beautiful, rich melody of the peaches, browns, creams and greens that are found on a peach tree. My runner looks a lot different than Wendys does - but the colors make it so liveable in my dining room.
One of my goals this year is to improve my free motion quilting skills, and this piece gave me a unique opportunity...each of the color bars is quilted using a different (and easy) motif. The runner is about 15" wide, and that was enough (after some practice pieces) for me to quilt on my domestic machine. I actually can't wait to spruce up my screen porch this spring with a set of the placemats.Wendy's book is published by Landauer, and they have graciously allowed each of us to give away a copy of the book. To win my copy (which will be direct shipped to you by the publisher), please leave a comment below telling me whether you're a precut quilter or a stash quilter - it should be interesting market research! - and I'll select a winner on Thursday, March 24th. I'll notify the winner via email (and update this post when one has been selected.If you'd like to purchase the book directly (for yourself, or as a quilty friend), I have some links for you...To purchase the hardcover book directly from Landauer, here is the link for the book, or you can purchase it directly from Wendy's site, where she'll be happy to sign a copy for you. If an ebook is more your style, you can do that as well, by clicking here.Next up on the blog...what is March Mini Madness all about?