Quilted Distractions

Feathered Star update

2011-06-28T19:46:00.000-07:00

The quilt shop has been open for six months now and its been a whirlwind of activity. Ordering fabric... being creative with where to display the fabric when it comes in...keeping up with the Facebook page and web site...creating pattern samples and quilts from the beautiful fabrics for inspiration...planning the classes offered at the shop... planning and preparing for Demonstration Days the last Saturday of each month...and being the custodian, bookkeeper, and other assorted "must do" activities! But what fun!

The numbers of my customers continues to grow. At last count 475 quilters had signed into the guest book/ enewsletter list! Many have become regular visitors to the shop often coming with friends and family.

So if you are reading this blog you might check out the Feathered Star web site and blog or search for "feathered star" on Facebook!
Happy Quilting!
Shaula

Cuddly Thimbles

2010-12-30T06:43:00.000-08:00

My latest thimble quilt made from bright pastel fabrics from recent baby quilts.

All the colors are represented in the bright candy straws fabric used for the border! And look at the yummy back! Its a bright pink minkee fabric. I quilted soft roses and leaves throughout.

Open for business!

2010-12-20T07:41:00.000-08:00

Opening day for the Feathered Star was Tuesday, Dec 7. Since then I've had many shoppers and visitors to the store! How exciting to see old friends come through the door and meet new ones. Many are stopping by with good wishes and to see the amazing transformation of the building. My mother and sister spent the first day at the store providing yummy breads and taking pictures. Son, Aaron was there for opening day to make sure the computer cooperated nicely. Many thanks to them!!

The flower shop is long gone though I've been fortunate to use many things in the quilt shop including the Christmas tree and its' decorations. The shelves from the flower shop have been repurposed to hold beautiful fabrics (many florals which is more familiar to them!). Our friends next door have give us slat board to add to the back of two shelves where I display notions. From another friend I purchased old doors and school desks/chairs which are used throughout the store for display.

Since the store has opened one new quilter has created her first quilt for a Christmas gift (string pieced squares using Civil War reproductions)... beautiful! I hope she's just the first of many new quilters to gain inspiration and guidance from the store!

The Feathered Star web page is now online at http://www.featheredstarquilt.com/. I hope to see you online or in the store! Merry Christmas!

Logo... maybe?

2010-10-22T22:02:00.000-07:00

I've been working on the logo for the quilt shop and this is where I am with that project at the end of the day. What do you think? Readable?
We are making progress at the shop, hopefully the flooring soon! I'm ready to move in the building with fabrics!

Giving Thanks

2010-10-11T19:18:00.000-07:00

Several months ago I purchased a fairly large (10 1/2 feet!) curved church pew. Unfortunately it took a tumble off the trailer and was in a terrible state! My brother in law worked his carpentry/refinishing magic to put Humpty Dumpty back together again even better than ever. So, to show my deep appreciation I made him a quilt. I chose what we call the million squares pattern to represent the million pieces he brought back together to repair this beautiful antique! Thank you, thank you, Craig!

The pew is destined for the quilt shop so come on down and enjoy it with me!

Snow White

2010-10-11T04:35:00.000-07:00

The biggest latest development down at the quilt shop is on the roof!

We had insulation blown on the roof then this snow white rubberized coating. Hopefully this will keep the electric bills reasonable and eliminate the leaks in the roof! You should be able to spot us if you are flying over Clyde, wouldn't that be fun?!

Four Year Old Fun!

2010-09-14T07:04:00.000-07:00

I teach four year olds in Sunday School. We created this fun (and busy!) rail fence quilt one Sunday. The kids chose from the cut rectangles and sewed three together to create their own blocks using the sewing machine. Our class is all boys and one little girl. As I have always found the boys are just as excited if not more so to use the sewing machine!

The children will take turns taking it home for the week and writing about their experience (well, parents writing) in our journal.

Crazy Girl!

2010-09-09T22:08:00.000-07:00

Today a young quilter friend came over and we made crazy quilts using a stack and whack method. They were very different, mine in bright pastels, hers in black/white and bright colors! Here's my effort from today. Now to find just the right border fabric to bring it all together.

I have long admired Mary Lou Weidman's bright pastel crazy quilt, I'm wondering if I could/will finish the quilt if I add appliques on the blocks like hers??

Roses and Feathers

2010-08-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

This sweet pink rail fence quilt has a soft Minkee back. I quilted it for Jane with soft roses and leaves.

Becky's pastel carpenter's star wall hanging is great fun with feathers in each diamond and stippled background! Hurry and bind this and hang it!

Making Progress!

2010-08-27T20:44:00.000-07:00

Our sidewalk in front of the future quilt store went from cracked and awful to beautiful stamped concrete!

Inside the new air conditioning is complete!

We uncovered the huge sliding glass doors that led to the building next door. This huge hole in the wall will become something wonderful soon!

And Mike has been working hard to finish the workroom and upstairs office and put in the electrical along both walls. Hopefully soon we will be able to paint the tin ceiling and the walls and the staircase will be built!

The quilt shop name will be the Feathered Star! We will open Tuesday December 7. Great fun ordering fabrics and notions and patterns!

Happy Fourth of July!

2010-07-03T21:28:00.000-07:00

The quilt is a Lori Smith pattern except for the center block which was in my "I started this applique long ago" box. Hurray for American Quilters... and future quilt lovers!

Feathered Diamonds

2010-06-28T21:06:00.000-07:00

The "Too Good To Cut" Radiant Star quilt is now quilted. I'm very pleased with the large feathers in each of the eight diamond shapes. The background and border and just small stipple quilted as it was VERY difficult to see the quilting as I was working on it! In the end it just adds an all over texture and lets the feathers take the attention.

Baby's Stars

2010-06-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

Another new baby quilt! Mommy to be requested 5 pointed stars that weren't all lined up. I hope she likes it! Here's a closer look at the border fabric and the free form quilting.

One Hundred!

2010-06-24T17:46:00.000-07:00

This is quilt one hundred for me to quilt on my HQ 16! We bought the machine in August so it is 10 months old...averaging ten quilts per month. It is quilted with all over feathers in the center, tiny all over feathers in each of the four outer border corners, and long feathers in the 2" green border. I love it!

Now on to binding!

Uncovering the Past

2010-06-20T04:45:00.000-07:00

We have been taking down the paneling at the flower shop and uncovering the past. On the south wall you can now see where the steps used to lead up to the doctor's office. Long ago the building housed Walker Drug Store. Elevated in the back was Dr Webster's office. You can see in this picture the level of the raised floor (about 4 1/2 feet) on the left and where the stairs were at the right of the photo. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have an old photo of how the building looked then? Now all I have is a photo of the pharmacist, Tandy Walker!

The building is looking really LONG now that there are fewer obstacles in the way! We have two more walls to take the paneling off then we can paint and expose some of the brick.

Finishing Babies!

2010-06-18T09:44:00.000-07:00

Funny thing how inspirations go... you make something that inspires someone else, then in turn you are inspired by THEIR quilt and have to make another... and so it goes! So here's my bright thimbles quilt! The incredibly bright pink was a bit much around the border but somehow the lime green binding makes it all right. Quilt magic I guess.

Here's another example of quilt envy... only it was a the baby thimble quilt I made for Presleigh. After it was delivered to baby I missed it and certainly had enough fabric to make another. So, combined with the doll fabric from another baby quilt, I made my very own!

In order to have the dolls all standing upright and not have to piece the border I decided to include some flying geese blocks, they give a little "direction" to the quilt as well!

The last baby quilt finished this week is for baby Cade. We enjoy many laughing hours together when Mom is working. He and Eli surely know how to appreciate a new quilt... when I lay it out and say "what do you think boys?" they both immediately crawl over and hug the quilt and Cade says "Ohhh!"

Don't forget me, baby Cade!

Too Good to Cut Part 2

2010-06-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

I created this sweet star quilt using the Debbie Maddy pattern Radiant Stars and the same box of fabrics I used for the Too Good to Cut challenge. As with all the Debbie Maddy patterns the star is a no "Y" seam construction. I did alter the pattern to use 9 1/2" triangles instead of piecing all the little squares which used much less fabric and looks tidier to me.

My original Sweet Thimbles quilt (for the challenge) focused more on the pinks while this quilt uses the pink as an accent color with green as the major color.

Of course, as always there were smaller scraps of fabrics that needed sewing into a pineapple quilt. This is very pastel for me and difficult to even fathom that I would sew it but it is very sweet and dainty! I probably would not have chosen the border fabric for this particular quilt except that #1 I already had it and #2 I used it in the middle of the quilt but it does seem to liven up the pastels a bit!

Step by Step

2010-06-14T20:39:00.000-07:00

Finally all the suspended ceiling tiles are down along with the framework and support wires! Then we took down the old AC duct work. That make the biggest difference as they were right down the center of the building and wrapped in white insulation! You could see from one end to the other except for all the shelves which are just too big to move around much!

The next step is exposing all the plaster by removing the 70's paneling. We will chip away some of this plaster to show some of the brick. In the process of removing the first 1/4 of the paneling we discovered that there was originally a display window at the front of the store which you can see below at the right of the photo.

There are several large and wonderful white shelves and a great counter that will go against the two walls on the left and right where we won't need to remove any plaster.

Coming soon... the new AC/heater!

Happy Graduation Kasarah!

2010-05-28T17:27:00.000-07:00

A friend's daughter is graduating from high school in just a few days! Mom and Dad secretly chose nine t shirts that represented her many activities at CHS including cheerleading, powerlifting and student council. The quilt is much like Kasarah... bright, organized, happy and fun! It was presented to Kasarah at a tea party hosted by her parents last week.

Happy Graduation!

Flower Shop update

2010-05-28T17:17:00.000-07:00

After three liquidation sales a donation truck came by and picked up the remainder of the flower shop inventory. Everything left in the building is intended to be used in the quilt shop! We are extremely fortunate to have inherited many sturdy shelves with the building that can be repurposed for fabric bolts.

We have successfully taken down the walls to the kitchen and office in the back of the building. We have also taken a peek at what's under the floor so we'll know how to proceed there. Now come the big decisions about what we will rebuild. Our original idea needed to be revamped but I like Plan B very much!

Baby Dolls

2010-05-20T11:55:00.000-07:00

This sweet baby doll fabric really didn't need much piecing to show off the cute dolls and clothing. Since fabrics had two different background colors I used the gathered pink in a more bold color to set the two apart.

The outer border is simple stipple quilting but the center is dainty all over feathers.

Originally I had chosen the tiny doll fabric for the binding but it just didn't add anything to the overall design, so I switched to this fun pink and brown alphabet fabric! I love it!

Goodbye Thimbles

2010-05-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

A good friend and her family are moving soon. I will miss her sense of humor and storytelling and so this thimble quilt is sent on with her to their new home.

Much like this thimble quilt, our friendship has brought together a variety of experiences and colors that together make a beautiful whole. And, I hope, will bring warmth, comfort and a reminder of our times together!

Baby Pineapple

2010-05-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

Just finished binding this small baby pineapple quilt made from 1930's reproduction fabrics. Very sweet!

Quilt Excursion

2010-05-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

We went to Gruene for the weekend and visited several quilt shops and other businesses in old buildings along the way. Our goal was to see how they did their lighting, AC/heat ducts and fans. We saw a wide variety including the AC/heating ducts that have been suggested to us which was very helpful! We even purchased a beautiful antique oak counter to use as a second cutting table in the quilt shop!

However, much cleaning and organizing still needs to be done in our building and another "inventory liquidation" sale of the flower shop contents. We're making progress!

If you have the opportunity to visit Gruene we would suggest the Gruene Mansion Inn. It is owned by Clyde native Cecil Eager and has the friendliest staff I've ever experienced anywhere! The rooms are all unique and I especially enjoy the outdoor rooms crafted together from antique materials. Very inspirational!

Here's the counter back at home!

Quilt Shop News!

2010-05-01T21:21:00.000-07:00

Here's the big news! We purchased a shop in our one block downtown and after extensive remodeling will open a quilt shop! Very exciting! I hope this will become a wonderful place for quilting friends to gather and gain inspiration from each other and a place where new quilters will begin their adventures in quilting! My quilting friends range in age from four years to their 80's, won't it be fun to provide a place where we can all come together and learn from each other!?
Our plans are to open sometime after the first of the year but I'm sure the time will fly by! It will be fun to go to Quilt Market in Houston again!

Back in the Quilter's Garden

2010-04-21T12:24:00.000-07:00

Quilter's Garden 2010!

2010-04-21T05:45:00.000-07:00

We had beautiful weather for the Quilter's Garden which was in question only because we have had rain for the past several days. The grass was too damp to mow this morning still.

Nosegay or Bride's Bouquet and Rabbit's Foot (made with bunny fabrics)

Heriloom hand applique by Bernice!

The two youngest quilters showing off Mom's bright tumbler quilt!

I worked on this hand applique beginning in 2000 on a trip to Europe and just finished the hand quilting in 2009. I guess my redeeming quality is that I did actually finish!

A closer look at Becky's Pineapple

Spider web in the garden

Beautiful fabrics in this beautiful quilt by Mert

Wonderful conversations and lots of inspiration!

Pretty in Pink... and Brown!

2010-04-17T07:09:00.000-07:00

A soft pink and brown thimble quilt for baby Presleigh! It is delicately quilted with hearts and curls for a sweet baby girl. Tucked in with the scrappy fabrics are a favorite alphabet fabric, large florals, paper doll fabric and even a few pieces of minke for baby to discover. The strip fabric is the back and also the bias stripped binding.

Purple Thimbles

2010-04-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

The theme for Quilter's Garden is Floral Quilts. For this thimble quilt I pulled out florals from my watercolor days and added a few newer pieces. The thimbles measure 2 1/2" high so this is a small quilt for the wall. Outside bluebonnets are blooming for the first time (hurray!) and other flowers and flowering shrubs are happily rejoicing in our recent rain. I know the flowering quilts will bring a profusion of color to the garden on Tuesday as well!

Quilter's Garden 2010

2010-04-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

It's time again for A Quilter's Garden! We will be featuring Floral Quilts but any quilts are welcome. It is always so exciting to see everyone's quilts displayed together! This year's Quilter's Garden will be April 20... hoping for beautiful weather and calm winds!

Binding Sweet Thimbles

2010-03-31T15:48:00.000-07:00

I love to finish the binding on a quilt... more than just finishing the quilt, it seems to add another design element whether you contrast or blend the fabrics! This binding matches the majority of the quilt backing for these Sweet Thimbles.

Though I have the best of intentions for labeling my quilts, I frequently do not get around to it. This is my first quilt to add these personalized twill labels with my name!

Happy Pineapple Christmas!

2010-03-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

I recently quilted this happy Pineapple Christmas quilt for a friend. The pattern is from the Positively Pineapple book, using the Pineapple Ruler. She followed the pattern in the book with 2" logs and striking applique!
The quilting is loops and holly in the center, since the fabrics are so busy it didn't need much! The outer border is stippling.

Spring Cleaning

2010-03-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

I see on other blogs where quilters are cleaning their sewing rooms and end up with a tidy work area in a day or so. This is my idea of cleaning the sewing room... I find fabrics that really should be a quilt instead of a bag or box of scraps and sew them together! Here are two from this weekend.

The blue and yellow Rail Fence blocks are 3" square. It will probably add a few more rows as there are still fabrics in the blue/yellow drawer and a border or two.

The patriotic fabrics are left after the Patriotic Thimbles and Patriotic Pineapple (still on the "design bed") and while they are OK fabrics, they aren't really Best quilt fabrics. Most are left from quilting projects with my students at school from several years ago. The Patriotic string quilt is scrappy through and through- the base fabric 6" squares used fabric a friend gave me that are just too boring to use on the outside, the back from the same friend who was cleaning HER sewing room, and the batting was four different pieces left from other projects (and not very tidily pieced together). Anyway, now they are perfectly usable.

I must confess there is much more to clean and tidy up but I'm on a mission now and need the room to be more baby friendly so I'll keep sewing/cleaning!

On another note, we had supper at my son's house this weekend. My daughter in law had her Dolly Madison quilt hanging for spring (a birthday present last year). What fun to see it again!

Sweet Thimbles update

2010-03-20T09:08:00.000-07:00

The sweet Thimbles quilt from the Too Good To Cut challenge is now quilted! The outer borders are a small stippling pattern and the inner thimbles are an all over feather and curls design. I am very pleased with how the quilting has turned out! The only "Aaugh!" moment came when I realized that the back was 1/2" shorter than the quilt top. Luckily my daughter in law gave me enough fabric to extend the back and now the quilt is all complete and waiting for the binding!

Of course, now I still have a small box of fabrics so I will begin again and create something that coordinates but has a different feel!

Still Crazy After all these Years

2010-03-18T18:56:00.000-07:00

Several teacher friends and I got together several years ago to create stack and whack crazy quilts. It was fun to see the ways fabrics changed depending on their companion fabrics. About a month ago one of these friends completed her top. She rediscovered the old blocks, added new fabrics and new blocks to create this queen sized quilt.

I added the machine quilting and binding this week. I quilted stippling over the majority of the quilt, but each block had one special section that was quilted with a feather or fern or leaf.

The most fun was taking the quilt to school to show it to my friend when the quilting was finished. As I unfurled the quilt the children (and teacher!) said "Oh!" It was priceless! I believe that it is important that children see adults learning and trying new things. They were so proud of her!

Here's a photo of the full quilt.

2010 Dallas Quilt Show!

2010-03-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

Dallas Quilt Show

Becky & I went to the Dallas Quilt Show for inspiration and came back ready to start new projects! Here are some of the quilts I loved!

The theme for the show was Log Cabin Odyssey. Guild members did an excellent job interpreting the theme! There were traditional log cabin quilts in a variety of settings, log cabin pineapples in many colors and sizes, and a couple of fun bright wonky house quilts to shake things up! Inspiration for everyone!

A Sweet Million

2010-03-16T10:17:00.000-07:00

This sweet Million Squares quilt is for my first Grandaughter who lives far from Nana. The quilting is an all over pattern of hearts and curls done freehand.

I love the way you can arrange the diagonals in these quilts to draw your attention to create the squares! A great way to use lots of fabrics that are happy together!

Bright Dolly!

2010-03-15T08:19:00.000-07:00

While visiting with my cousin we were looking for ideas to create a new quilt. She said "I don't have anything that goes together". Ah ha! A challenge. We pulled these happy colors together from her stash and grounded them with black and white. We love the quote from Freddy & Gwen "It gives the eye a place to rest"... which is funniest when you see the quilts they are referring to that are anything BUT restful!

We love the Collaborative Quilting book! My cousin had checked it out from the library and we stitched up several parts from the book's patterns. Needless to say we each purchased the book and the sequel. The fun thing about the sequel was that when we both got our copies we looked through the book while on the phone with each other... "I love the quilt on page 76!... Wow, love the colors on page 60...We can do that!"

This quilt is quite a change from the sweet Dolly Madison for Abigail!

Abigail Pending...

2010-03-11T15:40:00.000-08:00

Miss Abigail (who is now days overdue!) will hopefully enjoy resting on this yellow, red and blue Dolly Madison star quilt. While I was most excited about the tiny triangles in this pattern from All People Quilt... Mommy and Daddy were elated to see her name on the back of the quilt!

The quilting on the center stars is all over feathers, a graceful and dainty look on the buttery yellow.

Anxiously waiting to meet little Abigail!

Play Ball!

2010-03-11T15:24:00.000-08:00

Another baby quilt finish! Baby Davis' room is decorated with baseball- a favorite of Daddy Brandon. We're all counting down until April!

Lucky baby Davis also received this happy baseball quilt from his expectant grandmother! This is only her second quilt and she did an excellent job! It is quilted with loops all over.

New Baby Hudson!

2010-03-11T14:46:00.000-08:00

This happy quilt was created for a sweet friend who is expecting baby Hudson to arrive soon!

It is quilted with red thread with loops and sunshines. I hope this becomes a favorite quilt for playing with Mommy and Daddy in the floor, exploring the bright primary colors and happy faces!

Katie's HSU Quilt

2010-03-05T16:40:00.000-08:00

A t-shirt quilt for Katie, a Hardin Simmons 2009 graduate. I believe the story is that when she graduated from high school her mother intended to make a t-shirt quilt from her HS shirts but didn't... so she was especially anxious/ excited/ hopeful she would get a college quilt. All that is left to complete is the binding (purple polka dot). Happy Graduation, Katie!

(Quilt back... The purple is actually a bright purple polka dot)

In addition to the shirts that hold special meaning to Katie, I included pieced words (HSU and Katie) on the quilt inspired by Tonya's alphabet.

Happy Graduation! Go Cowboys!

Sweet Thimbles

2010-02-26T16:40:00.000-08:00

Rosewillow issued a "Too Good To Cut" challenge on her blog. The premise of the challenge is that we all have fabrics that we love so much that we are reluctant to cut and include in a quilting project! Isn't that the truth! What if another great idea or pattern comes along later? What if I run out!?

These sweet fabrics would fit this category for me. The original set of fabrics have cohabitated nicely in my sewing room for quite some time and are now joined with bits from a baby quilt for a young friend among other fabrics. I think they will live happily ever after in this new Sweet Thimbles quilt!

The thimbles are cut from 2 1/2" strips with 25 thimbles in each row. As you can see I have begun to sew the rows together so I'd consider this top to be about halfway finished.

While I see other quilters have a handy design wall in their studios, instead I have a design bed. Yes, that means I'm really sewing in a spare bedroom. You can see another in progress project peeking out below- a patriotic pineapple quilt. This might explain the thought behind the blog title.... distracted.

Fall Quilter's Garden

2010-02-23T11:00:00.000-08:00

I have long desired to visit Sisters, Oregon for the outdoor quilt show but the timing just hasn't worked out. So, instead each fall and spring I host a Quilter's Garden at my home. Our theme for Fall 2009 was Christmas Quilts. How exciting to see new quilts and old favorites all hanging together! We have a great time visiting with each other and exploring the quilts and patterns everyone brings. We hang quilts from the trees, over the fences and benches, and in the gazebo.

These are a couple of my own quilts- a Million Squares Christmas quilt with "Dear Santa" and "Merry Christmas" words pieced in the borders and a Santa applique quilt from long ago.

Also mine, a large Christmas thimble quilt for my favorite cousin (technically it's a Tumbler quilt since they are 4" tall instead of 2" or smaller) The quilt on the right is an amazing redwork stitchery quilt by Maudie!

We always have a wonderful day together and leave inspired to start a new quilt!

Thimbles for Malia

2010-02-23T08:49:00.000-08:00

My favorite cousin created this enthusiastic quilt for her granddaughter. She plans to use it on the floor as a play quilt and said "you can just stipple it" but I couldn't make myself do it! The fabrics were so exhuberant that I just had to quilt in some of the flower,fern and curly elements!

Being such a new long arm quilter I hesitate to "show off" with these closeups after seeing so many amazing examples of quilting online but... I can always claim beginner status!

My Blog List

2010-02-22T15:48:00.000-08:00

I have added some of the quilt related blogs I subscribe to here on my page. As a long time blog follower, I have found many interesting and inspirational blogs through lists on some of my favorite pages. I love blogs that keep their focus on quilting, show lots of great pictures, and tell great quilt stories. How exciting to travel with them to their favorite quilt shops and quilt shows!
So, enjoy some of my favorite places to visit!

Title Quilt- Bright Pineapples

2010-02-22T13:23:00.000-08:00

While I have experimented with paper piecing, it is not my favorite piecing method. The Pineapple Ruler from Possibilities made this bright and happy quilt possible! So a collection of brights and black/white fabrics plus the amazing ruler can quickly become tranformed into this quilt that has been designated for a future grandbaby.... when baby's wide awake, of course!

A Million Squares

2010-02-20T12:12:00.000-08:00

The pattern for this quilt is from Bonnie at Quiltville.com but my friends and I refer to it as a Million Squares quilt. What a fun way to use a collection of fabrics in an organized or scrappy way! Just stitching one up starts you thinking about all the other color combinations you need to explore!

This particular quilt was made as a gift for a special friend, Cara.

I'm a new machine quilter (Handi Quilter 16 purchased in August 2009). It is exciting to be able to create a quilt all the way from choosing fabrics to quilting and binding all on my own!

In the Beginning...

2010-02-19T13:33:00.000-08:00

I have finally come to the realization that a blog is the most efficient way to share my quilting journey. I have no particular quilting style so I never really know what quilt might be next... so it's always an adventure!

This patriotic thimble quilt was created from my collection of patriotic, red, white and blue fabrics... some are well aged while others are more recently purchased. I was inspired to create thimble quilts after attending quilt market in Houston 2009. I was fortunate to meet Biz Storms and though I have not yet been brave enough to stitch up thimbles in the tiny 1 1/4" size shown, the book Small Blocks Stunning Quilts is still an inspiration of color and style!