Okay- I have a confession to make....I have been dabbling in scrapbooking lately.  I already have tons of supplies as I used to do a lot more when my children were little. Anyway, I decided to make these cute little 5 x 7 albums for my sisters with some of the photographs from our "Sister Trip" to France last year. I will be giving them their albums tomorrow--I hope they like them. I really had a great time making them. There are many parallels between scrapbooking and quilting these days, with scrapbook paper designers making quilt fabric, etc. There are some great stores in the Phoenix area, with classes to get  you started if you have never made one of these. You make the album first in the class and then you can add your pictures later--these make a thoughtful and personal gift that is sure to be treasured.

 Here are some photos of a wholecloth European Pillow Sham that I custom made for a friend of mine. She has a beautiful heirloom applique/pieced quilt that she made and she wants 2 of these shams to go with it. The pictures really don't do it justice--it is really gorgeous--I just may have to make myself a couple. Some of the crosshatch border will be sewn into the seams to make a flange. I can't wait to see them once she completes them!

I recently finished this quilt for my friend Marge. She worked on this project at quilt camp and it was fun to see it come together on the design board. It is interesting because all the fabrics are essentially solid. There is a trend out there called Modern Quilts and there are Modern Quilt Guilds, and they really do look different than the quilts Grandma used to make. When you're working with solids and graphic quilts like these, it takes some time to come up with a quilting pattern that compliments the design. In the close up, you can see that Marge and I found a pattern that I think really works well-it's called Geometric Path by Kristin Hoftyzer--I think it looks like a circuit board and really adds another element to the quilt. The quilts in the book would be great for men & boys and anyone who prefers a more contemporary design in their homes. Be sure to check the book out sometime, there are quite a few interesting designs inside. That's all for now....Happy 4th of July!!