Tickled Pink Take 2

Here's a little sew and share for you today. I had an email question a while back from Cindy about a border fabric I used in my Tickled Pink quilt that appeared in McCall's Quilting last July. She also shared a great idea for how she planned to make her version even more special for her little girl. She writes...

"...My daughter had a cat for 15 years and Tippy had an old pink quilt that she slept on. Tippy passed away last year and my daughter won't part with the old quilt that Tip slept on. It is very faded and threadbare. I work with a lady at Mayo Clinic who makes beautiful quilts as a hobby so I asked her if we could make a quilt and use Tippy's quilt for the inside material. That way my daughter would always have Tippy's quilt with her but inside a new quilt. When I suggested this to my daughter she was thrilled with the idea..."

I think that's such a great way to bring together the old and the new memories - all through a humble quilt. And look at the smile on this little cutie's face! (The little fur-baby in the corner looks like a keeper too!)

Cindy's friend and co-worker Rita made the quilt for her (nice friend! - hope you'll catch the quilting bug too Cindy!) I love the selection of fabrics chosen for your blocks. Thanks for sharing such a sweet idea for honoring memories through our quilting.

Happy stitching,

Tonya

p.s. If you were curious about the border fabrics on this one too, the inner border is a Brandon Mably fabric from Westminster called Shingles and the outer border is Magenta Miami by Philip Jacobs.

Tickled Pink Update

Hi all,

I've been scrambling to catch up on everything since I was playing hookey earlier this week and was away at a quilt retreat with a lovely bunch of crazy ladies! I'm sure a lot of people think we're crazy simply because we would want to spend that much time sewing! It was great fun, good food and I got a lot done while having a great time.

Just before I left town, I found out my quilt Tickled Pink hit the newsstands in McCall's Quilting July/August 2013 I blogged about it quickly before I left but then McCall's sent me some more links and photos for me to use so I thought I would give you a better view.

My favorite thing about this pattern is that it's made with only one block of 9 half-square triangles! I love that something so simple can come together like this - and make a bit of a dent in my scrap bin. There are lots of different methods for making HST's but for this project I used Laundry Basket Quilts 2" HST paper. I had a lot of mis-matched fat quarters in my stash that I wanted to clear out and the cuts you use for the HST paper work perfectly with fat quarters. I actually picked out the border fabric after the center was completed. Usually I have some kind of idea of the border before or during but not this time.

If you squint really hard and stand on your head, you can see the quilt on the COVER! Yes, it's on the bottom of the pile and yes, there is only about one square inch poking out but I'm going to go ahead and consider this my first cover shot, what do you think?!

**Event info: If your in my neighborhood this Saturday, June 15th,  I'd love to see you at Fabric Etc. in Bellingham. We're having a little quilt celebration - and cookies!

This quilt coming out the same week as my quilt retreat was kind of full circle. I was actually working on this quilt this time last year at the same retreat. That's one lucky charm of a group and I hope I can spend many more days on the lake with them!

Happy stitching,

Tonya