Moira - Introduction

Hi everyone,

I'm Moira a long time friend of Susan's.   I'm excited to be a part of this group and want to say thanks for the invitation to join the group!   I'm hoping that the accountability I'll have to post to this group will help me stay focused on what needs to be done.    Susan will tell you that I'm easily distracted by new quilt designs....lol.

I'm currently working as an engineering teacher and work with 8th - 12th graders in a rural school district in North-east Indiana.   I also work part-time at Joann Fabrics to help make ends meet.

I'm an active quilt designer with three block patterns that have been published in QuiltMakers 100 Blocks by Top Designers.   And will soon have a quilt pattern published that features one of those blocks (magazine will be out in the Spring).   Currently I have two quilt designs that need to be made so I can submit them for publication (hopefully) and a block design to get a sample made for submission as well.    I'm also in the midst of writing the block patterns for the BOM that i'm hosting on my blog and website this year.   Susan is testing my patterns for me.  =)

I love working with orphan blocks, creating unusual settings and blocks that give a sense of perspective and scrappy quilts.    I also do a lot with paper-pieced blocks.   I've done a lot of CQ in the past, but haven't had time for it in the last few yrs.

I'll be working on 2 or 3 long-term projects this year.   The first one is the quilt that I need to get made for my nephew and his fiancee.   Wedding will most likely be sometime this summer but I can't wait till a date is set or I'll never have it made in time.   Pic to the right shows the layout that I'm making.   the quilt is my design and the main colors are assorted greens (the scrappy part of the quilt!), burgundy, and cream TOT's with a hint of metallic gold.   It will end up a queen-sized quilt and is 12 blocks wide by 14 rows long, plus border.  Each block is 6", so you can tell that there are a lot of blocks that I need to get made!    The blocks will be pp'd for accuracy.

The second quilt that I'll be working on is a 4 month project also to be worked on during the first part of the year (can you say glutton for punishment?).  It is a challenge to make a quilted wallhanging from a tea towel.   The tea towel that I've chosen is one that shows various scenes of London.   And the fabrics that I'm going to use with it are ones that I bought in London when I was there in 1997.    I think it's time that those fabrics finally found a home in a quilt!

The final project that I want to make progress on is one of my designs.   I have been designing PP'd blocks to use the tiniest of batik scraps (some as small as a quarter) that I've had in my scrap stash.   the scraps are sorted by colors and I've made 18 or so blocks using just one general color way.    I've got a dozen or more blocks that have been designed but not made.   My goal is to get enough blocks made for a quilt for my bed (king-sized) and if I can get the top put together.   Of course I also need to decide what colors I want it to be in.  These are pic of just two of the blocks that I've made.

So that's what I'm working on at this point.   I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else is going to be working on this year.   If you're interested in seeing other things that end up being worked on, you can check out my blog at The Quilted Snail.