Those of you who have followed me for more than a year know that I've been making sample quilts for Paula Nadelstern for a few years. I don't get paid. I do it because I love working with her fabrics and I love the challenge of having to create a quilt in a few weeks with a very limited fabric palette.

September is always the time that I work on this and I can't share what I do until Quilt Market is over at the end of October. You can see my previous quilts in my Symmetry Gallery. My favorite of all of the quilts so far is the Zombie Ball Quilt. This year I might be making 2 quilts for no reason other than inspiration.

She always has a fabric of printed mandalas like this one from a couple of years ago. There are also some great texture fabrics. I've never used the mandalas so this year I set a challenge to use the mandala fabric for my quilt.

I can't show you the actual block but this is one of the prototype blocks that I made using last year's fabric. I've always loved the Moon Over The Mountain block and have wanted to make a quilt with it. These mandalas are perfect for it.

I'm formulating an idea for a second quilt (and I can do that because they are only 36" square) so will be working on that the rest of this week and next week.  then I will need to get both quilted and bound. They are due mid-October but my self-imposed deadline is September 30. I'll take some breaks to do some other things but if I miss a few days posting over the next 3 weeks it's because I'm working on these quilts....and having a grand time doing it.

I think it took more hours to make this one block than to quilt the king sized Rainbow Quilt. By the way, I did finish quilting it but thought I'd spare you another photo until it's bound. 
​I worked on this block over several days and feel like I'm getting my groove back for doing these types of blocks.

As a reminder here is the block structure. I don't have any plans for these blocks. I'm jsut making them to have fun at this point.

How's that for a confusing title? Let me see if I can sort it out.

​Last year Paula Nadelstern contacted me about a book she was writing. She wanted to include the sample quilts that I had made for her and wondered if I'd like to do another. The specific direction for this quilt was "simple quilts, complex fabrics". Use a very simple pattern with complex fabrics and see what happens.

Pleiades was the result of my efforts and I've been waiting over a year to share this quilt! You can read all about it on the gallery page. I'm able to share it now because the book is finally out.

I first took a class from Paula about 10 years ago at Houston. I was immediately hooked and I was very impressed with her as a teacher. She's very thorough, calm and supportive and she makes sure to spend some individual time with every student....even in classes of 25 students. Her books are just as good and I especially love this new one, Fabricadabra.

​This isn't a pattern book. It's a technique book. It's for those who love the kaleidoscope effect but have found the previous books to be a bit overwhelming. In this book Paula shows you how to make spectacular quilts combining simple shapes with complex fabrics. She shows you how to see and buy fabric and then the basics of cutting and construction. There's a gallery of over 35 quilts with diagrams to show you the piecing structure. You can make any of the quilts in this book.

This butterfly quilt is one of my favorites in the book. Each butterfly half is only one piece of fabric.

It's very exciting to see some of my own quilts in the book!