I've been working on my mini-quilt for the Alzheimer's Quilt Challenge (I made that name up). It is going to be so cute!

In a recent class a student, Alice, showed me the "paper" dolls she had made for her granddaughter. They were seriously cute. The two fabrics, by Sheryl Rae Marquez for Windham Fabrics, have dolls on one piece and clothes on the other. There may be other colorways.

I had never seen this fabric and Alice was nice enough to send me some of what she had. Thank you, Alice! She suggested that I fuse the two pieces to fusible flannel which I couldn't find. I found some Pellon fusible fleece and used it instead. Elanor and I both did lots of cutting…

She's enjoying playing with them! Alice made a very nice folder for her granddaughter's paper dolls. I'm afraid Elanor is going to have to make do with a gallon-sized Ziplock.

Not very big at all! Here are two photos that show the mini block on top of the full-size, 24" x 24" blocks. As you can see, I have this little block sewn and am on to another one. Oh happy day!
 

It has been crazy at my house today! But I did promise to share news on the miniature I'm making. Truly, I don't know that this qualifies as "miniature" – it's more like a really small quilt. What you see here are the pieced backgrounds.

Our new book, Applique Outside the Lines, is all about not using a ruler and a more casual approach to applique placement. I made even these small backgrounds the way we describe it in the book. This sort of background has a distinctive, happy, mid-century modern attitude.

As you can see, I've begun appliqueing the first block…

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Now I can move on to real quilt-related news! A few weeks ago when I was teaching at the NC Quilt Symposium, I had dinner with Hollis Chatelain, Sue Nickels, and John Flynn. We have all done something for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. Sue and I both made quilts for the traveling exhibit. Here's mine:

Sue, Hollis, and John have made auction quilts (which sort of made me feel like a slacker). We got to talking about which quilts auctioned had raised the most money. Now, I didn't have a horse in that race but I admit that it brought out my competitive side.

The four of us decided that we should have a 4-person challenge on the Alzheimer's Quilt Initiative site to see whose little quilt made the most money. Ami Simms, the quilter/powerhouse behind the Alzheimer's Quilt Initiative said "Sure!" She gave us the dimensions (9" x 12" if possible, not bigger than 20" x 20") and a due date (September 1). The quilts will be auctioned off in mid-November.

I have decided to make a miniature of Passion Flowers, a quilt from our brand new book, Applique Outside the Lines. The full-size blocks are in the neighborhood of 24" x 24". I'm reducing the blocks to 5" x 5". Tomorrow I'll show you more!