We're back to school and it's time for the Lady Of The Lake Quilt Along

Hey everyone!

Welcome to my stop on the Fat Quarter Shop's Lady Of the Lake Quilt Along.

  I'll start it off with a little history lesson.

Traditionally, the Lady Of The Lake block is made with only two contrasting fabrics.  

I did change mine up slightly by making my little half square block in the corner out of a different fabric, but I used the same colors and the same fabric line. 

Sweetwater's Elementary is what I went with, and I used Moda's Bella Solid Ivory as my background fabric.

That's one of my favorite go to background fabric choices.  It goes well with just about anything that has an ivory tone to it. 

I thought the Elementary fabric line was especially appropriate, since so many of us are in the 'back to school' mode right now.

I was even inspired to hang a few of my blocks on one of my antique yardsticks from my collection, since I was going with the 'back to school' theme with this quilt.

You might be interested to know that surprisingly the Lady Of The Lake block is one of the few quilt blocks that hasn't been known by a variety of different names.

Many quilters believe the block was named after Walter Scott's 1810 poem titled, Lady of The Lake.

The first Lady Of The Lake quilt blocks started showing up around 1900 and

I guess the name has just stuck ever since!

The Lady Of The Lake blocks are super easy, classic blocks.

The Fat Quarter Shop has even taken some of the math out of the process and made those half square triangles in the patterns easier and more accurate, by including half square triangle paper in their newly released Lady Of The Lake Quilt Kit, featuring The Good Life fabric by Bonnie and Camille.

Visit the Jolly Jabber to see the other stops in the Fat Quarter Shop's Lady Of The Lake Quilt Along.

Thanks for visiting me here at Island Life Quilts and I hope this back to school post taught you a thing or two about the classic Lady Of The Lake block!

It's all about pumpkins!

You really can't go wrong with pumpkins can you?

You can find a type of pumpkin that will fit in just about anywhere. 

There's real or imitation, ginormous or tiny, glass or ceramic, white or orange, and even blue!

In this month's Minis and More Parade we're focusing on the quilted type of pumpkin.

Our pattern was Mini Pumpkins by Allison Harris of Cluck, Cluck Sew. 

It's adorable and I love that it has all kinds of pumpkins, including different sizes and shapes.

 Some are just one fabric and others are pieced!

Allison also has a larger version of this cute pumpkin pattern, if you're interested.

My Mini Pumpkins quilt got a little crazy.  I had a great time going through my long neglected batik stash, looking for some fun pumpkin fabrics.  I have some lighter ones in there and I pulled in a few purples too, just to make it a little different than any other pumpkin quilts that I have around.  I think I'll keep the total number of pumpkin quilts that I can see from where I'm sitting right now to myself.  You might even gasp out loud if I told you how many I have. And yes, I do have them out already.....

I love the dark background that Mary from the blog Needled Mom used for her Mini Pumpkins quilt! The bright orange fabrics really pop with that nice background.  Mary completed her mini quilt quickly, knowing that she had a busy month ahead.  If I had to pick my favorite pumpkin in Mary's quilt it would have to be the one with the white and orange chevron fabric. Beautiful, Mary!

This cute pumpkin mini was sent in by Sigi of Little Quiltsong.  She used colors similar to those in the pattern and I can definitely see why!  It's wonderful!  That green binding really frames the whole quilt nicely and makes it look so fresh. Thanks so much for sharing it with us Sigi!

Now on to Mindy's Mini Pumpkins.  She used nice light orange fabrics for her pumpkins and I love that she threw in a blue one too.  Blue pumpkins seem to be the thing right now and Mindy didn't hesitate to include one in her runner.  The light green border is a beautiful touch.

Patty from Elm Street Quilts made her pumpkins in three different sizes and they're all cute! She stuck with the wonderful traditional orange to make an adorable mini that she'll be sure to love for a long time.  After reading Patty's fall post I had to run out to Target to get some of the first crop of candy corn this season!   

This full size quilt was made by Kim!  You can find her at Lily Patch Quilts.  Kim went with a lighter background and used a variety of shades of orange for her pumpkins.  I love that she went big and made the large size quilt.

The rest of the Mini Pumpkins Parade is on Sherri's blog, A Quilting Life.

Don't forget to stop by and take a look.



I'm so excited about the next Parade!

The featured pattern is brand new.

Berry Baskets Mini is a cute basket pattern recently designed by Sherri.

Photo by Sherri McConnell used with permission.


The pattern is available in both PDF and paper form in her shop.

She will be dropping the price of the Berry Baskets Mini PDF to $4 for a limited time, so if you've ever considered joining us for the Parade this would be a great time to do it!


These baskets would be beautiful in any kind of fabric.

We can't wait to see your creative ideas!

The Berry Baskets Mini Parade will be on Monday, October 2 so send your project photos in as soon as you're ready.

It'll be a great Parade!

Questions about how to be involved in the Parade? Don't hesitate to ask!