Quilt kits (or "look before you cut!)

I admit it, I buy quilt kits.  How can you resist the lure?  The store has gone to the trouble of making up a beautiful sample. It catches your attention, draws you in.  Then you notice it.  That cutely packaged bundle.  Maybe it's in a box, or a cute basket.  Or wrapped up with a beautiful ribbon.  Just the right amount of the most perfect combinations of fabrics to just make that pattern sing!  You can't take your eyes off it.  You want to fondle those fabrics.  You go to look at something else, but you are drawn back to it.  Like a moth to a flame, you cannot resist its temptation.  And next thing you know, you are looking for a place for it.  You know the place, where you put all the other kits that have come home with you!

Well, I do have a few kits that I haven't worked on.  But I do try to get them done.  Often times I will work on them between big quilt projects.  Especially if the kit is something that can be done in an afternoon.

So the other day I decided to work on a couple of kits that I had recently purchased from a vendor, Piece and Applique from Rochester, IL, that was at our June Land of Lincoln Quilt Association meeting.  The first kit I worked on was "Ten Minute Table Runner"!  How great!  Everything I need to make a table runner in 10 minutes!  Except, with pressing out the creases, and stopping to do things for hubby, and then trying to decide how to finish it, it took me almost an hour to get it done!  But it turned out nice!

I probably wouldn't have picked out that center floral print. But isn't it perfect with that turquoise outer border!  Plus, now I have the directions, so I can make some more! 

The lure for this kit was the title of the pattern "Two Hour Tulip Purse".  Two hours to make a purse that looks this great!  Yep!  It's coming home with me!  Well, with pressing, cutting out pieces, helping hubby, it took most of the afternoon into the evening.  And hubby's response, "It looks like a Cub Scout item."  Yes, it does!  If I do this one again, which I may, I will probably think about embroidering a motif on the flap before putting the magnetic closure on it.  This will be donated for our quilt show's boutique.

What drew me to this pattern was the bundle of fabric that was packaged with it.  I am a coffee hound, and I loved the coffee themed fabrics!  Yes, these placemats would look great in my kitchen!    I took this kit with me this past weekend to the Material Girls retreat.  I only got to go for Saturday, but had a great time! 

The Old Brick Inn in Chrisman, http://www.oldbrickinn.net/, is a great place for a small retreat!  Lovely old Victorian home, with a lovely proprietress!  Great food, what more could you ask.

Here's the first placemat that was completed.  Nectar of the Gods!  Yes!  There is nothing finer in the morning than a well brewed cup of coffee!

OOPS! Got this one backwards!  Oh well, I guess I didn't have enough of that liquid energy to keep from making that mistake!

Electricity in a cup!  Definitely feels like that, especially when you are needing that extra jolt to get started!

Cup-o-Joe!  Yeah!  But hold on, what's that in the upper left corner?

That's why you should look before you cut!  That very innocent looking coffee pot lid looks like, well, you know what it looks like!  Hubby spotted it immediately!  That will be his placemat!