It pays to read blogs...

Well, actually reading blogs usually causes me to spend money. But it pays in all the great information and products you find! Here's what I've found this week.

My friend, Mary Claire from SplendorFalls used my MBS pattern to make 2 quilts with Central Park. A small one using the pattern as written...
And a larger one using these cutting directions. Love them!! And love all the fun, creative things Mary Claire does. Pop over and you'll see why she's always winning with her original designs!
Here's a wonderful product I found out about from Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company. Niagara Non-Aerosol Spray Starch. My Best Press starch was gone and due to the priceyness, I went with Faultless. What a mess! It clogs and spits. I took Carrie's suggestion and tried the Niagara. I love it! Couldn't find it at Target here, but Walmart carried it and I stocked up.
I love reading Sherri's blog, A Quilting Life. Her quilts are gorgeous and it seems like we're both attracted to the same fabric lines. She mentioned Hullabaloo by Urban Chiks for Moda this week. I love that design team, in fact my Flower Pots quilt uses their previous line Swell. I ordered a Fat quarter pack of Hullabaloo and was not disappointed. I've refrained from ordering FQPs lately due to all the repeats within the lines. This is an exception because there are so many basics here. Love those zig-zag stripes!!
Jeni from In Color Order posted this week about a site called Kruler. You can upload a photo and it will pull the color palette from your photo.. Just for fun I uploaded a photo of Flea Market Fancy. I wanted to do a quilt with the same color feel. This is what I got... how cool!
Using the color swatches I pulled this from my newly organized stash in a matter of minutes.
After seeing Jessica's Salt Water Taffy at Twin Fibers, I knew I had to make this one. I love how the border flows around the quilt.
I got a good start yesterday.
Do you know you can win cool stuff from reading blogs? My daughter won this awesome Innocent Crush bag from Masionnette this week.

Yes, it really does pay to read blogs. And be sure to try Google Reader for the easy and quick way to bring your blogs to you.

Oh and one more thing - when you find you're overwhelmed with all those creative ideas, you might want to read this post from Small Notebook. I know I needed it!