Update on the Cheddar vs Orange or Grey background for a quilt block. Sorry the poll gadget didn't work last week. And informal poll of readers had cheddar and grey in a tie. Folks liked the cheddar but said the grey really allowed the focus colors to sing. Readers felt that the orange background changed the character of the focus colors in the blocks. Thanks to everyone who voted.

Garden and the 2013 Cat in the Garden Quilt

I've been enjoying my neighbors window box. The magenta flowers with the lime green margins are incredible. This collection of flowers looked so familiar to me. Usually my neighbor puts nasturisiums in her window box so I knew I wasn't remembering a previous planting. And then I got it….

My neighbor's window box

Last year I made a quilt for my godchild's little girl. She wanted a purple quilt. I had a stack of fat quarters in a collection from Connecting Threads and some yellow and lavender fabric with a cat motif that was waiting in my stash for the right project. Here is her quilt, "Cats in the Garden." It amazing how the flowers in the flower box echo the fabrics in the Garden Quilt!

Cats in the Garden

The pattern is from Tula Pink's book, City Sampler: 100 Modern Quilt Blocks. The block I used is "No. 4".

The cat fabric in the center of the block and there is a 4 patch flower garden that is formed when the bright purple strips in each corner of the block form a secondary square.

Tula Pink's book is a lot of fun. She numbers all the blocks but lets you name each block! On the cover flap of the book Tula writes " Name your blocks, write in margins, cross out the ones you don't like, draw hearts around the ones that you love. In a perfect world, everyone's book would end up looking like a journal…."

I love that in this digital age, Tula has created a book that is intended to be interactive. Very cool.
You can read her whole note on the cover flap on Tula Pink's website and see some sampler quilts she made. You can see the individual block I used in her rainbow sampler quilt. The No. 4 block is on the outermost row, magenta color and 7 down from the top.

It's a great book of blocks. It would be a great addition to any quilter's library.