Hello all, Mary Ellen here.

Yesterday I finished a Phd from 1999. How do I know that date? The issue of Miniature Quilts magazine (Do you remember that one? It was a favorite magazine of mine!) where I found the directions was folded up with the nearly complete project. All it needed was a binding. Fortunately I had not trimmed the backing off yet, so I was able to do a “faux” binding, wrapping the backing up over the edge to the front. Quick finish. I wonder why I hadn’t finished it back then when there was so little needed.

The project looks like a drunkards path project, with killer small curves but…it’s not. Squares were fussy cut from two fabrics: a black background with white polka dots, and a white background with black polka dots. The polka dots were about 1 inch in diameter originally, so the curvy portions on the “drunkard’s path” blocks are about 3/4″. Makes it look like I really worked hard at the curve piecing, but I had none to do. Just sewed my fussy cut blocks into rows and bam!, there it is.

Don’t you love projects that look like you really fussed, when you know how easy it actually was? The trouble is, too many of us give away the secret in a self-effacing way. “it was so easy, all I did was …” We should just keep quiet and let our admirers think we are genius quilt-makers.

Do you have a pattern secret you can share with the rest of us who are in the club? What pattern have you made that makes you look like a genius, even though you know it was a cinch?