STARS COMPLETE! WHEW!

Here they are, all 10!  Each participant selected their color scheme and the location of the Kona white was fixed by the hostess.  But after that, it was up to the maker.  There are two blocks for each.  So with making two of your own, you'll have 12 blocks in your colorway to work with.  I requested Christmas red/green/gold.  I'll show you what I received when they come.

I improved my point matching in the process, but I sure hope I'm not sending to any quilt police!  I have a ways to go with that learning curve on blocks with 72 pieces each.  Paper piecing helps the accuracy, but geesh!  72 pieces in one block?  They are 12".

The swap was coordinated by Bea Quilter.  She modified the Persian Star pattern from Women of the Bible Quilt, enlarging it and leaving off an applique center.  I will check with Bea and Carol H. about sharing the pattern, as several have asked.

I made these entirely from stash -- FQs and smaller.  Why is it when you pull stash scraps, the volume gets larger, not smaller.  Oh and my creative mind is so messy!  This is what my studio looks like at the end of this project.

 

 

 

I can hear friend Carol saying, yes, that's how it always looks.  And friend Jodi saying tsk, tsk.  I need to pull fabric for one more scrappy project - Nan's round robin border - and also for an art quilt class.  Then the studio is getting a thorough cleaning/tidying.  Geesh!  What a wreck!

 

Art quilt class?????  What was I thinking?  That is so out of my norm.  But it's the only international teacher my guild has coming this year, so I'm doing it.  S-t-r-e-t-c-h!  At least I won't have to worry about matching up points!  And Jodi is in it with me, and it's even more a reach for her.

SEEING STARS

I've been working on stars all weekend.  Bea designed this paper-pieced block in EQ.  They finish 12".  Each block is made in 8 sections (two print to a page), and there are 9 pieces in each section.

Yup.  That's 72 pieces in each  block.  Yikes!  Worse yet, I was getting up and pressing and cutting after each line of stitching.  New system, all set up at the machine now.  Whew.  I've gotten it down to 15 minutes a section, so that's two hours per block, not counting selecting fabrics, cutting to size for piecing, and removing the paper.

This is not a swap to let slide!  But I did.  Life happened on so many fronts, and I'm under the wire now.  Back to stitching.  I need 10 total, 2 each of 5 colorways.  Plus my own, but that can and will wait.

How's your weekend going?  I'm thankful for the extra hour.  Hey, that's half a block:)

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

Nov. 1 is All Saints/Souls Day to me, when we honor those who passed before us.  In Mexican tradition it is called Dia de los Muertos -- Day of the Dead. 

In honor of this holiday, our guild had us dig out the skeletons in our closets -- yes, our oldest UFOs -- for show and tell  Too fun.

Here's mine, an applique Santa from about 1991 or 92.  I think.  I know it was near Desert Storm time and it was a kit from Keepsake Quilting.  What is really funny is that all necessities are in the baggie.  The pages have yellowed, but check out that Dual Duty cranberry thread I was using for needle turn applique!  Geepers!

In my defense, I was living in Saudi Arabia at the time, and probably used whatever thread I could find to match.  There's also a neat spool of 100% cotton thread from France.  I'm sure that's from Al Zamil's.

I was just learning to use freezer paper for applique, and look.....   It is still ironed on after 20+ years!!!

Here's how far I got back then before it got boxed up and put into storage for years.  Hmmm.............  Maybe I should finish it for this year.

The oldest UFO and grand prize winner, was a quilt top our guild president made in 1976, her first year of teaching.  She traced and embroidered each 2nd grader's hand print, and added their names.  The top is all complete, but not quilted.

So, what's hiding in your closet?  Do you have any skeletons?

9-PATCHES

I won our little block lotto this month.  I requested 9-patches, any size (3", 6" 9", or 12") and any colors.

These cuties arrived from Marianne.  4 of them finish at 3" and the giant is 6".  Too fun!

SHOPPING

So, after guild on Tuesday, we went to the quilt shop.  I got this new cutting system, by TrueCut.  They are the ones that show the children using it in their ads --  easy - safe - accurate.  We shall see.

Notice the partially cut selvage on the left.  That's where I left off last Sunday.  Haven't been in the studio all week.  The finger is healing nicely so far.

NOT A GOOD DAY IN THE STUDIO

Second cut of the day, and I sliced off a tip of finger skin  Ouch!  Much blood and pain later, here it is.  Maybe I need to get one of those Klutz Glove things.!  Ouch!

LOYAL UNION SAMPLER

 

This is my first Loyal Union Sampler block, B-2 Camp Curtain.  These are 6" blocks and the quilt is by Jennifer Chiaverini, my favorite author.

 

 

No, I didn't need another ongoing project.  However, I do want to do them as a quilt along with others, and the group is starting now.  You can learn more about that, and join in if you want to, here.

SYLVIA'S BRIDAL SAMPLER

This week's block is N-9, Broken Dishes.

QUILT INSPIRATION

Sunrise over Whitefish Bay this morning.  -- Picture compliments of Village Fabrics and Crafts, my favorite LQS.    They live a few miles south of us on the same shoreline.  As she commented,  perfect inspiration for a variegated yarn or a batik fabric.  Nature is the BEST inspiration!

SANTA'S WORKSHOP OPENS

A wonderful box arrived in the mail from Fabric Shack, one of my favorite on-line shops, both for prices and service (no affiliation).   These cute Camp Woodsy panels will be the center of camping quilts for two of my grandsons.

Christmas is only 100 days away!  The count begins :)

AIMING FOR PROGRESS

There are now two more lessons finished on my Aiming for Accuracy Quilt-Along quilt.  The units with friendship stars, 9-patches, and hourglass, are new.  They are spread out on my queen sized guest bed.

 

These are the last two actual units.  From here on out, it's putting everything together -- spacer units, sashing, border, etc.  Yippee!

 

Here's my updated chart.

 

 

 

This picture shows what happens when you have dogs, and must use a bed top for a design wall.

 

 

Have a super weekend everyone.

 

 

 

 

GEESE HAVE LANDED

The flying geese from my last post have landed and are encircling Debbie's round robin.  It is now on its way home to Arizona.  She's planning to quilt some lovely feathers in the open space.  I can't wait to see it completed.

This block is a Buddhist Pinwheel.  The random look of the placement is actually very controlled.  The light, medium, medium-dark, and dark colors are in a certain placement.  The monks meditate while stitching this block.  The strange color placement took all my concentration!  No meditating here.  In order to stitch this block, I cut the triangles and then made the hourglass sections.  There was no way to quick-piece and have the color placement correct.  The hour-glass blocks finish 3" and then the border brings the block up to 12".

This block is going into a small block lotto, and was requested by Tricia, the winner for this month. 

THE GEESE ARE FLYING

Autumn is in the air here in Upper Michigan.  The geese are flying in my sewing loft.

 

But the view still looks just like summer!

 

 

The fall winds have picked up here though, and especially inland a bit, the colors are starting to turn;  -- all signs of the season changing.

 

 

 

ROWS ARRIVE

My rows are back home.  This will be the start of a sports-themed quilt for my grandson, Devon, and I made the top row.

The pennants, snowballs, friendship stars, and football field, were made by other participants.  Now, how to put it together?  Hmmm...................

WORKING ON..............

Lately I've been finishing up swap commitments.  Cutting it close with the deadlines makes me uncomfortable, so I'm ahead of the game this time.

Here's the next, and final round, for the medallion swap I'm in.

 

This is Debbie's beautiful quilt.  I love her colors!  The first gals have sure done a super job.  Hope I can do it justice.  I think I know what I'm adding, but ideas and thoughts are welcome too.  It's at 62" right now.  Hmmm.............

 

 

 

 

Here's a row I just made for our row swap.  Terry has a sewing room theme.  I enjoyed doing the hand embroidery.  The thread on the spools is made from strip set extras from another project.  I thought it was a great use of them.  This was the last round for me to work on, and my rows are in the mail to me right now also.

 

MEDALLION ROUND THREE

A while back I posted a photo of Leigh's medallion quilt and asked what you thought I might do with it.  I really appreciated all the ideas.  For most of the summer I thought I'd go with the dogtooth border suggestion.  But in the end I decided to make a quarter-square-triangle border. 

Here it is now:

 

And here's a refresher of what it looked like when I received it.

 

 

Lynda, the stitcher before me in this swap, left her blue border large, so I could trim it how I needed to fit mine.  Did that ever help!  I trimmed to a multiple of 5, 35.5" to fit seven 5" blocks per side.  Using an odd number per side allowed me to keep the pattern going in the corner blocks.

This is really fun to do and I know it stretches my quilt design skills.  But, I have to say I feel a bit like "Check" one more off my list.  This is due Sept. 4, so nothing like cutting it close!

I have 3 other swap commitments this year -- one more medallion which I'll share soonest, a row swap final row, and stars for Bea's swap.  Once those are done, I'm swearing off swaps for a bit.  I have soooo many UFO's and so many projects in process that I want more time for.  Oh, and a new Quilter's Book Club to read and quilt.  And Jennifer Chiaverini's Loyal Union Samper group will start their BOW in Oct.  I need more time!

Hope you, too, find some time to stitch this Labor Day Weekend (at least here, in The States).  It's a labor of love :)

AIMING FOR ACCURACY QUILT ALONG

 

Lesson 8 and 10 -- all caught up!

 

 

Here's the view from the design bed.  It's my only off-floor surface large enough, and there's getting to be too many to move to the floor to arrange.  This is our queen size guest bed.

 

 

There are only 16 lessons, so I'm 10/16 finished with the top, or 5/8 done, in simplest form:)

AFA: LESSON 9

 

Here's my Aiming for Accuracy Lesson 9.  Lesson 10 came out today, and I still have to do 8.  Yikes!  Playing catch up.

 

 

This is all my blocks so far, spread out on the floor, sort of as they will be in the quilt.

 



HOOKY BUSINESS

Here's my crochet-along project so far.  This is a first -- using recommended size hook to get gauge!  I always knit and crochet loose and need to go down a size, if the item has to fit.  That said, I usually don't crochet or knit things that have to 'fit'.  I generally make afghans, scarfs, etc.  But this is a cardigan, and this is the bottom back.

I'm also using the recommended yarns, as I love them.  Two skeins are Vanna's Choice and three are Unique, a new yarn from Lion Brand.  The Unique is very soft and nice.  A bit like Homespun, but not nearly so 'hairy'.

Oh, and as to watching Downton during a stitching marathon, forget that!  You'd miss a raised brow, or curious look!  It is just all-engrossing!  Even DH is caught up in it.  I'm enjoying it so much more than the hit or miss I did with it when it played on TV.  Now I understand the whys and whats.  We are half-way through Season 3.  Season 4 doesn't play in the States until January.  What to do; what to do?  Perhaps check The Tudors out of the library?  Sure beats anything on TV!  And, if I'd go back to crocheting ruffle scarfs or similar, I could hook and watch at the same time maybe.  But not during Downton.

DOWNTON ABBEY

 

I feel a hand-stitching marathon coming on!

CROCHET ALONG

While Pat's Patter is usually about quilting, my other crafts slip in sometimes.  I'm joining the Crochet Along with Lion Brand Yarn and Ravelry.  4 or 5 of my friends are joining too.  Any other hookers want to play?

 

This week is just get your supplies.  You can buy local or order from Lion Brand (25% off, since this was selected for the Crochet Along).  Check it out here.

AIMING FOR ACCURACY, LESSON 7

 

Here's my Lesson 7, and below is my updated chart (thanks to Helen).

 

I'm actually keeping up with this Quilt Along!  Yeah!

SPOOLS

 

These are some of the spools I've been working on for a quilt for my sewing studio in FL.  They are from Edyta Sitar's Friendship Strips and Scraps book.  Next I need to cut the borders out and start planning the applique.

 

Tom and I took a hike on the Lake Superior shore today, and stopped by a county park to get pictures of these quirky outhouses.  They've been sand-blown-in since we've been coming here:)  I think I should get the pictures blown up and framed for our bathroom.  Hmmm..........................

 

 

 

 

AFA: UNIT 6

 

 

Unit 6 is finished and charted.  I love having a place to use the text fabric:)

AFA: UNIT 5

Unit 5 is done.  Really, it is straight.  But my photography leaves a bit to be desired!  I'm really having fun with these perky fabrics.

 

And here's the mock-up, showing progress.