End of July................

It is hard to believe that it is the end of July.  Can you hear Jingle Bells around the corner.  It seems like after the 1st of August, time just flies.  I have a lot to do, and I imagine if you are a quilter or a crafts person, you are thinking, "how am I going to get all of this done."

Michael's Quilt

One more project finished.  This is the doggy quilt for Michael.  You can't see the quilting but I put doggies and doggy bones on it. 



Starring the Waterlilies

 I am working on the back for Spinning Stars.  I still have more to add to this back.  Some if not all of you know that I piece my backs.  I make my backs without a pattern and by the seat of my pants.  It is rare that I actually take pencil and paper and draw them out.  This quilt top is based on a pattern by Dot Collins.  I took her pattern did a little change (surprise, surprise), made it a bit larger.  I am going to have her do the quilting.  She is an award winning quilter and does a wonderful job.  I would like to enter it in shows next year and the following year. 

There is a Lot of Spinning Going On

Hope all is well with you.................

Design Wall and etc..........

I have finished up the spinning stars quilt and have decided to name it "Rolling, Rolling, Rolling." I am now working on the back. I will put at least one spinning star on the back. I have used almost all of that background fabric and I bought all that the shop had, so thus am limited to what I can do.  I have saved enough for the binding.  I bought about 8 1/2 yards of background.  It doesn't seem possible that you would use so much fabric.  It is a paper-pieced quilt so there is a lot of waste.  If I made it again, I would widen the strips by a half inch, and then you could use the piece that you cut off (waste) for the next triangle.  It would save considerably. 

In the corners to make this a rectangle quilt instead of using large pieces of fabric, I cut triangles the same size as the triangles used in the spinning stars. It also has a three inch border.






This is a little project that I am doing to use up fabric.  Most of my quilts are little pieces and they take a long time to make.  I am slow anyway.  I am going to make several quilts with larger pieces and quilts that go together faster just to use up some of the excess fabric that I have.  I do not want to buy anymore storage containers.  It is like living within my means, no more storage containers.

I found this pattern "Off the Grid" on the net.  It is a Moda pattern.  It is made with nine nine-patch blocks.  I made it one row longer.  With nine it would make a nice table topper but with twelve it could be use as a leg warmer. 

I made this pillowcase this weekend for my grandson.  He lives on Whidbey Island in Washington state.  I thought he would like the bugs.  This is a closeup of the fabric.  I think it is so cute. 

And then there is my pesky cat, JAC.  She follows me everywhere I go.  My desk is much too small for my "junk",  keyboard and etc, and then a cat that thinks she can spread out.

Hope all is well on your end.........



Design Wall and JAC

I still have Spinning Stars on my design wall.  It is coming along slowly.  I really didn't get much done last week.  I had a horrendous cold.  I don't think I have had a cold in 10 years and believe me it was a doozy.  I do think that I am on the mend.  I even went to Curves this morning.  And I had planned on doing some "Going to Market" squares but it didn't happen.  Hopefully this week I will get a few things done.

This is JAC (Just a cat).  She is a pest.  She is nosy.  She is always in the way.  She likes me.

Spinning Stars

Spinning Stars [Starring the Waterlilies] are on my design wall this morning.  It is coming along.  Hopefully by this time next week I will have them finished.  I rather doubt if I will have the top finished.   The white squares are numbers. 

I had intentions of having a Market Basket block finished today.  It didn't happen but maybe not today, because I have a lot on my plate, but possibly tomorrow.  If so I will post it. 

Nothing much new here.  Hope all is well on your end.

Design Wall and etc...............

Spinning Star [Starring the Waterlilies]

On Saturday I went to a workshop.  It was put on by the Contraband Quilters Guild.  Dot Collins of the Beaumont, Texas area came over to instruct the class.  We had chosen to do her Spinning Stars quilt.  We had 20 quilters and it was a great day, fun was had by all.  I decided to increase the size of the quilt so thus made a drawing so I would know what I was doing.  This quilt is made with triangles.  Six triangles make a hexagon.  My plans are to make all of the stars different.  I think this is going to be a star a week quilt. I have a quilt that I must meet a dead line (of which I need to check to see what that is).  I also have the basket quilt coming up March 1st.  I am going to be a busy busy person. 

Not much new here.  The weather was super over the weekend.  We had low 70's.  Vic was here working on the lawnmower and trimmed up the hedges in the front yard.  The yard work has begun.  It is never ending until November.

Hope all is well on your end...................

HEATED SEATS............. SPINNING STARS

In 2008 I bought a new Toyota Sienna Limited.  It literally has everything but the kitchen sink.  It has heated seats.  I bought the car in Iowa.  In Iowa you need heated seats or at least they are really nice to have.  I have not  thought over the past 2 1/2 years of using them and even forgot that I had them.  I had to leave the house early a couple of days this past week.  In the previous week, one of my quilting buddies was talking about heated seats.  It clicked, I have heated seats.  It has been rather cold (down right cold) in the south the last few days.  I got into my car, onto a frozen seat, and thought, "now where are the buttons for the heated seats?"   Right in front my nose is the little buttons.  I pushed it up and almost immediately I had a warm tush.  So nice, I probably paid a fortune for these things, I might as well use them.  Technology isn't it wonderful?

Now. to quilting.  I have signed up for a workshop with our guild.  Dot Collins is coming over from Beaumont, TX to be our instructor.  The project is Spinning Stars [Starring the Waterlilies] (it is on her website).  I have decided to make all of my stars different.  You need 2 1/2 inch strips.  I have lots of left over strips from doing the Bali Wedding Star quilt. The biggest problem is that their is four colors for each point of the star.  You need 2 strips alike for point 1 and 2.  Point 3 and 4 only need 1 strip each.  Bali Pops usually only come with 1 strip of color the same.  Sometimes you will luck out and get 2.  I do have a large stash of Batiks and I have been digging around in it too.  In the pictures, notice that I have a little piece of paper pinned to each grouping.  The little code means - yellow, I need a strip of the lightest to match what I have for the lightest color - pink, I  need a strip of the medium light to match what I have for the medium light color.  If you notice, I only have one group that doesn't have a code on it.  I have a long way to go.  I am going to talk to my friends who have made the Bali Wedding Star to see if I can nose around in their stash of left over strips.  I still have a couple of weeks to find fabric that will work.  The dark fabric is my background.  It is a brown/black and very nice.  Fun, Fun, Fun............