Sashed the quilt with stars

It sure felt good to do some sewing again. This is the pile of blocks that the quilting ladies from church made for me. I had no idea how I was going to arrange them, or even what fabrics I would use with the blocks.

 Rummaging around in my stash I found the itty-bitty gold flowers that worked great for sashing.  I considered a few other arrangements, but I didn't have enough yardage for those options. Not sure what I wanted to border it with, I took a few selections to a church meeting and let the ladies decide. They chose this red paisley.  I have had both the little gold flowers and the red paisley in the drawer for YEARS. I NEVER thought I would use them together.

The ladies liked this block so much that another gal decided to use it for her block exchange. She wants her blocks in white and pastel/30's prints. These are the two I did for her.

And believe it or not, they liked it so much that they decided that we should use the same block for our next church raffle quilt. So you will be seeing more of that block later, though in different settings.

Christmas will be here in less than a month, so I better get hopping. Not much for shopping anymore, but I will decorate a bit. I want to get that out of the way before next week, cause then I will need to focus again as mom's personal representative of her will. I sure hope I will find some time for quilting.  I pulled out a pile of quilt tops I want to work on next. This week I hope to prep backs and plan the quilting for them so I don't have to think  so hard in Dec, I can just quilt. Think it will work??? Sure, it's sorta like putting my own kits together.

I just need to make good notes and drawings. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Mine was. Sew long,

Then in September

As usual there were lectures and workshops on my agenda this fall. I spent one day with members of the Oshkosh guild. I arrived the evening before and then met my hostess for breakfast. There were over 20 ladies in class and they were really spread out.  I was relieved when they found a microphone for my use during the workshop because I was developing a good case of laryngitis.

 One of the members brought this quilt of my design to the meeting. I love it when they do that. Actually another gal also brought a quilt from the same pattern. Somehow I forgot to get a picture and I was even holding the camera!

Also as usual, I was teaching a Thirtysomething workshop. And I believe it was the same gal mentioned above that found this free pattern with the Thirtysomething technique on my website. What a surprise when instead of making the blocks as suggested, she produced these 9 different blocks from the same elements. I love it when that happens! Do you ever play with the pieces for a block to see what other designs you can come up with?

Playing Catch Up

Things have quieted down and I've been able to quilt again. I'll show that later. First I'll show you what I put together back in August. I think I didn't show it sooner cause I was considering putting another border on it.  I tend to border everything. But  I guess I decided to call it done when I picked it up the other day and looked at it.  I put the center together earlier this year from some old stash. Playing in Electric Quilt I came up with the pieced border.  I like it, but it is darker than I'd prefer. Looks masculine to me. I have no use for it so I will stick it on my pile of quilts that are finished cause the top is done.  Maybe in 20 years I will add more borders to make it a more useable size.

While I was waiting for my Edgerider Wheels to show up I quilted a few blocks to have samples of different batts that were quilted.  I figured I ought to as long as I knew which battings they were. It was fun, so I think I want to put one of my samplers on the machine next.

 The wheels arrived and we installed them the day before mom went to the hospital. I didn't get a chance to really try them until this week.They needed some adjusting and I think it could still be tweaked further. Not sure yet.

My sisters were a big help in cleaning out mom's apartment. We had a great time going through stuff and I was very happy that practically everything was divided  unanimously.  I found homes for most of her stuff and only threw away the real junk. Dealing with the will and probate is a long process, but not difficult, so things are pretty much at a new normal. It is November so that means Mark only works part time till the end of the year. I will sew as much as I can to maintain my sanity.