Seeing stars

Three things to be happy about:
(1) turning the calendar
(2) seeing stars
(3) Ott lights

Saturday I took a portrait workshop with four friends taught by Yetunde, better known as Sistah Stitchalot.

It was really laid back, and we had a lot of fun fusing and trimming and cutting and chatting!

Most of us finished our portrait - looking good Gwen!

Penny (Livin' Blue Quilter) finished her granddaughter's portrait.  She fought the glasses, wanting to take them out, but Yetunda made her keep them in - good decision!

Tammy did a portrait of Lawrence Fishburn, and made his sunglasses from glittery fabric.  I'd never have thought to do that - very clever!

And last but not least, yours truly!

I actually finished the layers during the workshop, now I have to quilt it and add a border, yes!!!

Meanwhile I've been seeing other stars!  I'm working on these little star blocks for my Bee's community service, due in August.

I'm using 2-1/2" neutral squares, with random scraps for the star points.

So far I've pieced enough for 13 blocks that should finish at 6 inches.  My thought is to use red centers as the one constant fabric.

When I decided to use stars I planned to just set them with sashing on each side.  But just this morning I was thinking of using 9-patches as alternate blocks and eliminating the sashing.

We'll see....

That's it for now, time for breffus!  Sew forth and sew n til later!

Two quilts done

Three things to be happy about:
(1) ATM machines
(2) a new wallet
(3) that first cuppa of the day

I haven't had mine yet, that first cuppa, but I'll get it soon as I finish this post!

Such a relief to get the binding sewn down on the two quilts!

Sunbonnet Sue Sees Stars got a red binding, a bit deeper red than the border... love those "pokey-dots"!

I love stars and I think Jaelyn will love them too, especially with all the scrappiness going on!

She should have fun picking out all the colors, no two Sues were dressed alike.

The cornerstones are also scrappy...

I think the backing goes really well, it's a piece of "batik-y" fabric from my stash...


different colors in a swirly pattern...

A lot for a curious five year old to look at again...

and again...

and again!

"Jay-Jay" will like his quilt, I think...

Blue baby chickens, with glasses yet!

The birds are all blue, but no two are the same...


Some have glasses, front view, side view...

sitting, standing around, and sprawled!

Kudos to Rhonda at ravelly1-quiltzblog for freely sharing this pattern on her blog!

I was able to use up the last significant piece of that backing for this one.

You might remember I bought it on a bolt for $3 at Hancock's Fabrics, when they were closing their Takoma Park, Maryland store (read about it here).

Kinda glad to demote it down to strings and scraps!

Both just need labels and they're ready to go!


Ahh, the satisfaction of finishing these two quilts!

Can you see the quilting on them?  These were long-armed quilted by friend and guild member Bernerdette King.


Now to finish that other one... sew forth and sew on til later!

Quilt lag

Three things to be happy about:
(1) listening to books on your iPod
(2) reading books on your Kindle
(3) textures

You ever get jet lag?  

Well I have quilt lag!

If you've been visiting me the last few weeks you've seen the progress I'm making on this sawtooth star...

While you weren't looking I pieced a whole passel of light blocks to use as an inner border, but just on the top and bottom...

then I realized it'll look funny, so I stopped those and started piecing the rows together.

Now I have just one more star to piece so I can finish that last row ...  somehow I went into quilt lag and haven't done it!

I've been doing this and doing that ....

Meanwhile in the back of my head is knowing I have to finish quilting one for my sister's granddaughter, and put the binding on two more...

Time to get hopping!  Whatever you do, enjoy your day its beautiful out there!

Sew forth and sew on til later

My sawtooth star

Three things to be happy about
(1) bug zappers
(2) biscuit-crust turkey potpie
(3) leftover pizza

Such a lonely, sad sight!!

It's my Singer sewing machine cabinet, empty!!

I was winding yet another bobbin when it started making a clackety! clackety!  sound, so I took it to my regular repairman at Hancock Fabrics.  The good news is, it just needed the usual cleaning, oiling and adjustment, and she's back in business!   The other news, I'll call it "doh!" news, is that I really need to learn how to make my own adjustments, I've had the machine since 1970...

Yep, I sew facing a wall but it doesn't bother me in the least, though.  My TV sits on a shelf to my right, and if I turn my head just slightly I'm looking into my bedroom.

Still piecing my sawtooth stars!

Five sewn together, 1 more kitted up to sew, 3 more being fed through the machine, which hums like a contented lady.

The string units work up fast, and the star itself works up really fast once I get it laid out!

This view gives me an idea of how the quilt will look with three blocks across.

So far, so good!

Enjoy your day, it feels nice and cool out there!  Sew forth and sew on til later!

Stars happen...

Three things to be happy about:
(1) orange flavored popsicles
(2) a three-hole punch
(3) gel pens

Yesterday Gene asked about the machines we need for the cruise - Sew Many Places arranges for the machines!  A Florida Janome dealer (I'm sorry I can't remember the company name) along with his nephew provides brand new, top of the line machines with all the accessories.  They wind our bobbins, rethread the machines, make adjustments - it's a great experience!  And best of all, after the cruise?  They offer you the machine you used at a tempting, VERY GOOD discount!  With free shipping yet.

Meanwhile,,, it's a cycle - a string-y cycle!

I sew...

cut...

depaper...

repeat...

That's how you get there!

Sew forth and sew on... and on... and on...

More stringy-star progress

Three things to be happy about:
(1) fruit dumplings
(2) udderly sMOOth cream (non-greasy; better than bag balm in the green container)
(3) Trident sugar-free gum

My procedure went well yesterday, thanks everyone for your well wishes and good thoughts!

I had to laugh at myself, though.  Safeway has this 13 oz. chicken broth on special for 88 cents and I got three of them.  After I drank one at breakfast (tasty, by the way!) I thought I'd better get some more in case I didn't have enough "stuff" in the house to last all day - so I went back and got 7 more!

Throughout the day I only drank one more, so now I have 8 (EIGHT!!) containers left over!  Oh well, I have until October 2015 to use em...

Does that remind you of how you sometimes buy fabric, then buy some more??  Reminds me of someone "who shall be nameless" who thought she didn't have enough fabric for the September hop and went into overdrive, LOL.  Okay, okay I'll whisper her name: The Slow Quilter.

While waiting for the fun to start on Monday I was still piecing string blocks...

That's a lotta blocks!

I've already done three stars and I have enough in that pile to make three more but not enough of the right combinations...

I'm doing a 3x3 layout, which will give me a 72x72 center, then I'll add borders to size er up.  Yep ladies - there will be some RED somewhere in that border!  I can just see it!

Need something like 5 more stars, I think...  

Meanwhile I'll just keep sewing away til I get the number of string blocks I need to make it happen!

Sew forth and sew on til then!

Two more stars

Three things to be happy about:
(1) new uses for old things
(2) fall catalogs arriving
(3) JoAnn's 50% off coupons

I made more string blocks for my stars, here's two more laid out on my design floor:

They play well together with the first block, don't they?  I'm thinking of separating them with neutral blocks rather than smack together, have to work on that because the blocks are set in a zig zag pattern.  Might be a bit tricky.

The phrase "balance the colors" flew through my mind for about 30 seconds... I think they'll pretty much balance themselves if I just put the blocks together!  I might want to avoid using yellow as the last piece on the points though, shows up as a light.

I'm scheduled for a colonoscopy tomorrow (Tuesday) so today is my prep day, yuck.  I'll have to keep busy so I won't think I'm hungry, just liquids all day doesn't sound too appetizing! Well maybe ... popsicles, jello, coffee, tea, Italian ices... I can swing it!

Have a great day, sew forth and sew on til later!

Stringing right along

Three things to be happy about:
(1) fresh batteries
(2) trolley tours
(3) learning through You tube

Isn't that a messy sewing space?

It's how I roll, it simply means I'm busy with my nose to the needle, my foot to the pedal!

I'm still working away on my string blocks; when I stopped to cut some of them out, I saw that I have more than enough of the dark blocks since each star only needs 4...

I have fewer of the all light and the light/dark mixture though.

So those are the ones I'll work on til I have enough for whatever size quilt I want to make!

Actually the GO die works really well for cutting these blocks - it's accurate and quick.  I can only do one at a time but it's still quicker than cutting with a ruler.

And as a bonus, I thought of a way to use more of that 6-1/2" size - slice a block across at the diagonal and you have an instant roof!

My goal here is to move as many of those strings and strips, as quickly as I can, and this will do it for me.

Meanwhile, I'll keep my nose to the needle in my messy work area til I know it's enough ...


Sew forth and sew on til later!

Oh my, where has she been??

Lazy.  I've been just plain lazy  ;-o)

One day without blogging leads to another, leads to another, leads to another, til I was chastised by a couple of my friends!

SO...

Three things to be happy about:
(1) a glass of ice water
(2) shower-damp sin
(3) the smell of fresh sawdust

I've been piecing string blocks again!  This time I wanted to use the 6-1/2" square on my GO cutter just to do something different.  That is a very large size for strings, kinda awkward to use (ask me how I know!).

I had a few false starts (I'll show these later) on using that size square, then I saw a quilt on Pinterest that stirred my juices.  I want to give credit to the maker of that quilt which I found through a series of links, but I didn't write down the info.

As usual I used the yellow pages for a foundation, cutting the papers at 7 inches because of the GO cutter.  For the one block I finished, I made 4 units with all darks (I know, there's a light strip in there!) 4 with neutrals and lights, and 8 with half dark and half neutral/lights.

I started building the block from the inside out, on my design wall ...

looking good!

When I got all the units in place I stitched them together in pairs, then rows.  I had to go slowly, those strings were stretchy stretchy!!

Finally, the finished block --

A very large Ohio star variation.

With the subunits being a 6 inch square, this block finished at a whopping 24 inches!

I like this stringy star, I'm thinking it won't take much effort to make a full sized quilt out of these because the blocks are so large...

I have an idea about the setting, I'll have to map it out and decide how many of these stars to make.

When I make my other blocks I'll remember to keep the string sizes down to less than two inches, and make sure the separation between dark and light is clearly defined in the star point units.

I'll share more later, sew forth and sew on til then!