Quilting and Sewing!

I mentioned that the previous post had been planned for last week, but didn't happen because Wednesday morning I received the sad news that my cousin had passed away.  It was quite a shock as he was so young.  I was able to travel with an aunt and 2 cousins to Iowa City on Saturday for the Celebration of Life service.  It was a long trip but allowed for time to visit and see all the flooding along the Mississippi.  I also got to see another cousin I hadn't seen since the funeral of an uncle about 17 years ago.  Isn't it sad that we don't see each other until there is a funeral?

While I wasn't in the mood to post last week, I did spend some time in the sewing room.  

I put some practice fabric on my longarm to practice some quilting.  I have become so efficient in using up scrap batting by sewing it together to create Frankenbatts that I didn't have any scrap batting to practice on, so ended slicing a hunk off the end of a brand new king-sized bat.  But, a girl's got to practice!

I also finished sewing my jewel box stars leader/enders together into blocks.

Here are all 30 blocks laid out together.  It is very scrappy as I was trying to utilize some of the scraps I have.  I don't know how successful I was as the bins still seem pretty full.  

This is my friend Gina's jewel box stars (thanks Gina for sharing your photo)................she started with smaller pieces and then set them together with sashing and cornerstones.  I really like the way she did it, and was thinking about sashing mine, but then decided to just sew the blocks together because I liked the subtle patterns it creates.  I am contemplating borders, including a pieced border because I have a bunch of pieces already cut that would work..............time will reveal all!

I also started cutting a new project.  I just needed some uplifting, fun fabrics to play with, so dug out my tub of 30's-style fabrics and my Farm Girl Vintage book and proceeded to start cutting.  I did have to find a background piece of fabric to use that needed to be about 2.25 yards.  Luckily, I had just the thing in my stash that I had picked up in Paducah!  I took what was left on the bolt in Paducah, and it was just a little more than 2.25 yards.  I have about 12 blocks kitted up to take to our guild work day next Saturday.  

There were some FINISHED PROJECTS in May and I don't think I ever showed them.  

This was the Secret Santa mystery quilt I did in December.  I just love the look of those little red/neutral 9-patches.  Those squares started out at 1 inch!  I quilted it myself too.

I also quilted this quilt finally.  It's called Kitchen Sink and is made from 2.5" strips.  I did my first "custom" quilting on this.  The center is done in an allover loopy meander, but the brown triangles have a certain design and the red border is done with straight line quilting.

I also finished this wall hanging.  I did diagonal line quilting in the green border, traced the leaves and picture, and then did stippling in the background of the picture.

After those May finishes, I started working on what may become a mystery quilt for my guild next year.  I can't reveal anything, so here are the black and white photos of the fabrics I selected from my stash!

I have also been sewing on this, but can't show photos since I might be using it as a mystery quilt.

I had to do some figuring for my mom's quilting projects.  We both have teaching degrees.  She is certified to teach English, French, and Spanish.  I am certified to teach English, Business, and Economics.  I guess that's why I do the figuring and playing with the graph paper to come up with quilt designs for her.

I had previously gotten her the easy angle and companion angle rulers because I really liked them.  I think she likes them too, but I still have to do the figuring.  So, I pulled out some scrap fabric to figure out what sizes she needed for some star points...................stars seem to be a favorite of hers..............mine too!

 You can tell it's scrap fabric by the lovely flaw!

I texted her some directions and I'll be anxious to see how her quilt comes out.

Of course, no post would be complete without critter pictures!  DD found 3 baby raccoons under her car when she started packing it up for her trip to Rolla yesterday.  They were so cute, but hissed when we use the hoe to move them out from under her car.

Just last week she found a momma possum with a pouch full of babies eating cat food when she went out to feed her kittens.  When she was little, she wanted to be a zoo keeper.  That may still be a possibility!

Christi