Since Last We Met....

I started a new quilt and am planning another!  Temecula used the 9 Patch gray 5's fabric (Judie Rothermel Sturbridge Village IV) as a background in one of their quilts and I loved it.  I was re-acquainted with a quilt from Kim Diehl's Simple Comforts book and pulled the gray from stash to use as background.  I have lots of 4 Patch blocks to make, but I think this one will come together quickly.  The 9 Patch blocks are complete.

The quilt I'm planning is from my bucket list.  It's the cover quilt from Quilts:  An American Heritage by Terri Zegart.  This book can be found 'used' online at ridiculously low prices - the book price is cheaper than the shipping.  The book is only 128 pages, but the picture quality is wonderful.  I found this book almost three years ago and instantly added the cover quilt to my list.  This picture has been rotating thru my screensaver.  This is the second time my screensaver has pushed me to start something new.  It's great incentive - my favorites keep flashing by.

I'm recharging my winter battery in FL this week.  My first stop was a quilt show in Punta Gorda.  I'll post show pictures next time.

This is another Christmas gift that I made this year, but forgot to take pictures of. It was made for my friend Missy. She has lots of colors in her house, and the only thing that I could think to make for her was a Christmas quilt. The pattern is in Simply Scrappy Quilts by Nancy Martin, and is called Star and Chain. It uses 2.5 in strips, and goes together lickety-split. Here is a detail of the quilting, and, in my defense, I had to take pictures really fast. This swirl on the side triangle is my favorite part. Hopefully you can make it out. Susan Atwell, from Fat Quarter Quilt Farm, did the machine quilting. I've had a fair amount of sewing time recently, and am making progress on the Texas Braid. I set some tight parameters for myself on this. The darks have a broad range, but the lights are more narrow. I didn't want anything with a white background, and did want an old, mellow feel to them. It seems to be working, but it is getting kind of boring piecing. Every once in a while I have to audition more, and cut into something fresh.

Finished my Midnight Stars top. I am happy with it, and it goes upon the stack of "to be quilted" tops.

Midnight Stars - Thanks, Lori!

I started Midnight Stars Part 1 (pieced block outer triangles) during late night retreat sewing.  I had little yardage with me, so I pulled the fabrics from scrap strip sets.  The pea-green fabric set the tone for the entire top - it's a hard color to base a quilt around!  There was alot of fabric auditioning going on at my house before moving on to Part 2!  I didn't have enough background fabric (darker of the two) to complete the setting triangles, so I alternated with a second fabric.  The darker background (2004-2005 Thimbleberries) really played nicely with the pea-green triangles and was my first choice.  I probably should have used the darker for the outer border and the lighter for the four inner blocks - hindsight!  Haven't decided if I'll add an outer border - the top needs to rest for awhile.

Close-up of the two star blocks -

Design Wall/Crib Strippy 9 Patch

I am starting off the year with good intentions to complete some projects that have been on the back burner, so it's been back at work on my Texas Braid project. It was nearly a year since Bonnie Hunter came to our guild, and I took her class. I am happy with the way it is looking, but quite nervous about trimming, and sewing the rows together. There will be lots of bias, and no room for error. There is far to go before that point, though! A new, but tiny :), project - Lori's Quilt-Along hit the skids when I ran out of my main fabric due to a miscut. Vicki to the rescue with a fat quarter, so I will be able to finish this soon. Haven't made it to my sewing room for the last couple of days, but hope to this afternoon - after house cleaning :( I don't think that you've seen this little crib quilt before. It was folded, and hanging on my pew/quilt rack for maybe the last month. It is just jammed in there for the pic, so it looks a bit wonky.

It was time for a change, but I want to look at this toile backing for a day or two. I can pretend that I fan quilted a whole cloth quilt! Boy, you sure can see fold lines after such a short display time.