Midweek Update

Counting down the days left in summer vacation.  5 more days until preplanning starts.  Yikes!  Summer goes so fast.   While soaking up the last few hours like a sponge, I am spending some quality time with my sewing machine.  The output level isn't high, but I am enjoying playing with scraps and chipping away at lots of ongoing projects.

  Checkout my Giant Rainbow Postage Stamp blocks.  The center section of each block has 144 1.5 inch squares.  I had a dark green, but it didn't have enough contrast with the light green.  I still have a light blue in the works and then I'll add a dark and light neutral block to bring the total count to 12.  Not quite sure where I will go with the sashing on this one, I was thinking of a garden rail idea with some white and grey.  Plenty of time to think about it.

I was so happy with the way the batik stars turned out that I wanted to make one for myself.  This one will have sampler blocks in the star centers though.  It probably won't be started until the new year, but it is fun to plan ahead.  

We've done school supply shopping, and clothes shopping and new shoe shopping.  Yesterday we stocked up on groceries.  The kids have even been helping with a bit of organization and cleaning.  Not too much though, it is almost the end of their vacation too.  Just a couple of doctors appointments to finish off the summer.  Big sigh, counting down reluctantly.  

Stars in Sunshine and Shadow

 Yesterday afternoon I sewed the blocks together for Aunt Brenda's quilt.  After dinner I put on the border.

This morning I pieced a back out of this batik snowflake fabric along with a bit of extra backing fabric.  I just need to make up some binding and a label so that I can send it off for hand quilting.  I'm thinking of scrappy batiks for the binding.  Mainly because I don't have anything except what is left from this project.
Looking at the 6 inch center part of the square, I am thinking this would make a stunning sampler quilt with 6 inch blocks in each of the stars.  24 blocks, 2 per month for a year.  Maybe next year.    

Batik Star Blocks Done

Just finished up the last block for Aunt Brenda's Batik Stars Quilt.  The light is a little better today, so you can start to see the light and dark background effect.  Still wishing for more contrast, but it is hard to find nice background fabrics in the batik family.  Still enjoying the total effect of the quilt though.  I'll try to get the rows pinned before the dog decides to rearrange everything for me.  

Batik Stars for Aunt Brenda

 I've been putting together the blocks for Aunt Brenda's Batik Stars quilt.  The two background fabrics ended up more similar than I had hoped, but in good light you can get the effect.

 This was the original plan, I'm happy to have it to refer back to after putting it away last summer.  Aunt Brenda is getting anxious for her quilt though, so it has gone to the top of the list.  Aunt Marilyn does beautiful hand quilting and she will be taking over that part as soon as the top is done.

When my sister Heather came to visit before our vacation, she brought me some of Mom's things.  Her husband Tom has sold the house and was ready to get rid of everything.  Heather saved the photos and some sewing things to bring to me along with some Christmas decorations that are still at her house.  Mom liked to sew, but was never a quilter, and most of her fabrics were flannel or home decor.  I did pull these cottons out out and will try to work them into a project or two.

Here is a quick photo of the girls with their trophies from the power lifting tournament this weekend.  They both had great lifts, Sydney went 9 for nine on her three events and Anna made all but one of her bench presses.  The alarm at 5:30 this morning was painful, but I came home and took a quick nap before it was time to get up and take Anna shopping for back to school clothes.  Then this afternoon we went zip lining at the zoo again.  When we got home from that, it was time for Sydney to take a nap.  Rainy days are so good for napping.  

Aunt Brenda's Quilt

I've been busy this week with training but I did find some time in the evening to plan out Aunt Brenda's quilt.  I have a program called quilt Pro for the mac, which I am still trying to get used to.  The darker background fabric has been shipped, I got an e-mail yesterday saying it was in Ohio.  All the light blocks are done, along with the four patches.  I even have the light strips ready to go but can't put the blocks together without the dark strips.  Soon though.  

12 Stars Done

I finished 12 star blocks for Aunt Brenda's quilt!  All the parts are cut out for the rest, but I am waiting for a darker background fabric to arrive.  I have a vision.  I hope it turns out half as well as the plan in my mind. 

Today is the only day this week that I don't have to work so I am going to make the most of it.  Anna needs a drop off and pick up for camp of course, and there are some assorted errands to be taken care of.  First though, there is a quilt of the frame that could be finished with just a few minutes of focus.  I think it will be number 5 for June.  

Quilt Cut

I worked up a couple of practice blocks last night.  The first star was too small.  At that point I decided to stop practicing with my new batik fabric.  The sawtooth star will finish at 12 inches, I thought it needed a little something, so looked up the measurements to replace the center portion with a square in a square block.  Then I worked out an alternate block based on 2.5 inch squares with half light and half dark background.  TaDa!  I new quilt is being born.  I don't have any darker background fabric, but the rest of it is cut out and ready to be sewn together again.
The boys are off to Dungeons and Dragons this afternoon so the girls will have a nice lunch out with a trip to Joann's.  Anna needs a costume for her play on Friday.  She is going to be Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka Junior.  We picked up a dress at Goodwill yesterday which we are going to alter, so we will get supplies for that at the same time.  

New Quilt Schemes

 Look at the fabric goodness that came in the mail!  I have a very dear aunt who has asked me to make her a quilt.  I also have another aunt who loves to hand quilt and has offered to quilt it for her after I have made it.  They were shopping at a quilt shop with Mom and sent me a picture of a lovely Lonestar Quilt all made out of batiks. I've never worked much with batiks, but it sounded like a good chance to try something new.  I'm not sure I can accomplish the Lonestar idea quickly enough to get this thing done in a reasonable time, but I saw a quilt that got my creative juices flowing here.  Maybe because of the beautiful quilting?  Wanting to keep things somewhat simple for hand quilting, I remembered the Mariposa quilt I had made several years ago with a sawtooth star block.  Then I found this half light, half dark version of a chain block with some samplers stars.

Then I started to make some sketches.  In case you were wondering, this is how UFOs are born.  A new idea comes along and everything else that was in the works gets pushed aside.  So now I'm off to make a test block or two while inspiration is flowing.