Star Struck, Rag quilt, swap blocks and a Kaleidoscope quilt!

Where have I been? At the sewing machine of course! And the rain is light and wonderful. Makes for a perfect sewing day. But I am also doing the laundry. A gal cannot do just one thing at a time you know!

I have my Star Struck pink/brown all done and ready for the borders. Pattern is by Bonnie Hunter at : http://www.quiltville.com

Right now it is a comfy 48X55". Then I was caught by another quilt in my head and took it down from the design wall. I do have the borders all cut and ready for a quick finish.

I really like this pattern. I want to do it in all colorways including scrappy. There is not enough of me to go around. I even sew in my sleep!

This is what took me away from the Star Struck quilt. There is a story here. Last week I won one yard of "ugly" fabric at my guild meeting. Next month I am to bring a yard of what I consider ugly fabric to a drawing. Anyway, I loved the fabric and used it in this quilt. This quilt is now 52X66" before borders.

The fabric I won was the guitar fabric. It is by Michael Miller. A beautiful piece of fabric. Hubby and I both play guitar and the fabric fits us to a "T". I told hubby he can have this one when I am done with it. I have been asked to teach a pattern at my LQS and this one will be it. If you make smaller blocks it is doable in one lesson day.

One afternoon last week I got another "itch" to try a technique...rag quilting. This picture is after just one wash/dry. I understand they will bloom the more they are washed. The cats have claimed this one alread. That is fine, I was only testing the technique.

This is before wash/dry. I have a whole bolt of the brown floral flannel. It is so beautiful. I need to start selling some of my stash. What will I ever do with 15 yards of this beautiful fabric? It is made by Andover Fabrics 2002 American Folk Art Museum, Broderie Perse Pattern #2017.

Any takers at $4.00 a yard?

I am in a batik block swap on a Yahoo group and these three sets are what I am mailing out. I just love these swaps. I worked on these last week too. Guess that is why I have not been blogging.

Here are the fabrics all washed. Batiks bleed so bad. These will not.

And this is the project that really took a big bunch of my time. There are 200 3" nine patches for mailing. And I do not have have the other 200 rail blocks pictured. I mailed out 400 mini 9-patches and rails. I cannot wait to get the return swap! It really impressed the ladies at the post office. They love to look at what I am swapping. And it is job security for them.

I moved around some more furniture and added a pressing station to my sewing area. Gosh am I lucky or what!

There is more room for the kitties to help me too!

And here is MaggieMae in her glory. She loves to lay on cool hard surfaces. I think that is because of her heavy fur. Less static or clinging.

Two summers ago there were two baby squirrels born without tails. One did not make it through the winter. But little Stubby made it. I think it large part because I made sure she was fed through the winters. She is now heading into her third winter year. She has had 2 litters each summer and is an excellent mother. She is so tame she takes peanuts from my hand. She also knocks on the door to get my attention. I fear she is going to dash into the house when I open the front door to give her peanuts and what a mess that would be. I fear she would really hurt the cats. They all love her through the window as you can see. Pearl is just calmly watching her. I guess I really love her as I bought 25#'s of raw peanuts this summer for winter feeding. I also make them peanutbutter/cornmeal/birdseed balls.

See? All she has is about 2" of fluffy fur. All her babies have long gorgeous tails. Maybe something got into her nest when she and her brother were VERY small and they each lost the tail. I looked it up on the internet, and she is showing and sharing her terrritory with only one of her last litter. I watched her showing the little girl the boundries and marking them for her. All while I was filling the birdbath with the hose. She has even came up behind me and touched my leg to get my attention. Hope she does not try to use me as a tree.......