Guild Mystery Quilt finished (sneaked it in)

All I needed to do was add two borders to finish this project. I need to show it finished by Monday's meeting to get two credits for the year's final drawing of finished projects. I also needed to get it finished as it is destined to be a birthday gift to my grand daughter Arika whose birthday is March 7th.

Here I am trying out some border fabric. I decided I needed to miter those corners. The fabric has been in my stash for years and years. Guess I have been saving it for my next life. HA!

I was very brave making this quilt. I had limited yardage of all the fabrics. That is not how I usually do quilts. I am walking on the wild side anymore! I have been buying fabrics in bolt quantities for a couple years. (Especially the neutrals.) But not for this one. I really dug to the back of my stash for these fabrics.

This was sewn back in November when the mystery started. I guess my short term memory is gone because I do not even remember sewing on it at all!

Masonic Quilt progress Wednesday

The top is all assembled. I added small squares of the star fabrics around the perimeter. They fit perfectly. I sure am surprising myself. Guess it is good to stretch one's wings.

Masonic Quilt progress Monday

I have 24 star blocks finished. The center block with the cardinal is finished. I also made a block to be signed by all her district members that will be added to the backing to make this a special gift.

I hate pinning. But do love the fact that it makes everything fit cleanly with no ripples.

Masonic Quilt progress

Here is a sample sewing of the embroidery. Still need to get it onto the block fabric. One thing at a time. I am sewing today.

Here are some block pieces waiting for assembly. We are having a snowstorm today. Perfect weather for sewing. I am so totally intimidated by the curved piecing in this block. Yet somehow everything has come through really nice. I am so glad I found and bought the template for this block. The cost was terrible ($26). Yet the ease of rotary cutting and the sewing assembly sure makes it worth the price. I truly believe this block is for hand piecing yet I am using my machine. Who woulda thunk?

I made one block before doing some chain piecing. And I am in "old movie" heaven. Raintree County and Gone With the Wind have been on TV back to back on the TCM channel. That is why I am getting so much done. I have both movies on DVD but still watch them on the commercial free channels when the come on. Hubby wonders about that. I cannot explain it to him.

Isn't the block beautiful?

The requestor of the Masonic quilt wants embroidery on the quilt too. So I had to get the embroidery machine out of the closet. It took me 4 hours to get the software on my computer. I think the XP was not too compatible with my embroidery program. But then it has been 10 years since I played with the program. Once I had it loaded it took me another 2 hours trying to get the design onto the embroidery card. But once I had all the computer stuff done the embroidering only took 20 minutes or so.

Virgina Bound second time around - Friday 13th

Today is Friday the 13th. I am staying home...not that I am worried about bad luck or anything.
HA!
I now have 96 quarter blocks done. The photo above only shows 48 of them. I have a small design wall but still use it as often as I can.

And this is the kind of help I have had all along this sewing journey. MaggieMay requires a lot of attention. And when she feels I have not touched or admired her enough this is the method she uses to let me know she needs me. She is the sweetest cat I have ever had. Yet she is as demanding as my Siamese. When I told the breeder that she is starting to act like Macy ( my Oriental Shorthair), Debbi says she can imitate the strongest cat personality in the house. Great! I now have a "swiffer" who does not jump with precision trying to reach the tops of doors. Crash! Boom! Bang! Yep...it was Maggie trying to fly like Macy.

I did manage to chain sew most of the strips onto the foundation paper when MaggieMay moved over a bit. This pic was taken during our rain storm. We have received 2+ inches of rain with 50 mph winds. A large Spruce tree across the street fell during the night hours. I heard the wind but not the tree falling.

Virgina Bound second time around

All in batiks!

Another Virginia Bound

A beautiful sunny Friday here in Northern Indiana. Perfect for sewing. I should be getting ready for the weekend but this project has been calling to me for months and the call is getting stronger. As in not able to sleep last night for sewing in my sleep. I could not resist and gathered fabrics yesterday. What you cannot see is a large plastic bin on the floor that has more batik scraps.

Just look at how the sun makes these batiks sing!

The blue basket that is tipped over, thanks to Bess running through, is where I am throwing the scraps as I use them. That way there are no repeats.

Bonnie Hunter from www.quiltville.com just got a Janome 6500P. She is going to love her new machine for paperpiecing.

Subee's strips packaged for mailing

Here they are all side by side. I have 10 different neutrals in two sizes 1 1/2" width and 2 1/2" width. I have 10 bags of each size with one each of each strip packaged with my mailing label and e-mail address all stuffed into a "snack" sized baggie. I think packaging this way makes it easier for the hostess of the swap.

This photo is of the 1 1/2" strips. My newest fabric is the bottom strip. A nice off white background with roses done in tans and whites. There are two paisleys in my selection. I love them.

The sun came out and I got a truer color photo of the strips. You are going to love one of these strips. It is a Marcus Bros. conversation print of little kitties on a tan background. It is the third one from the right. I moved it to the number#1 position when I packed the baggies. It is so beautiful.

Can you see the cat tail on the upper left of this photo? I swear these cats know when they can "mess" with their Subee. They tried walking across the strips....dragging their tails on the strips...I had to chase each of all my 5 cats off these strips. I apologize if any cat furs made it into the bags.