Smith Mountain Morning Star points

I must apologize for retreating from all of you again.
I lost my oldest cat last week (September 10th) and on top of all the other deaths this year I feel "dumped on".
Hopefully I am back and will be better everyday!
I need all of you!

 I have all the star points sewn. But only got one picture to the camera. I also have all the corners made. After all the sewing I moved my sewing machine around to face the picture window. The summer sun is just too bright for my eyes. The angle of the sun I guess. I have been so very sensitive to light for the last few months. I rarely get headaches. But now I seem to get them when I get a flash of light from a reflection outside or even from my monitor. Guess I need to get a checkup...

 The Yahoo group "quiltvilleswap" has all been returned to the swappers. A few have posted that their packages arrived today! Hurray!!!
Now I need to decide what these swappers want to swap next...any ideas?

 I made myself a new ironing board cover. I get so excited and pleased by the smallest things. I could not wait to try it out. So I had to get up after going to bed and pressed some quilt units. Aren't I silly?

 Here is Bonnie Hunter's BowTie pattern done with Kona Snow as the background. The Cheddar one is coming along fine too.
How many quilts do I have going right now?

1. Cheddar BowTie (L&E)
2. Kona Snow BowTie (L&E)
3. A Face Book mystery all in Batiks (ready for assembly)
4. Smith Mountain Morning (still assembling units)
5. Jamestown Landing (all string blocks are made)
6. and I need to make and gift 5 quilts in the next 2 months and what I am working on is NOT them!

 So...how long do you think this 5000 yard spool of thread will last? I have been using it off and on for a year. I use it for paper-piecing. I use a 90/14 needle for PP and the thread flows through it great. It is a little coarse for my 80/12 piecing needles that I use all the time.

Memories...this was made for our Camp Mack retreat 2 years ago by Teri F. Our Bonnie Hunter was attending and teaching. What great memories...

 My oldest (and newly rediscovered) friend Victoria has in her possession a Crazy Quilt with the date of 1752. She calls it her "Susie Quilt". The fabrics are all very fragile. She is hoping to sell it.
Any ideas on what she should ask? It is a large twin size. There are no bad smells. But it is fragile.

Victoria's hand...a very talented hand too!

Another cat quilt!

Like I need another cat quilt. I made two of these just for good measure.
One to keep and one to donate to the Local Linus group.

This is my baby named Baby. Honest, she started out life very, very small. She now tips the scale at 22#'s and always sleeps on my sewing chair like this. When I am in the chair she kisses me and kinda gives me a backrub.

I replaced my ironing board cover. This one really works great!

Big Baby, Bonnie's block & Dustin's Irish Chain

Honest...this is Baby's favorite place to be. All 20+#'s of her on the skinny back of my sewing chair. Her legs hang over each side as she balances on her belly. I am usually in the chair. I spin around and get up and down. She hangs on giving me kisses and taps. She and Macy are my shoulder kitties. But Macy's 12#'s is much easier to carry than Baby's weight. I call her a belly with legs. Macy can leap from the floor to my shoulder on command. But all Baby does is hop and ends up walking on her little back legs. Too funny!

Bonnie Hunter of www.quiltville.com sent me her tutorial block from her new book Adventures with Leaders & Enders. I am going to use it as the label on the back. I used a constant background on my treebases and Bonnie's block just stood out too much. But then I may change my mind as I do not have the quilt assembled yet!

Sorry this is so dark. It was a cloudy day yesterday. Also it is so hard to take a closeup picture. This is the label for Dustin's Irish Chain. It is all done and was shown at last night's quilt guild meeting. I did manage to make a pillowcase from the deer fabric. I had a piece that was the perfect size. Sometimes Fate just steps in ya' know??

I simply did a diagonal quilting on this quilt. No measuring at all...just eyeballed it.
He will be really using this quilt as only an outdoor guy can so I made sure it was made for rough handling.

I save all the trimming for the last step. I also make sure I always draw the bottom thread to the top. I used a nice varigated King Tut thread for the top and a deep green for the bobbin thread.