Pineapple progress & freehand Baptist Fan project is finished!

Here are 36 of the 48 blocks I have prepared.

I have them on the design wall to admire. I cannot believe how small the scraps are that I am using. I am really taking a trip down memory lane with these little pieces.

I made all the blocks up to round #24. Those rounds took the smallest pieces and seemed to take more time to sew. I am not sure if this was smart or not. As I finished the blocks I generated more tiny scraps that would fit to make more blocks.
It seems never ending!

This is the mess I made as I was sewing.

What you cannot see are the large plastic containers on the floor.

I am so glad I have an understanding hubby. 

I am done with the Freehand Baptist Fans. I am sad it is finished. This was such a liberating way to quilt. No marking at all. You do need to have the quilt well basted since you work from the outside in. These blocks are from an exchange I was in. They are called Buckeye Beauty blocks.

Here is a close-up of my quilting.

Thanks Bonnie (www.quiltville.com)

My daughter bought me this grass. I so love the grasses when they get big and sway in the wind. I sure hope it lives for me. 

Buckeye Beauty Final border & a GIVEAWAY!

I know I said I was going to add another row of squares to the outside....
but Hubby (Whose artistic eye is 20/20)...said it was enough and to just frame them with the cream again.

I cannot wait to quilt this one. I want to try Bonnie Hunter's way of doing Baptist Fans without marking!

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2010/05/questions-on-fans.html

And doesn't it look great just thrown across a chair?

On the right you can see my quilt police (Bess).

Really she is a thread sucker. And a thread pooper...what a mess...and she has also eaten two threaded quilting needles and then needed surgery to remove the needles from her tummy and the thread that was wrapped around her tongue. You would think she would learn that this hobby is NOT good for her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is now too big for my design wall. I so want to move the design wall to another part of the room. I could spin it and have the entire length going up and down instead of across. This would involve major moves in this room.

Sounds like a good time to paint too!!!!! Oh James!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dionne has a great giveaway over on her very colorful blog. She says she heard me on the radio interview with Bonnie Hunter and Pat Sloan. That was such a hoot!! I cannot believe I got through to talk to Our Bonnie.

Anyway here is her blog address. Tell her I sent you!!! http://sewmanyquilts.blogspot.com/

Second Buckeye Beauty quilt w/borders

I tried using the units I made for the Crabapple quilt. But since the center of the quilt is based on 4-patches I felt it did not do justice to the quilt. Never fear....I will use these for something yet!

Here is my choice. I decided to use the same size patches as in the center of the stars after I added a 2 1/2" cream border. Everything fit perfectly!

Now I think I need to add another row of patches to mimic the 16 patches in the centers.

But need to stop sewing for the day. I have a doctor's appointment....DARN!!!

Second Buckeye Beauty quilt

Can you see the stars??? love this layout. I put in a DVD (How the West was Won) and assembled the entire quilt by the end of the movie yesterday.

I am going to pull out those extra Postage Stamp units I made when doing Bonnie Hunter's Crabapple quilt. I am crossing my fingers that they will surround and compliment this smaller quilt. It is 54" square right now.

I mailed away my 24 sets for another swap of these units in Autumn colors.

More quilts to follow!

We're singing again!

I met my husband through music. I have to admit I fell in love with his music first. The rest is history!
We played out and still managed to hold down 2 full time jobs. This was years ago.

Fast forward to my back surgery. They went through the front of my neck to add bone/pins/rods.
I never throught that my voice would be damaged from the surgery. The doctor said that since I could still speak that there was no damage. No need to tell you how CRUSHED I was.

So, I am sewing away on the Buckeye Beauty quilt and here my hubby comes with his famous guitar and I sang and sewed while he sang and played. What a wonderful end to our long weekend together.
Now, my voice is much lower. But I was able to sing! Some of our songs seem too high for both of us. But I bet that after we really loosen up the ol'e layrnx we may be able to hit those notes again.
Did I mention that I love his music???? He writes all our songs.

And here is the result of my weekend sewing. It is 49X65. I see a narrow light border and then some random squares all around followed by another cream border.

I also started another quilt with the same units but with a different layout.
The end result looks like large Ohio Stars. I need to make some more 4 patch units.

Buckeye Beauty Blocks

Why oh why did I wait so long to sew on these units?
I was in a swap 6 months ago for these units. I just mailed away 24 more sets for another swap and then played with the ones I had. I think I have enough units to make three quilts. Very scrappy. I was happily sewing away today. Even though it is Friday it feels like a Saturday to me.

Here is my package as it was waiting to be mailed away

Here is my sewing area while working on the Buckeye Beauty units. Happy chaos!

This delightful little pincushion was gifted to me last week from a fellow guild member. Just because she said. Lovely Rita (not a meter maid) knows how much I love kitties. She was my secret sister this past year. I so enjoyed seeing her using the gifts I had given her during the year. THANKS RITA! And this little beauty looks like my two dark torties.

Block_Swappers Yahoo swap blocks ready for mailing

Instead of doing sets all the same, I decided to mail out totally scrappy sets. That way I have scrappy sets to start my own quilt.

But I am having a brain drain in the setting of these Buckeye Beauties. Everyway looks great. But I do not want to sew a bagillion of them together and then decide I do not like the effect.

This way looks great too. I may just have to slap them ALL onto the design wall and let myself and Hubby play with them.

And that bit of block you see on the left is my one and only block leftover from the Carolina Christmas quilt designed by Bonnie Hunter: http://www.quiltville.com

My stacks of 4-patches in Autumn colors.