Twilight Block quilt done ,pink/brown Star Struck done, teaching quilting and what kind of bird is this?

I was in a swap on Yahoo. This swap was called Twlight Swap. Only black, red, gray or white were allowed. The blocks were 12" finished. I made another block to replace the "odd" one in the next picture. It just did not play well with the others.

Anyway, the quilt measures a perfect 60" square. Hubby's artistic eye says it is done. I will leave it on the wall for awhile to see if anything hits my artistic eye. I think it is done too.
I need a bigger or another designwall. It ends up being a catchall for leftovers.

There was a small bit of gold in the black fabric which was a no no. It just did not make the cut for me.

Does anyone out there know what kind of bird this is?
The poor thing kept flying into the window. It was all by itself. I saw no others of it's kind. Maybe it was seeing itself in the window and was trying to join others. There were plenty of my House Sparrows feeding and the squirrel was in the bush too. So there was a lot going on. And this poor little bird was trying to get into the window.

The bird appeared very healthy. Just determined to enter the house through the window.

Now those of you with inside kitties can only imagine how my 5 were reacting to this bird.

It was also perching on the window sill and staring into the house with no fear. It seemed to be watching me frantically getting photos and looking through my bird books. Yes, I am a bird watcher big time. That was one big reason I moved my sewing machine to under the picture window.

As soon as I moved to pin up the Twight quilt, MaggieMae took my chair away. The poor thing can really not even groom herself. Too much DENSE fur and a short face make for a daunting task for my little Persian tortie-point.

I take her outside for her weekly major brushing. But she does get lightly brushed everyday.
She hates the outside brushing. I use a different comb that gets the tangles out of her undercoat. I try my best to not pull too hard. But the teeth of that wonderful comb do seem to be a little on the sharp side. And her skin is sooooooo tender. Like a little girl with long hair that cries when it gets combed. MaggieMae cries real tears when I take her outside. She chokes and sobs like I am killing her. But once back in the house she carries no grudge. Everything is fine between us.

My pink/brown Star Struck has reached the "borders all on" phase. And the backing and binding are all made too. She is ready for quilting. I want to keep this one!

There are 10 quilts on the back of my quilting room door in the same condition. I cannot keep up with myself! Anyone else have that problem?

I purposely allowed you all to see the background in the above picture. The room was my sewing room. It is now my fabric prep/storage room. I cannot believe that I used to cram myself in there for hours on end. I have a "big board" that I leave up all the time. LOVE IT! And one of those new Reliable Velocity digital irons. LOVE IT!

In my spare time I am teaching quilting to this sweet lady, Jann. She has been bitten by the quilt bug real bad. I wish she lived closer. It is quite a drive for her to come to my home. Would you believe she found me through this blog??????? About six months ago. I take it as a compliment that she wants me to teach her.

And there is Macy as usual in the thick of things. She loves it when I have visitors so she can share her lovliness.

All five of the kitties like Jann. So she is a welcome guest anythime.

I did a major cleaning in our bedroom and found 17 of Macy's favorite toys. The round rings from under twist-off caps, strings and feather balls. She leaps in the air when we toss them. And she brings ALL her toys to us to play with her. Just like a dog. She fetches all of them. She will even bring them closer if we cannot reach while playing. She looks so very content in this picture.

And another funny thing....when the food bowl gets low enough (but not empty) to see the china bottom she leaves toys in the food. We do not know if she is hoping we see the toy and fill the bowl or if she is telling the other cats that what food is left is hers!

Blue Star Struck quilt is completed!

I asked my hubby to be the clothesline so show off my DONE Blue Star Struck. I debated on that orange slim border but really feel it frames the blocks well.
This quilt is Aleighsha's birthday quilt. Her BD is in November. I am way ahead for a change!

This is the quilt after block assembly but before the borders were added.

And here is the quilt being quilted. I went around each light and dark star. It was lots and lots of turning but the results were great!

I love that little orange border. I can only thank Bonnie Hunter for teaching me about using a contrast color to make the quilt body POP!

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.......

Star Struck progress

I have oddles of extra triangles by sewing double when adding the squares. I took these blocks to the guild meeting last night and trimmed them all. I had two containers and managed to keep the pink and light ones totally seperated. Love being organized!

I can tell that I will want to make Bonnie's Star Struck in several color versions. At retreat this weekend I am doing the pattern all in batiks with a consistant background.

Baby and Bess in the background doing some bird, squirrel or chipmunk watching!

Love this already. I had to stop...want to sew on this at the retreat too. So I put it away though it keeps calling to me.

Star Struck preview

I started sewing before daylight this morning. Hubby went on a trip with his sister and I had Sunday all to myself.

I love sorting through my bins for just the right fabric. I have them all controlled by color so all I have to do is open them and pick a strip.

I have all the strip units sewn and pressed and cut. I am now cutting pink squares for the accent in the Bonnie Hunter pattern Star Struck. I am going to a Camp Mack retreat in Indiana this weekend and Bonnie will be there teaching this pattern. I wanted to be comfortable sewing this so I am trying it before I leave. I love pink/brown combos...this will be mine. The one I am doing at the retreat will be all batiks...totally scrappy...no color control at all and should end up as a BD gift to one of the grand daughters.