Progress on Celtic Soltice

I have been a veteran of all of Bonnie Hunter's mysteries. She has never failed to keep my interest, surprise me with the layout and LOVE her color sense.

I had a few extra batik units from the Eye Fooler quilt I made last year. And since I am a waste not want not quilter, I am going to begin with these units.

I took apart 30 (thirty) shirts for the sleeve swap on Yahoo last month. So I had 30 collars. I could not bear to throw them away. So I was able to harvest a whole bag of strings from the collars. And what better way to use them up but to make some piano key units. They will end up being a border somewhere. I make lots of units and never know what I will do with them. But I do use them up. And while I was searching for fabric for this current mystery, I found a whole large plastic container of finished string blocks. All shapes and sizes. WHOHOOO!!!!

This is the backside of a quilt I found hanging in the closet waiting for quilting. It was my first and only attempt at trapunto. Three layers of batting and a flannel back make for some tough hand quilting. I did use dissolving thread for the initial sewing before assembly. Then all I have to do is quilt around the feathers. PAIN IN THE PATOOTIE by machine. I gave up. And am now doing the final quilting by hand. It is not too hard. It is quite warm to be under while quilting and Lucky has found a new past time. Chewing on my left hand under the quilt. I love her so much!!!

Here is the front of one of the twelve blocks....

 Green lavender and white...

And when I am too tired to sew I crochet. This was a free pattern. Well the technique only called diagonal crocheting. Love it. When you get to the middle you start decreasing and the rows get shorter and shorter!!!!

Blue yellow and white.... 

And here is Lucky in another of her favorite places to play. There is no chance of her suffocating as there are several large holes in this bag. I swear she thinks she is invisible when she is inside the bag. She sure livens up this old house!!!!

XOXOOXOXO Subee

I have been singing and sewing my heart out!

Those of you who know my Husband and I personally know that we met through our love of music. We used to play out nearly every night in our much younger years. Well, we have now gone and played at three open stages in as many weeks. What joy! What fun! I so love singing with my husband. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we can continue to do this together. But can you imagine what the audience thinks when this fat old lady gets up on stage and starts belting out notes????
I hope I impress the h%^& out of them!!! And do NOT embarrass myself!

One of the first swaps I ever played in was an I Spy swap on Yahoo. And I am sure that it must have been 15 years ago I played with these squares that each represent a letter of the alphabet. I put the sewn units away for another day and my Grand daughters went and grew up! Now I am making these quilts for their children, my great grand children!!!
It sure is a good thing that fabrics don't spoil. They are like fine wine. They just get better with age!!!!

 Since Theo's favorite color is orange, I used my Kona Cheddar as the background for this first of many I Spy quilts I plan on making. I have some orange Gelato Minkee for the back! He is going to love this quilt. And his big brother, Drew, can teach him his letters!!!!

 I have these templates in two sizes. This is the 5" size. And $15.99 15 years ago means I am sure they cost more now!!!!!

 I am helping out one of my quilting buddies. Gladys is so very busy that she never seems to find the time to sew for her own grand children. I said I would help her out. This was/is my first attempt at machine applique'. I used freezer paper for the templates. Let me tell you that points are hard to get sharp!!!

 So far this is what I have done. I need to make a few more blocks so I can go around the entire quilt body one more time to continue the zigzag effect. Gladys says to do whatever my heart desires. She is so very easy to please!!!

 I have a confession to make. I sometimes buy a quilt kit just to get the fabric not to make the intended quilt. But this kit was bought for my Grand daughter, Zoey. She loves purple. She loves cats. And it came with purple Minkee for the back and she loves that stuff too. The kit cost way too much. Well...started the cutting. Sure enough, they shorted me on three of the fabrics. GRRRR! This is one major reason I do not make the quilts from kits. I had to add some happy fabrics from my stash. The only thing they did NOT short me on was the border fabric. Thank goodness for that, as it was a mitered border and I needed the extra length. All I need to do now is pin it up and quilt it. But oh!!! Another shortage from the kit. The backing is 60" X 90". The quilt is 72" X 84". GRRRRRRRRRR!!!! I do have a deep purple Minkee left over from another project and I hope I can piece it in so it looks as if I PLANNED on it. I promise to never make a quilt from a kit again!!! This is the second one this year that has bit me!!!

 In between  sewing on larger stuff I have been making some 3 1/2" 9 patch blocks. I am thinking I am going to make Bonnie Hunter's Tumalo Trail pattern. That one needs 210 9 patch blocks. I have 154 done!!! WHOOHOOO!

 I am saving all the shirting like prints for another project. I do not know what yet.

And after a hard day at the sewing machine I reward myself with a bit of crocheting. I love this pattern. I think this is the fifth one I have made. I changed the hook size from a G6 to an E4 and the "popcorns" are much nicer. The whole afghan seems nice and tighter too.
XOXOOXXO Subee

Postage Stamp Swap & Star of Hope's progress

I am all done swapping out the 20 envelopes each containing 1,250 - 1 1/2" fabric squares. I know that sounds like a tremedous #. But to the swappers this is a treasure beyond measure!
It did take me two days to make sure each envelope had their proper # of patches to be returned to them. And not any of their own going back to them of course!

Here they are all sealed and ready for the post office. MaggieMae helped me tape them all closed. So, if you find some long white hairs in the tape, thank MaggieMae.I planned on mailing them today, BUT Amanda started her labor yesterday a month early. I am not at the hospital but am waiting here at home anxiously. Because of the H1N1 scare, I am not allowed in the labor room. Bummer as I have witnessed all these births!

I did get the Star of Hope to final border stage yesterday. Hubby graciously held this quilt up for me to take a picture of it. It is great to have a tall strong hubby.

Crochet patterns for the two baby afghans are in a Leisure Arts booklet published in 2003 called Pineapple Afghans for Baby. And another book published in 2001 called Keepsake Baby Afghans.

Catnip cleaning, some piecing and crochet baby afghans

I can now post the pictures of two of the three baby afghans I made for my Grand daughter Amanda's baby shower. There were lots of "ohhs and aha"s when she showed them. Mine were the only handmade gifts. But they are from the heart even if they are old fashioned.

I fell in love with this pattern while making it. I can imagine Logan's little baby fingers touching the bumps. It is a very tactile afghan. And these are machine washable and very durable. Use them up Amanda!

I also made two pair of booties. Not enough light in this picture....sorry!

MaggieMae is stoned on catnip. In fact, all five cats are on another level of awareness. Rolling and running and then stopping and enjoying their high.

We harvest our catnip in the fall and hang it upside down to dry during the winter. I decided to clean the catnip today. This is a major job. We had a 55 gallon bag of catnip bushes. Heavy glove time and I worked outdoors on my tailgate. Thanks goodness it was not windy. Tons of seeds and I only kept the blossoms. Lucky kitties!

All five cats were at the "trough" but by the time I grabbed my camera only three were left to photograph.

I am finishing up on the Kaye England pattern called "Star of Hope". I learned a nasty lesson yesterday.

DO NOT PRESS BIAS BORDER UNTIL IT IS ATTACHED TO THE BLOCK!

They fit perfectly with finger pressing. But after a tug from my iron they are too big. Kaye teaches no pressing until the block is complete. Finger pressing is enough. I forgot what she said.

So, here are my 12 center blocks. I had to trim some of the ends so my half rectangles are not the proper height. But I am happy with the effect anyway.

Amelia Earhart by Kaye England is now a top

Rough measurement is 83"X66".
It still needs a couple borders. I have in mind a muted stripe that I will add first. Then I am totally not sure what it needs. Maybe more of the toile' to finish it out.
I made it much bigger than the pattern called for. But have no star blocks leftover and only 2 of the alternate blocks leftover.
And for me that is a close call. I always make too many blocks. But this time I did have to piece 5 more star blocks to make it this size.
And I still have more material!!!!!!!!

This was my very first effort to make the long legged star. I use the EZ Tri-Recs acrylic tools. They work great. I just needed to keep track of the mirror images. After I got the hang of it...I was whizzing through the assembly.

I really, really, really like this color pallet. All the rusts play so very nicely with the background fabric.
This is almost in the orange color catagory, isn't it Bonnie???????

Just a little close-up so you can see a star and the alternate block.

Now my head is spinning wanting to make this in 30's fabrics.

I do have the crocheted white baby afghan all done. I have started a pale blue one that has pineapples and puffy cluster stitches. Already it feels really neat to touch the puffies. I can just see my new great grand baby exploring textures with his tiny fingers.

I am going through Bonnie Hunter withdrawal. I want to make every quilt in her new book. I have lots of 1 1/2" squares to play with. But a part of me wants to get my Featherweight out to work with those tiny pieces. So...that may happen.

Let us all pray that Bonnie and her quilting friends make it home ok with all the snow that is headed their way today!

Gwen Marston's newest release Liberated Quiltmaking 2

My very own private copy of Gwen's newest release. Liberated Quiltmaking 2!!! WHOOOHOOOO!!!!!!!
I had pre-ordered this book way back in November. When it came it was such a pleasant surprise to myself! I also got Log Cabin Quilts.
Another WHOOHOOO!!
Now I need to get digging through my stash to match some fabrics to her vibrant colorsense!

I am soon to be a greatgrandma again. This May a little greatgrandbaby named Logan William will be wrapped in my crocheted creation. I have used up 1200 yards of yarn and need to buy another giant skein. I also have three giant skeins of a babyblue. I will make another afghan that is more light and airy. This one is a shell pattern and is quite dense.
Booties to follow of course!!!!

Unfortunately, no one signed up for my first teaching class.

I had enough pieces to make 16 more blocks. I had planned to use them for demonstration in various steps of completion. My DD #2 loves this color combination.

So, this quilt will be her birthday quilt.

And check out how great a leftover block from Carolina Christmas blends with the blocks from the Loose Change book!!!! It seems that if I use sashing I can merge these two patterns. I still need to finish making the smaller blocks. I am almost done but had to stop to feed dear hubby who is home today celebrating Martin Luther King's Day.

Now I feel like doing some hand work. I may need to move two kitties....hummmmmmm.