Seeing Stars...

I didn't finish the quilt tops from the classes I took with my sister three weeks ago shared here but I decided to set them both aside for a little while. 

My daughter, Ashley, is in her 6th month of her pregnancy and I will be leaving for a trip to see my hubby in about three weeks.  Her shower will be a few weeks after I return home so I figured I better get to her baby bedding before the time has flown by in a blink!

I had to fussy-cut the center of the blocks and in order to get variety with both the centers and the star points, I had to do a little rearranging.  The design wall was great for this.  It's like playing on a flannel board, like back in Kindergarten!  :o)

 

Got the blocks all sewed together.  There were some repeats but it was bound to happen as there aren't that many designs on this fabric.  It's so darn cute, who cares?  hehe

 

My friend Irene knows I love cherries.  She asked me if I was going to use cherry fabric in the quilt?  I hadn't thought about it but when I came across this Riley Blake fabric when I was shopping for the Little Red fabric, I "had" to include it.  And I think the yellow helps break up the red and aqua.  I decided to just use this one print, instead of doing different yellows.  It was cute enough to be used several times!  And here's a close up of a few of the block centers.

 

 

 

Got the cornerstones worked out...

 

And the sashing on.

I started sewing on the borders and had a little (or a BIG) issue.  The borders were looking like they angled off at the edges.  I tried to be careful but not careful enough, I guess.  I could've lived with it or I could rip out the borders and redo them.  Guess what I decided to do???? 

 

And the last issue for this little quilt.  The free pattern I got for this quilt was from the Riley Blake website.  It is for nine blocks and finishes at 46x46".  I wanted it a bit bigger but didn't decide that until after I ordered the fabric.  I didn't buy enough of the border print, the one on the right.  I was trying to convince myself that the print on the left would be okay.  I called in the boss, my daughter Ashley.  She liked the one on the right too. 

 



 

The order will be delivered tomorrow.  :o)  I should be able to finish this by the weekend and get started on the quilting.  Until then, I'm in bumper pad and dust ruffle mode.

A little roof repair and a whole lotta cleaning!

 

Over a year ago, we had a leak in our roof and wouldn't you know, it leaked right over my sewing machine.  Thankfully, no damage to the machine because it leaked more on the extension table than the actual machine head.  I figured with the warm weather, it was a good time to have the roof repaired.  But lordy, that meant moving all of my bins, the sewing table, etc.

 

 

I had a friend of my oldest daughter to do the job.  He's in construction and his work has slowed down so it was a win-win for us both.  I didn't think to take a before picture but the damage to the ceiling was just discoloration.  The real damage was to the ledge of the soffit where the stucco was cracked and separated.  Here it is all fixed up and better.  The acoustic was still a little wet but it has dried now and blended in perfectly.

Then I had to deal with this!!  But I got it all put away and my room is pretty once again.

 

I didn't do one ounce of sewing this weekend though.  I spent both days in the game room.  All of my craft stuff had been moved to the closets in that room when my hubby left and I moved to the spare bedroom.  I "had" to get that sorted out before I leave in a month to go see Richard in Turkey again.  By the time I get back, it will be time to prepare for Ashley's baby shower and the baby shortly after that.  I figured giving up one weekend will be worth it.  The closets are organized but they are packed!!  This one is a hundred years worth of family photos...I swear I will put some in scrapbooks someday!  Then there are all the other craft items you might need one day. 

 



 

Ashley and I moved this desk to the game room to make room outside of the master bedroom for a dresser for the baby.  I swear I feel like we're just moving stuff around all over the house!  lol  We did fill some bins for either donating or if Kelley, our oldest, has another yard sale, she can try to make a few bucks from it.

 

 Here is the other closet.  I had to share this picture.  The crates will go to the garage but we had already closed the doors for the night so I'll put them out there tomorrow.  Check out those clear bins.  Those are all clothes given to Ashley for the baby from her friend.  She has two little girls and had a boy so she doesn't need all those "pink" things!  lol  While I cleaned up the game room, Ashley sorted through all of the boxes and got them put in age/size.  We're getting this place organized....even if it kills me and it probably will!  :o)

Quilt Guild Quilt Camp

Camp Watchapatcher!!!  That's what it's called and we were packed and ready to go on Monday night.  My sister drove down, we slept in my little double bed and then took off early on Tuesday Morning.

 

 

The first class was Lollipops by Joanna Figueroa.  I got started sewing lots of strips together.  Then you sew across one short end and turn the piece out to create the Dresden plate point of the block.  I used an old jelly roll I've had for several years from Me & My Sister called Spring Fling.  I had to fill in some lights with it, and polka dots of course!  :o)

 

Camp was at a university in Costa Mesa, Vanguard University.  Nice campus and nice classrooms for lots of sewing.  You can stay in the dorms if you are from out of town but we chose to save our fabric money and drive back and forth.  CA traffic is not for the weak but we toughed it out.  lol

 

These were some of the lollipops from the class.  You can see the difference between the ones that did dark/light combos and some that were more just colorful fabrics.  Either way, they were all so pretty.

 

My sister Isabel is a BIG Mary Engelbriet fan and used her jelly roll plus multiple other fabrics she had.  Her blocks came out so cute!

 

Here are nine of my blocks.  I got 5 done in class and four more done last night.  I took the pic with my phone so I could post about it easier.  I'm having trouble connecting my camera for some reason.  Anyway, I have to cut out more strips and make more pairs.  I have very little to choose from to finish the other three blocks I need for a lap size quilt.....another UFO!!!!

 

 

This is Kathy Brown.  She was our teach for the Fat Man's Squeeze.  We had to have her book and ruler to make the blocks but there are lots and lots of other blocks you can make with her method.  I hate that we have two projects unfinished because I want to work on them both and finish them!  Oh, this job sure is getting in my way!

 

Here is one of the block choices...

 

 

And another...

 

And the Fat Man's Squeeze quarter of a block.  There were a few more but I didn't get pictures of them all.

 

 

And Kathy told us when we went to the Ladies Room to check out the latch on the door.  Hiny Hiders!  Can you make out the body behind the door.  lol

 

And here is my block from the class.  I got four of these done.  Two navy with cream, two navy with beige and I need two red and two light blue.  It will resemble the block on the cover of the book.  I can't wait to sew more together.  I think I'll save this one for a Christmas gift for my roommates, Dave and Ashley.  Shhhh  He is a big Detroit sports fan and since she/we are big Angel's fans, I think it will suit them.  :o)

Table Toppers...Capeesh!





When we went on the quilt run, there were three of us, Susan, Judy and me.  Judy found a cute table topper in one of the shops and asked if there was a pattern.  They told her it was a free pattern one of their customers brought in.  The topper used a panel and two complimentary fabrics.  I knew I had several panel pieces at home and wanted to try some too.

 

Susan and Judy came over last night and Judy helped with the numbers so I could use my panel to make these flimsies.  Any squares will work, even squares of fabric that aren't panel squares.

 

My squares measured 8" x 8 1/4".  I cut the center square 8" square since the width of the blocks were all the same.  The length didn't matter.  I learned this the hard way and I almost made the same mistake on the next one I made!  (Some people are slow. lol)

 

 

 

This one has various pasta and Italian food for a friend of mine.  She puts on a major Italian feast every year for friends.  I know she'll love it.

 

This one is a variety of foods, salad, dessert, crabs.....

 

 

This one was all desserts.  I'm not sure what I'm doing with the other two yet.  They might go to other family members or I might sell them at the next craft show.

Now to work on finding some backing and batting and get them quilted.  A simple stitch in the ditch first to hold things in place and then to figure out something in the blocks.  I need to practice my free motion quilting with my new machine and table and I think these are the perfect project.