Dibs & Dabs

I have finished appliqueing the wool pennies onto these blocks, and I've got them all sewn together. Now I need to add more pennies at the corners where the blocks meet, and find a good fabric for the border - I don't seem to have a piece that will work in my stash - imagine that! Guess I'll have to go shopping! LOL

I met a gal who makes and donates small quilts to her local Ronald McDonald House in Texas. I have sent her blocks before, but last week I made a couple of scrappy tops to send. I found wonderful fabrics on clearance for the backing & binding to accompany them - she will layer them and quilt them and deliver them. Such a good project! If any of you are interested in sending orphan blocks or tops or supplies, I can send you her address. She prefers 10" blocks so the backing doesn't need to be pieced.

I have discovered a new author that I like thanks to the suggestion of my friend Terri. These are murder mysteries and feature London police officers who are married to each other, as well as their friends, family & co-workers. I haven't read them in order, but that would be the best way to do it. Maybe you'll like them too!

On occasion I've been working on a new denim quilt. I'm in love with hexies, and this is a version of one that's new to me. I put the word out to my kids asking for old denim jeans, so as I receive them, I cut the hexagons and then cut larger hexies from homespun plaids. There is no batting in this - the edges are folded over and stitched. Then the hexies are butted up next to each other and joined by a decorative machine stitch. Not sure how large this will end up, depends on how quickly I tire of it!

I'm getting close to a finish on my 20" hit & miss mat. Only about 2" left to go on one side.

On Tuesday I met with my group of hooking friends and there was some great show & tell! Sharon had finished this small mat - she will back it with a nice piece of wool.

Sandy is filling in the background on this Susan Quicksall floral design - lovely colors!

Coralee is also working on the background of her Cranberry Gobbler.

Tonia has made arrangements with an antique dealer to make this rug for him in exchange for some nice antiques - it's looking great! It depicts the Kirkland Temple.

And the two bicycles below are SO fun to see side by side! This is a Polly Minick pattern. Jeanette is staying true to the original with an Americana color scheme.......

.....while Kim is switching it up by omitting the star border and doing her own color planning.

It was decided that at our December meeting we will exchange wooly ornaments - either hooked, or appliqued, or even needle punched. Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! Hope you all had a nice Halloween - our trick-or-treaters were nearly non-existent this year - only 4 small groups came to our door - much different than it was when our children were small and we handed out hundreds of pieces of  candy!

Lots of Quilts (and a few rugs)

I've had the hand piecing done on this little hexie star for a couple months. Finally asked my son-in-law to make a frame for it out of lumber that I provided, and he whipped it right out for me. I love the way it turned out and found just the right place to display it in my studio!

Don't know if anyone is interested, but here are the steps I used when painting the frame. I wanted it to look a bit like old, recycled wood, so first I painted dabs of cream colored paint here & there. Then I added the blue - leaving a few places raw wood.

When stained it to make it look more aged, each area turned out a bit differently which is exactly what I wanted. Last step was a coat of clear satin, which I sanded off a bit because it was too shiny.

It isn't practical to display it on my wing back chair but the colors sure are right! LOL

Thursday afternoon I had the delightful experience of attending a backyard quilt show. It's been two years since these gals did a show and I'm so glad they did - I feel like this event is a gift to their circle of friends - a place to gather and enjoy what they love - and eat goodies provided for free. So fun! Here's the front of the house - looks welcoming, huh? Can you imagine driving by and seeing this sight - along with the invitation to stop and look around?

And as you head down the side driveway to the backyard pool area......

The detached garage is decked out with two different barn stars!

Pumpkins painted with quilt blocks.....

.....no doubt inspired by the cover of the new issue of Country Living magazine.

I'll share a bunch of photos with no commentary so you can enjoy the show.....

On Wednesday I was in SLC to meet with my rug group there. Myra's sky is looking so fabulous! She's working from a photograph and is doing a great job of capturing the landscape.

Nancy finished the pictorial she started in class with Anne-Marie Littenberg.......

.....and has begun a floral that she designed to try and use up some of her leftover worms. Great job!

What a fun week I had!

English Paper Piecing

Just about a year ago, the Temecula Quilt Co started a sewalong on their blog for making fussy cut six pointed stars using English Paper Piecing. You can find their tutorial HERE. I jumped on the band wagon and have enjoyed every minute of it, although I'm much slower than they are. It's been fun to look at pieces of fabric in a different way to see if it will work for this technique. So far, I have made about 100 of these stars - my stack is pictured below.

After awhile, I started thinking about how I was going to sew these all together, and that's when my problems began. I tried the version below for twenty or so blocks and then began wondering if I really liked them this way - maybe too busy?

And so I've looked at a couple other versions. For this one I would applique the stars to a background square and then sew them all together with sashing between the blocks. I think this would make the largest quilt.

The one shown below would have the stars connected with large hexies. It would require purchasing a lot more of the pre-cut paper pieces and sheesh that's getting expensive! I'm not loving the background fabric - I think it needs to be a little lighter - ivory maybe?  Anyway, I wonder if you all could help me out by discussing which one you like better - or perhaps suggest another version that I haven't shared here.

Anyway, my Dad's wife has a birthday tomorrow. I started this project for her LAST year and it got derailed by something-or-another, but it's finished now and has already arrived at their house in California. I fussy cut the floral fabric in the center and added hexie borders around that. I had intended for it to be a table runner, but the more I thought about it I decided it could also be used over the back of her wing back chair, or under the TV, or on her dresser. It will be interesting to see where she likes it best.

And looky here Kyle - your good influence has rubbed off on me so I made a fun little label for the back!

Last week I met with the Salt Lake Rug Group and everyone had projects in the last phase of completion to show. Yvonne machine quilted the triangle blocks on this beautiful quilt, and was hand quilting diagonal lines in the border - such a great design with the wool applique.

Nancy was whipping the edge of her rug with yarn.

And Myra showed us her finished floral that just needed a good pressing and edge finish.