Off to the Quilter's!

I finished piecing Kaitlyn's stars and took it to the machine quiters yesterday afternoon. I spent a lot of time agonizing over the layout. It was impossible to get the blocks laid out so the same colours were not beside each other! I decided that I just needed to sew it together and get it off to the quilting people! There is a family baby shower Sunday afternoon so it must be done before then. It is next in line to be quilted so that I can have it back in time to get the binding on before Sunday. This is a busy week at my house, as usual, so I don't anticipate a lot of sewing happening this week.

I am still working on piecing the blocks for the Christmas lights mystery quilt...I will post a picture when they are done.

There is a quilt show in October locally. I would like to put a few quilts into it... I have some that will just need some binding after they get back from the machine quilters so I hope to get them done in time for the show.

My quilting friends and I are hoping to have a QNIC next week sometime. One quilting friend is off at a quilting retreat this week for 3 days...I am so jealous! Working full time really cuts into my sewing time!

My wall

What's on my design wall today? "Kaitlyn's Stars" I finished piecing the blocks this afternoon and I have been playing with them to try to arrange them so that the same fabrics are not beside each other. This is harder than it sounds!

In the middle of sewing merrily along this afternoon, I ran out of bobbin thread but did not notice until several blocks later... I had to go back and resew several borders on again...I am sure none of you have experienced this problem!

I also sewed one block together for my Christmas Lights mystery quilt. I will try to do the rest tonight.
Supper is ready. My husband is on cooking duty tonight.

Works in Progress

Here are the beginnings of a baby quilt that I am making for Kaitlyn, a new baby on my husband's side of the family. I did a bit of sewing on the weekend. The pattern is called Lucky Stars and is shown above. I am only doing 9 blocks. One of the stars is shown below. I like these bright fabrics--lots for a baby to look at!
Each star has a different white on white background fabric and two different fabrics to make up the star.

In the top picture, you can catch a glimpse of some of the blocks for my Bonnie Hunter Christmas Lights mystery quilt, all laid out, ready to sew together.

I spent most of my day yesterday working on a special gift for my daughter who is going away to university this fall (not her quilt, which I also have to finish!) Sometimes, although she would not admit it to her friends, she looks at my blog so I cannot reveal what the surprise is yet...

I'm back...

to blogging, that is...

I have done some boring sewing lately, but no quilting until tonight. The boring sewing included fixing a sports equipment bag for my daughter, fixing a Disney purse for my SIL, shortening 3 pairs of pants for my daughter, fixing a pillow for my father and finally, shortening a pair of capri pants for myself. I am what some people call "vertically challenged" and recently got a good deal (1/2 price!) on a pair of black capri pants that I can wear to work--however, they were not "petites" like I usually buy. They looked more like "flood pants". Now, they are fine and I have even worn them to work already!

Tonight, Nancy and I got together for some sewing time. Another mini QNIC! Nancy worked on sewing her blocks for the Bonnie Hunter "Christmas Lights" mystery in Quiltmaker magazine, with some help from her cat, Gibson.
I also had some help from Gibson as I cut out the pieces for a baby quilt which will be a gift for a new baby girl on my husband's side of the family. She was born last week. I am using Nancy's Lucky Stars pattern from Atkinson Designs. I am making the quilt 3 blocks by 3 blocks. He was quite enthralled by the rotary cutter and small scraps of fabric only kept his attention for a short time.













Gibson also helped Nancy to put her Sunbonnet Sue blocks together by holding the fabric down so it would not slide off of the table. Such a helpful cat!











I have all the pieces cut out and matched up for the blocks for the baby quilt. I bought this fabric in the US while I was on vacation last year.



Check out Nancy's blog for pictures of her projects! We figured out an interesting setting for the mystery quilt blocks--I wonder if we are close to the real layout???