Graphic Shooting Star Finish Part 1

Graphic Bag Finish Up

Are you ready for the big finale? Here it goes!

Decide how long you want your strap. I held the bag and measured over my shoulder, but dear daughter is quite a bit shorter and smaller than I am. Use 505 to put batting on the wrong side keeping inside the strip 1/2" from sides. I used a scrap, and even pieced it together here. No one will know.

Little Dresses for Africa

Yesterday I spent the day at an open sew at Heritage Arts Days. My mother and mother-in-law both went along, and for most of the day they finished sewing together children's dresses and shorts for Little Dresses for Africa. 

Quilted Sling Bag--Bright and Graphic

Both blocks are pieced here with sashing, but I thought it need something dark on the bottom to resist the grunge at college. I pulled this graphic print fabric out, and I like it. (So does dear daughter who is getting this bag.) Now to decide how much of it to use. The bottom for sure, but maybe handles and sides, too. Or, if there's not enough, I have other black and white prints. Let's see what works here.

Did You See My New Button? The Process Pledge

Third star done, and fabric for the fourth ready. I'm going to turn the two into a bag. 

Here's the fabric chosen for the other two. The top one 'pops' on the blue.

Vintage Quilt Photobomb and a Turkey

All the quilts shown here belong to my husband's family. They were on loan awaiting a cloudy day to photograph. It gave me time to get to know them, and fall in love with this one most of all. I love every inch of this quilt! It has a lurid history that we are too proper to get in to here, but let it suffice to say, I think it's to die for. It's the ultimate Eye Candy. There's no firm date, but the family history puts it around the 1930's, and it appears to be made without a batting layer.

Paper Piecing Continuation--Door #1, Door #2, or the Llama?

Choice A

Choice B

My two part dilemma: The puzzle of paper piecing is getting easier, I think, but color choices, because I'm really trying to stick by the color wheel with this project, are not so obvious. I have been trying to repeat four shooting stars with a split complementary color scheme here. 

FIrst Adventures in Paper Piecing--One Shooting Star

I started out yesterday like a Good Little Quilter sticking to my project at hand. Then out of the blue, I had the feeling I had been eating the same food every meal for a week. I needed some variety. 

I had been itching to try some paper piecing, and Lucy and I had spent the early morning reading about color combinations in "Quilt Colour Workshop". It sounded like a good recipe to play hooky.

Janome 8200QC, My Burning Love

I'd like to introduce my newest power tool--a Janome 8200 QC. She's a bigger, better, (and let's face it-- sexier) model than my 23 year old Pfaff. I brought her home yesterday after demo-ing her for about 2 hours, and reading the manual cover to cover. The 11" working platform is fabulous! I can spin even my big quilt around in there. AND, I found out it IS suggested to use the sit-down machine just like you use the long arm machine with a frame! The floor models are essentially steered from the side of the frame, so use this the same. Use it from the front, the side, wherever! 

Tricks Up My Sleeve and Background Music

Background filler seems like such a chore to me. It's not the really exciting looking stitching for me, but I realize it carries and highlights the icons here. It calms the blank space, and makes your focal points pop. I view it as background music. You know how silence can be uncomfortable, but put on a little low music and you notice the surroundings more. More here, though, I think it's because I'm struggling with the bulky size and a small machine throat--under 7" from needle to inside of machine. I'm a little sore from my arm to my leg actually. I promised I'd share some of my tricks I'd figured out mid-way. Honestly, some of you out there are probably doing this already, but it was an idea I woke up with.

Big Time 'Wrassling' with the Love Quilt

From back left: Scott, Keith, David   Front row: Davie, me, unknown, and Peggy

"We were just 'wrassling' in the bedroom, and I don't know how insert sibling's name here got hurt! Honest!"

I grew up with 2 older brothers, David and Scott, and on occasion things got so ouchy at home that my mom would roll back the furniture, and let them have a go at each other. Even as the only girl, I thought it exhilarating to spar against my brothers. It was never dangerous stuff, just fun until you'd exhausted the tension. I recall my brother, David, years later coming home fresh out of Marine Corp.boot camp, showing me how to flip someone over your shoulder if they attacked you from behind. I must have been in Junior High School then, and all 6'4" of him got laid out on the grass in our front yard in one swift move. It was like felling a tree, and no one was more shocked than he was! 

Dave passed away a few years ago, but I can imagine him standing next to my sewing machine asking me if I"m "wrasslin'" that quilt. Yup, I sure am.