Wonky Star

Crazy Mom Quilts ask fifty-some readers to contribute a Wonky Star block so that she could make a promised quilt for Quilts of Valor in a short period of time. Here is the block I made today for my contribution.

In addition to making this block, I spent some time cleaning and organizing my quilt studio. It was depressing. There are too many unfinished projects - way too many. I know most quilters have the same problem, but I think mine is out of control and I may need professional help. Is it time to purge?

Mini Quilts Silent Auction

This past Friday and Saturday our quilt guild had it's big quilt show. I volunteered for a few hours on Saturday at the Mini Quilts Silent Auction. There were about 120 quilts each day and this is how the Saturday display looked when I got there.

Fifteen minutes before the end of the auction, people started checking their bids to make sure they would get the quilts they wanted.

One minute before the end of the auction the last minute scramble to make final bids.

The bids were lower this year undoubtedly because of the poor economy, but the silent auction is still one of the best fund raisers for our guild.

Busy sewing day

Batik fabrics are so amazing. This picture shows more of a grayish color, but the fabric is actually a sage green with darker green branches. I have a small collection of sage green and gold batik fat quarters. There are not enough to make a large quilt but I really wanted to use them, so I decided to make a lap quilt using my favorite easy pattern - the crazy nine-patch.

In addition to the batiks, I added some golds and greens from my stash and got started on the blocks. I have a surprise fabric that I hope to use either in the borders or as straight blocks that will add something unexpected to this quilt.

Between sewing and ironing sessions, I started the process of putting borders on this very scrappy quilt. The first border is this black stripe and I'm thinking the next border will be a happy polka dot fabric.

It was nice to have a whole day to play in my Quilt Studio.

Smells from my kitchen.......

No sewing or stitching today, but I was busy in the kitchen for part of the day, baking cookies for a church reception tomorrow. I made my two favorite kinds of cookies - peanut butter (in the aluminum pan) and peanut marshmallow clusters which are more like candy than cookies. My kitchen smells like peanut butter and sugar. Yum.

The day after Labor Day I worked at church substituting for the secretary so that she could take an extra day of vacation. She gave me this wonderful acorn shaped candle as a thank you gift. It smells like apples and cinnamon. Another Yum.

Don't you just love the smells of Autumn? Sure wish it would cool down around here so that I can have a fire in my fireplace, make some popcorn, heat up some cider, burn this acorn candle, and put a jigsaw puzzle together. Sounds heavenly.

A Sewing Day

I spent the day sewing on a project but even though I have this great new camera, I cannot show pictures of the project because it is a gift and the person receiving the gift just might be looking at this blog. However, because my new camera takes such great close-up shots, I am showing this little portion of the project. I'll show the whole thing at a later date.

Would anyone care to guess what this is?

New Camera

My last post had a horrible picture of this stitching. Today I purchased a new camera and just look at the difference. I'm so happy to have a good camera again. I can see all the stitches, even the over-one stitches.

I wanted a camera that could take good close-ups so that the stitching would show, like the red stipple stitches on this quilt.

And I wanted to take good distance pictures, like these blocks on my design wall.

A great big Thank You to Julie King who's expertise helped me pick out the right camera for me.

Stitching progress

This is the tenth picture I took and it is the best that I can do with my failing camera.

In preparation for a class, I have been working on this Indigo Six Hem Sampler. The bar space between the two little over-one blocks will be "withdrawn thread areas" which means cutting threads and making six different finishing hems. I have never done a cut work before so I am excited to learn this new-to-me technique.

I sure wish the picture was better as I am very happy with the project so far. The silk Fall-color threads are beautiful and the over-one sections are my first attempt at such tiny work. After the cut work, the final touch will be beads all along the border.

I'm looking for an inexpensive digital camera that will take good close-ups. Does anybody have any recommendations?

Vacation

My cousin will be irritated with me for posting this picture because she wanted me to edit her out. I decided it was an equally bad picture of both of us and the focus of the picture should be the 1000 piece puzzle, not us! We put this fully interlocking Springbok puzzle together over the coarse of one week during a vaction in Chautauqua, New York.

The whole group that went to Chautaugua in one of our favorite restaurants - my two cousins, their husbands, and me, standing up.

I love being with my cousins and their spouses. We always have such a good time talking, kidding each other, laughing, and enjoying a meal in a good restaurant.