Day of quilting

A few friends got together with our sewing machines for a day of togetherness.

Fun to share stories, relish in each other's accomplishments and enjoy lunch together. 

The cherry on top was the granddaughter visit with the cutest little baby girl who crawled around and had the cutest cackles. 

I had a busy day where I completed 6 sections of the fall border. AND I assembled 4 Little America blocks.  ( little buggers). Then I pieced the inside borders to my Snake River. 

I only have photos of the Little America blocks: 

2 fairly easy

and 2 complicated ones:

Plugging away

 Plugging away at the machine during the day and cross stitch at night in front of the tv with my hubby. 

I was delighted to get my applique project together. It only needs the borders. ( my least favorite part.) I even found some red fabric in my stash for the back. Woot woot.  Just trying to use up that stash. 

Full size

Close up for the top

Close up for the bottom

And after being so successful with my borders on the previous quilt, I got my original quilt out that had the design. It is an old, old project.  ( The book is Log Cabin quilts or something by Judy Martin.) So I cut appropriate  bars and pieces. Each strip requires 4 fabrics and each 10 inch length requires 5 different sizes. The really good part was that I had lots of the original fabrics cut into strips with a box of 1 1/2 inch brown and off white squares. It is tedious, but making progress.

I made my monthly Stash Bee block. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. 12 inch block

And while choosing fabrics, I started selecting some old prints to give away.  And in the process I found 18 completed blocks from a Pat Speth ( Nickel Quilts) workshop.  The book is dated 2002.  So it is DATED and made from Thimbleberries fabrics. I pulled it out and started making 7 blocks to complete a 5 by 5 setting. A simple setting to donate. 

Close up to see the colors.   Funny how our taste in fabrics change.  I had a whole tub of these and made lots of wall hangings, table runners and quilts from them. 

And so lots of progress. Quilting is indeed my pleasure and my treasure.!

Back in the Saddle

 Sorry for being away for a while.  Fortunately, there is nothing amiss here. I did spend much of a week assisting a friend after her shoulder surgery. I enjoyed her company and got a lot of cross stitch completed while being there. 

I have gotten back to sewing a bit. First I completed the last 2 project bags from my Lori Holt kit.  All 8 are now made. 

I was procrastinating a bit.  My goal was to keep finishing quilts. I did not want to start anything new. But I was just hung up on how to get my borders to fit on the Rainbow Log Cabins.  So I finally just picked it up attacked the project.  Ugh!  I still don't understand how I avoided it. 

And It is DONE ! And looks amazing.  Even better than I had expected.  So very glad to have it off the pile. 

I also have been working on my Little America blocks.  I am still behind a few. 

But no progress on Dear Jane all month.  

Happy Mother's Day for all the mothers, grandmothers, and other assorted titles that give so much to younger ones.