Time to start getting caught up

It has been a while. When last I wrote I was getting started on this quilt.Now it is finished. I ended up hand-quilting around each of the little diamonds and then machine stipled the background. Added a navy binding and I think it ended up pretty great!

In the last three weeks I finished up that quilt, finished getting all the business information (checks, invoices and parts) into QuickBooks so the taxes can get taken care of and also made 4 blocks for the January Quilt Block Exchange...

...I also got my blocks in the mail for both of my Quilt Block Round Robins. The first one is with my sister and two nieces and 8 other quilting friends in Washington, Idaho, Montana and Minnesota. I made a batik house which I posted here. Each person in the group will be making their own little batik house.

The other is the group that I organized over on Flickr. I struggled for a while with the decision of what block to make. I wanted something that could be scrappy and finally chose this one...

The block is called Sunny Lanes and should be fun to put together when I get all the blocks in a year or so.

Lone Star

Just before Thanksgiving, a friend at church consulted with me about an antique Lone Star and getting it turned into a retirement gift. I, of course, was willing to give my opinion and, as usual, I ended up with a new project. I brought it home and over Thanksgiving picked up some wide muslin to applique it on. Once the muslin was prewashed I pulled out the star and pressed it and discovered that there was no way it would ever lay flat.

The holidays were coming and I had a number of other things going on so I put off dealing with it. Push has come to shove and the quilt needs to be done by the end of the month so I pulled it out again the other day. Interestingly, it still won't press flat!!! That night as I was going to sleep I got the bright idea to take the 8 large diamonds apart, turn them and put them back together to see if that would help. I carefully removed the hand stitching and then hand-stitched them back together and it actually worked! Not perfectly but much closer to flat than before.

Yesterday I got the star basted onto the muslin and got started on the hand applique. I finished that up today and here is the quilt top.
Now I will put the rest of the muslin together to make a back and get started on hand quilting the star and background. Does anyone have thoughts on how the star should be quilted?

More Denim/Stained Glass Quilts

Like many people, I have tons of photographs from way back when - you know, before digital cameras! My goal is to get them all scanned and onto my computer. If I want that to happen I need to get started so I spent about 3 hours this afternoon scanning photos. It is so much fun looking at pictures of my kids through the years, seeing pictures of loved ones, etc. Among all the photos I found some pictures of quilts, especially denim quilts so if you are not sick of seeing pictures of denim quilts you can go over to Flickr and see a few more. Included in the group are the table covers I made for our church handbell choir and several made from regular quilting cottons.

Quilt Block Round Robin 2010

I am organizing a Quilt Block Round Robin over on Flickr. We still have room for a couple more quilters so if you are interested please let me know. The round robin will take about a year and your commitment is to make about one block per month. I need to figure out what kind of blocks I want for that!

Also, at our last craft night at my neighbor's house we decided our next round robin is actually going to be a quilt exchange. We really like the idea of getting a finished quilt top in the end but what could be better than receiving a finished quilt? We drew names and now have until next November/December to make the quilt. I drew Linnea and she wants a scrappy quilt so that should be fun to make. I have yet to figure out what exactly I want but need to come up with a play before next Tuesday so Sally can start work on my quilt.

I just realized I am committed to two Quilt Block Round Robins this year, one completed quilt and 4-6 blocks per month in the Quilt Block Exchange. I think I am going to hold it to that so I have some time to get some things done for my self too!