ALMOST READY !

Ahhh, just a few last minute things to finish up to be ready to take some projects with me to my all day quilting days with some special friends this week.

First of all, I wanted to get this quilt "sandwiched" so I can work on the quilting. I learned this method from my daughter : taping the backing to the floor and layering the batting and quilt top over it; then pinning and basting it in place. Luckily my old joints are still able to do all the up and down movements to do the job. (Although I've yet been able to do it all in one day -- need several rest periods!) I must say it's wonderful to have a tile floor so I can get it "squared up" nicely without to much difficulty.

Once it's all basted, I remove the tape, get out my largest cutting mat and trim it right there on the floor.

Sneaky way to show you the backing fabric, huh?

A few other pre-cut projects (a couple gift baby quilts; a "coffee filter" pattern that one of my friends is going to teach the rest of us; a fussy cut fun girl's quilt; and those half square triangle blocks I was working on last week) are ready to be packed away.

This is a close of up the Chocolate Lollipop fabric that will be the "coffee filter" quilt. A coffee filter is used for a circle pattern that is then cut in to quarters and put in a corner of a square. I will be making the circles with the small prints to be placed on the larger prints.

Oh, and these little items still need to be finished up. Shhhhh, not telling exactly what they are as they are little gifts for some of my quilting buddies.

Hopefully I'll have some nice finished projects to show you soon!

OH MY !

Don't know if many of you remember this Block of the Month quilt that I was finishing up about this time last year.

Well, there were seemingly myriads of little triangles left over. And not being one to waste any scrap of fabric larger than 1" square, I saved all those little triangles -- and actually had gone ahead at the time and converted them into little "half square triangle" blocks. I hadn't pressed or trimmed them yet, so guess what I've been doing lately. You guessed it:

I've been sewing little seams, pressing little seams, trimming little blocks; sewing little seams, pressing little seams, trimming little blocks; sewing little seams, pressing little seams, and trimming little blocks. You get the picture, right? By the time I'm finished with all that little seam work, I think I'll have about 50 3"pinwheel" blocks. Then, just gotta figure out what to do with them. I've got some ideas, but not quite certain yet.

I'll keep you posted.

MOVING ON

Thought it was about time to show you the progress on my "fussy cut" quilt. Not nearly as fussy cut as some, but I am happy with how it turned out. Now to decide what fabric to use for the backing. Hmmmmm . . .

(Sorry about that pink strip at the bottom of this photo. My camera has been doing funny (Er, maybe that should be "fussy" too!) things.

And on the knitting front:

This is a little scarf that I quickly put together for a child's Christmas gift.

This is what I'm about to start knitting for my college age granddaughter for her birthday.

I've got an olive green yarn for it. Sure hope she likes it. In the "cold north" (Brooklyn), I'm hoping she'll get a lot of good out of it.

So time to move on and get to it. Time's a-wastin'!

SASHES AND FUSSY CUTS

Well, I've finally gotten back with a photo of the sashing on my Irish Chain quilt. It's been sewn on for quite a while, but I just got around to pressing it.

I guess I need to start with the "sandwiching" process.

In the meantime, I've started on another quilt. My new one will use fabric from daughter Anna Maria's first fabric line "Bohemian" (sadly no longer manufactured).

When I saw this quilt at the recent AQS show in Knoxville, I was fascinated by the way the fabric was cut in the center of the stars -- each is 8 pieces placed in a swirling pattern.

While my fussy cuts are not as elaborate as that, I do think they are turning out quite nicely.

And of course with the colorful patterns of those fabrics, my quilt will certainly look different that the sample I saw (on the cover of the 2009 BH&G Patchwork and Quilting magazine).

I'm looking forward to getting it finished and sharing it with you.

CAN'T RESIST A SALE

Oh, my, this past Tuesday was the last day of the month, so my quilt shop had their end of month/end of bolt sale. Since I will be out of town the next three "end of month days", I just HAD to go this month! And I did "good".

Love these prints for some of my Project Linus quilts that I'll be starting on again soon. I even have a good "frog print" that will go with them.

This top print will go well with the two under it that I already had--most likely usable for a baby boy or girl.

And I could not resist this little snail fabric on top that goes well with the other two that I already had.

These above for Project Linus will all be disappearing 9 patch.

And this: Ahhhhh, just fell in love with them and it will be something for moi! I spent a good deal of time yesterday afternoon picking out some lights and darks from my stash to go with it.

Oh, and OOPS, I must admit that my shop had still another sale over the weekend that I went to and got even more fabric! Their already reduced ($5) fabric was buy 4 yards and get on free! So I got 28 yards of fabric for $4 a yard. And it's ALL very good quality fabric. About 15 yards of it is flannel plaids for boys' PJ bottoms that I'll be starting soon.

I'll show you that stash addition to my stash next time!