Monday Morning Star Count (Tuesday Afternoon Edition)

We had some fun on the coast this weekend and just rolled in a bit ago.  No cellphone service, no internet...just family and good food and a little sewing here and there.

I worked on a project with a jelly roll called Science Fair here and I have all of the print hexies done.  Love it so far!  I just have to figure out what to do for the background.

I fit in some EPP on the deck.  Lovely weather for a little coastal quilting and piecing.  The best opportunity for hand-sewing came in the ferry line-ups though. 

I finished 3 stars, and I think I found my groove, so things should move along a bit faster now.  I'm still not sure what these pieced stars will become - table runner, quilt, wall hanging, and I don't even think I know how I will lay them out, but they sure are sweet to make.

My friend and her family are coming in to town to stay with us for a week or so starting on Friday!  Yeah!  My oldest and dearest sewing pal and one of my very oldest and dearest pals at all.  We met in grade one, and have been making fun everywhere we go ever since.

If I can sew and talk at the same time, I think my goal for the week will be 4 completed stars, and 20 basted background diamonds. 

La Finished Ruler Bag!

She is done!  I'm so excited.  I presented this quilted ruler bag to the enabler after she returned from a mini-trip with her mom.  I was a little worried I would run out of time, but this bag came together really well thanks to fabulous instructions from Polly Monica on the Moda BakeShop.  Here is the excellent tutorial for the Queen Bee Bag.

The pictures were great, the instructions were clear, and one of the best parts was that this project uses one whole charm pack, plus yardage for a print and a solid.  In fact, you probably have what you need to make this in your stash.  Ahem.  I would know.

The pattern is listed under 120 minute gifts.  If you're going to a party this afternoon for one of your best quilting buddies and you still need a gift - this is probably not for you.  It could be that if the cutting is done, your walking foot works, you have lots of bobbins ready to go, you won't change your mind on what stitch you'll use to quilt the pockets and panels and nobody else is home and will ask you anything that you might be able to finish in 2 hours.  In my case, I worked on this like it was my mission from Sunday to Friday.

That said, this is still a good project for most quilters because the instructions really are clear, and the piecing is quite straightforward.  

This is early on in the process.  These are the squares from the charm pack stitched and ready to attach to the print for the front panel.  The nice thing about using a charm pack is that it requires not too much fussing to get a really satisfying arrangement.

A little late night quilting.  The charm pack was Sweet Serenade - Basic Grey for Moda and the prints were from Comma - Moda which I also love and still have some mini charm packs to use.

I plan to make a couple more of these bags for special quilters or maybe for me.  It's a really nice gift to honour a fellow quilter, and yet it's not another quilt - because a fellow quilter might not really need one...

Oh and the size - the first photo above shows the bag with a fully protected 8.5 x 24 ruler inside the bag and a 6 x 24 in the front pocket in no danger of falling out.  The back of the bag holds a 14 inch square ruler nested in the back pocket along with a 12 x 18 mat tucked into the same pocket.

Monday Morning Star Count

 Today is the end of a long weekend here.  My friend is still in town, and we spent yesterday hanging out in the sewing pit reading magazines and plotting our next moves.  I was able to give her a ruler bag that I managed to finish this week, and that left not much time for hand sewing.

I sat down when all was quiet and put together another star, this time with the solid white pieces around the sides to make a hexie.

When I started this project, I was getting ready to leave on holiday, and I bought a couple of mini-charm packs and got busy basting.  I've noticed now that I've done some properly shaped cuts on the white solid that the mini-charms are a bit more difficult to work with.  The pinked edges make the points just a little sketchy to join.

If you're in a bind, then the mini-charms can work so that you can get started right away, but for ease in joining, you can't beat pieces that you've cut yourself.

Also pictured is some homemade cab, a homemade tablerunner and my trusty tablet.  I think I was in a red mood.

Also, check out my pin cushion!  Makes me snicker every time, and takes up very little real estate in my EPP box.

Check out all of the wonderful EPP projects at Life Under Quilts

I took this photo to send to my friend to show her what I was capable of when I got on a tear on a summer day.  I picked the mint, ground some of the older mint into tea, tried to get caught up on the lavender that's taking over...and then there's the zucchini.  Like 26 loaves in the past 24 hours.  I looked at the photo I snapped and what jumped out at me were the placemats that I left in the middle of the table.  They're always there, and it didn't occur to me to move them to get the shot.

It made me think about how big a part of my everyday life my quilts are.  They're on couches, running along my tables, they're always covering my kids and they're even on my bed sometimes.  My mother-in-law took me to one of her favourite quilt shops on the coast last year and let me pick out four fat quarters.  In her expert hands, in mere days, she turned out 8 gorgeous placemats that make me smile whenever someone slides one under a cereal bowl or dinner plate.  It's a favourite pattern of hers, and she's made sets for herself, and my
sister-in-law.  They're all totally different and she had us pick our own fat quarters.  She even let me use her 1/4 inch foot on her machine to show me how easy they were to machine quilt; I learned that machine quilting isn't so scary, and that I really, really need a 1/4 inch foot.  More on that another day.  For now, I'll enjoy some mint tea, and get those loaves into the freezer before the teenagers realize that they're still there.