Star mystery

Friday was the final class for our advanced mystery at the LQS. Remember the Tucker Trimmer? We'd made a total of 48 stars (I think) along the way and then made 12 more in this class. The twelve small accented (my black) background stars become the center of an even bigger star, then the medium and other small stars surround it to make a 17" finished block. Here is one of mine. In hindsight, I would not have tried to use all those different yellows, but I think it will look fine when it's done and quilted. Crossing fingers.

Something's wrong with my sewing machine; it won't turn on (which doesn't bode well for my wallet). So procrastinator me wasn't able to finish up the homework, but I decided to go to the class anyhow to see how it was put together. As it turned out I was able to borrow a machine there, but in addition to being behind because the homework wasn't done, I had issues with 1/4" on that machine. So, I still have eleven more of these babies to make.

Anyhow, this is how the instructor's quilt turned out. She was jumping out of her shoes to be to a point to show us this. My picture doesn't do it justice; her gold accents just sparkled. This whopper turned out at 93x110 I think she said. None of us had intended to make the larger version, but after seeing it put together we all decided we just might have to. I've since decided to split my blocks into two lap-size quilts with six blocks each and then a similar border.

The pattern is Rangeley Stars by Deb Tucker/Studio 180. Here's her gallery of other versions of this quilt.

All in all, a fun time with good people!

Worst blogger award

Yeah, well. I'm the worst blogger in the world. It is what it is. But I have been busy.

Last weekend the kids went out of town for a little R&R before school starts up and to celebrate the sale of a portion of their company. GMan stayed with me and O.P. went down the road to the other grandparents. We are really fortunate to all live within a few miles of each other and I have never once regretted moving back from Texas to be near this one. In addition to a little fun at the big scary mouse house, we played badminton inside and had endless hours of trains, watching movies, and peeling tons of apples to make applesauce. G was thrilled that the owner beneath me was out of town too, which meant he could run and jump without me trying to keep the rambunctiousness of a 3 y/o in check.

This was a little gift/blog win from Joanne, who moved this past week from Indiana to New Hampshire. Really cute stuff, but I'll have to let those fabrics age a bit while I decide on a pattern. Thank you, Joanne, and let me know when your machine is up and running again!

Yesterday was a PIGS day at the LQS... lots of fun, people, and food. What more could ya ask for? I knew no one but the owner, so I didn't spend as much time gabbing as others, but still felt like I didn't accomplish much. Then the power went out with an hour left to our day, so we all had to pack it in.

One of the things I worked on was this County Lines project that I bought a couple of years ago. This will most likely be a charity quilt.

Friday was the 2nd class of our Mystery and we are now making these 5-inch blocks -- twelve with the accent as the background and another 24 with the usual background. Slooooow going; here are eight done with the black/accent background shown with the 12 blocks we made from the first class. Friday's class was short and I only got one made then, and another seven yesterday. Thankfully the next class is a month away, with 28 blocks to go. I did come to appreciate the Tucker Trimmer though. It will be interesting to see how this all comes together. That stuff on the right in the picture below is the S&W I had to pull out of the way.

Here are two UFOs I took that I didn't get around to working on. The blocks in the top are pair sets for disappearing 9-patch which, when it all came together, I lost interest in when I didn't care for my choice of background. The fabric on the bottom is a Lasagna quilt that just needs the rows sewn together and decide on a border. These will both be Project Linus quilts.

More stuff I took and didn't work on!

I'm still enjoying my fruit every week, although it's starting to pile up! Yellow Shiro plums and apricots and apples out the wazoo right now, and no time to do anything with them. This fresh-from-the-oven pic was a Plum Torte I made for a birthday celebration at work last week. I figured something that (urban?) legend says gets printed in the New York Times for 20 straight years might be tasty. I threw in the blueberries so it would have a little color, and they provided a little more sweetness thankfully, as the Shiro plums were amazingly tart when cooked (tart skin, sweet flesh).

What are your favorite apricot or plum or apple recipes?

Until next time,

Sheila

Creating more WIPs

My favorite LQS was having buy two get one free special on classes this summer, so I signed myself up for a little quilting camaraderie that I miss so much from my days in Texas.

Friday was day 1 of 3 for the 'Advanced Mystery' and this is the result of this portion of the class. I would have had another block but screwed up cutting it. I'm assured my mistake will be put to use later in the quilt. I need to make nine more this size and then cut more fabric for the next session.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a total mystery to me. If it's "highly recommended" that you have two tools for a mystery class, you investigate the tools, don't you?? One of them was this Tucker Trimmer...

which is basically a half- and quarter-square triangle block trimmer. The black dot and solid lines at the top end of the ruler indicate trimming for whole-inch sizes; when flipped around to the half dot side, the dotted lines indicate trimming for half-inch sizes. Below shows a QST made from two HST, which was then trimmed to 4". Line up the crosswise center seam on the solid line marked 4, and trim two sides. Flip the block around, line it up and trim again.

At $13.50, I don't make enough QSTs to justify this, but at least I didn't buy the Magic Wand. I already have a Quick Quarter for that, even if I don't know where it is.

This pretty thing is the result of Saturday's class using Terry Atkinson's Winner's Bouquet pattern. This will be a lapsize quilt when done.

The background fabric (light blue floral) for this is my challenge fabric for a project due Labor Day weekend and the fuchsias and pinks were from the stash.

Here is all the fabric left from cutting blocks for the Winner's Bouquet. I only cut enough for 16 blocks to begin with, and I'm not sure how many blocks the other lady cut for. She was going to throw all those batik leftovers in the trash, but I convinced her I would put them to work in Heartstrings quilts. I think this is what I like least about cutting with templates.

What I've been reading: David Baldacci's First Family: an excellent page-turner featuring Sean & Michelle, the former Secret Service agents from his previous novels.

I slept from 6-11pm last night and have been up since... so I'm off to breakfast with the boys and then a nap!

Until next time,

Sheila