Shaded 9-Patch

 

Humble Shaded 9 Patch.  From a box of scraps, and some 2 1/2" strips.  I used Karen Comb's book,  Combing through your Scraps, to help plan a design so I wouldn't have to get up and down from the floor/rug.  This finishes at 60" square.   Yes, one mistake .  I liked it that way, just to be stubborn.

I am quilting non-glamorous swirls in the dark areas and a wandering leafy thing in the lights, starting in the middle dark, then stopping at a border area to change thread.  I guess my  concentration skills applied only to the quilting part, and not on the value under the needle.  I "forgot" 3 separate times - you'd think a person can remember to STOP when moving between lights and darks!   Lots of picking threads out when I realized, too late, that my quilting just kept on going, crossing over border lines.  

  

Trunk Show to Guild Members

 

(I have no idea why these photos were difficult to post  few days ago.  I tried again, and voila! )

Thank You, Peg who posted these photos from my recent Trunk show.  After displaying my quilts, I left then out on the dais for closer inspection for an hour or so.  The subject of most comments and questions was the deer outline quilted in the borde. Perhaps the viewer has not been looking closely in previous shows as I've always put various critters, handprints, silliness, etc., in the quilting.  (Hope you can see it.)

Here is larger photo of the above Star in the Forest, thinking about a much-loved bicycle trail in the Smoky Mountains where I pedaled years ago.

 

The previous quilts have all been shown on my blog.   And  YES, that Jacob's Ladder is made up of 6 inch blocks, and is hand-quilted (by me) .  Again, the re-engineered log cabin second on right is my best of all, and where I learned to machine quilt because it was professionally quilted by the astonishing quilter Judy Woodworth, who was a guild member long ago.  I saw her amazing work on this quilt and I wanted to DO THAT MYSELF and now use her creativity for my own inspiration altho my quilting is more free-motion style on my DSM.   I call this my Water Logged Log Cabin, and what you cannot see, is a "million" tiny, hand-sewn blue beads on the corners, suggesting under sea bubbles.  Again, the ladies never noticed the bead bubbles until they saw them close-up.  

I'll again show this Quarter Log Cabin  treasure, held by friends Jody and Tina.   Most of these blue scraps came from the Free Table.   Inspired by their beauty, I had the quilt finished with 2 months.      

The pattern just WORKS doesn't it?  I've made this design 5 or 6 times recently.  The Logs are sometimes too wide, or too narrow - I didn't worry.  I believe it WORKS, every time, because of the contrast of lights and darks.  

It was a good day! 

A Trunk Show

 Last week I presented a Trunk Show to my Guild, followed by giving a class on the Kaleidoscope block.  It turned out well, and I' had planned on thanking Peg  for her photos.  Unfortunately, I don't know how to translate them into Blogger, but then, I've posted them over the years so ... you've seen them all.  In the meantime I have to learn something new ... again.  And I AM working on "trying new things".

Lesson 48624:

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you already have.  

Plenty sewing, one photo

 

Trying new things ... a friend asked me ... can't show more ... staying busy ... one more border ... QAYG.

Minor adjustments to border width

  My packages (3 quilts) finally arrived at destination, safe and sound, but very much later than expected.  One less thing to cause stress.

 I always disliked the width of the border on this string quilt.

Me and my trusty Clover Seam Ripper made it better by cutting off about 2 1/2 inches all 'round.  Much better.    Yes, it's got a slight curve to it.  

Where is my package?

 Mailed USPS 1/08/25 to a niece in Wisconsin.   Expected delivery was supposed to be 1/13.  Today is 1/18.    Sometimes the tracking number indicates the package made it and has stopped moving within a    warehouse in Wisconsin, other times the  message says the (same) tracking number is incorrect.  Other times the recording indicates fires in Califorrnia have caused delivery issues.    What gives?   The surprise has become an anticlimatic gift after hearing  confusing or erroneous delays.   

In honor of niece's "Guard Rooster".  This  one started at my hands, I gave it away unfinished to a friend who has chickens, but it came back to me as a gift, and I'm sending it to a niece who owns a Guard Rooster who protects his territory.  

A good floor mat for visiting babies.

One stitch off

 

Faux flange binding -  "ya gotta sew either all ON the binding or all OFF the binding" not wiggle/waggle back and forth.  This one worked well, first time around.   Every time I use this technique I have to fiddle with measurements, they seem to vary each project.   That tag is my small label, folded inward.  

Here's the back fabric, too cute to pass up.  This goes to a niece.