Blogger's BOM September

This is the last block for Blogger's Block of the Month. Sarah of The Last Piece brought us this beautiful block this month. I love this block! It's a star within a star! I love having two different colorways in the block. I love the contrast within the block itself. It was fun to make.

Here are all my blocks together. Potential settings will be shown to us next month. I can't wait to put these blocks together in a nice quilt top. Looks like I'll be adding another quilt top to my list of quilting projects! I'm trying to think of a nice contrast color to set along with these blocks. It sounds like I'll have to do a bit of shopping! I certainly won't mind that.

I've already started a new project even though I was trying to keep away from that. I'll show you when I have a little more done! Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Two Scarves

I've been knitting a couple of scarves so I thought I'd let you see them! This one is from Filatura di Crosa. It's just one skein and it's sort of a netting. It's got silver on the outer edge but the yarn itself is black. This was so fast! I think it took 2 nights of watching television! Nice and quick!

This scarf is from Vogue Knitting, It uses bulky weight yarn and short rows. This color is a Civil War blue. The short rows make that nice ruffle along one edge. Once I got used to short rows, this one was fun. I had actually bought this yarn to make a sweater. However, the pattern I was using just wasn't what I wanted. I took out the whole sweater and made this instead.

I've had a couple of bad days. My dad found out he has shingles. My poor mom is taking care of him and it's just not easy! I've gone to help out but I'm not very good at it. My mother knows what to do for him. I had a migraine last night and into today. I basically sat around yesterday and hung out on the couch. I tried sleeping it off but it didn't help. I couldn't eat since I also felt sick. I thought I was better today but I got a headache again. Some days, you just can't make any plans. I'm hoping one more night of sleep will really get rid of it. I'm working the end of the week and the beginning of next week too. I hope I'm better by then. I have to be!

Going back to the couch. Hoping I'll be better in the morning!

Early Friday Night Sew In!!

Tonight is September Friday Night Sew In which I always love to take part of! I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to work on. However, I was off today and decided to continue machine quilting my Summer Star Sampler Quilt. I only had two blocks left besides the two borders. I had such a good day that I actually finished both blocks!!

These two photos show the machine quilting of the eleventh block of the sampler. It's so hard to see the quilting but I tried taking a close up so you could see a little better. I've used many variations of this shape on other blocks in this quilt.

This is the very last block! I was so excited to finally reach the end! I felt this block was hard to quilt since it's rather odd. The star in the center was fine but it's those outer pieces that left me wondering what to do.

I actually treated the white and light pink pieces as one large triangle. My thread blended in so well that I don't think you can see it at all! It's one large loop in the middle surrounded by two loops on either side. I always tend to lean towards a nice symmetrical design!

I plan on attacking/sewing the two borders next week! I'm so excited to have this quilt almost done! I have two more quilt tops to go and then I'm free to start a new project!

I think I'll be knitting for tonight's Sew In. I know it's not sewing, but it's close!

Have a nice weekend!

September FMQ

Here is the Free Motion Quilt Challenge for September! Paula Reid gave us this beautiful stencil. Paula is the owner of Batts in the Attic. She quilts all sorts of beautiful designs that I can only dream of!

I used a light box to trace the design onto my fabric. I had a problem with some of the fabrics I chose. They seemed to be just too dark. I couldn't see a thing even with the light box. I like this red fabric so it worked out okay.

My first sample was pretty awful. I couldn't see my markings very much and I veered off course a few times. I was happier with this one but I'm still not totally happy with it. It's so hard to back track over some of the sewed lines. You have to sew so smoothly. Every little bump shows up. 

I like the look of a stencil. It's very polished and so symmetrical! It's just so hard! I know that practice is the key. I'll just have to keep at it!

Thanks to Sew Cal Gal for another wonderful challenge! I'm going to miss this when it's over!

Mystery Quilt Complete!!

My Mystery Quilt is completely done! I finished machine quilting it a few days ago. I love sewing on the binding because I know that a quilt is just about finished! I chose a black binding since there is a good amount of black within the quilt. The two borders are different shades of purple and the black looks so nice next to them.

Here is a close up of the quilting. I used Aurifil Mako 50 weight in beige for the body of the quilt as well as the more narrow border. The wider border was quilted with Robison-Anton 50 weight variegated purple thread. I'm very happy with the results. I meandered over the body and wide border but used a scroll design in the narrow border. I didn't mark anything. I just tried to do my best when I got to a corner. It worked out much better than I thought.

My daughter just finished knitting this adorable hat. We bought the yarn a while ago but the first time she made the hat, it was just too big. She took the whole thing out and started over again. I'm very proud of her for sticking with it and making the hat fit perfectly! She's very happy with the result also!

Hope you all have a nice weekend!

Look What I Won!!

Look what I got in the mail yesterday! Dora from Dora Quilts had a giveaway and I won! I'm still shocked but quite happy about it! Dora hand dyed these fabrics using Procion MX dyes from Dharma Trading. I've received the catalog from Dharma Trading and always hoped to hand dye some of my own fabrics. However, I never got to it. I started looking into the process and became somewhat overwhelmed! I'm so excited that I won these fabrics. The colors are just beautiful.

Here is another look at these beauties. The colors have wonderful depth to them. I'm not sure these pictures do them justice. Suffice it to say, I love them and am so appreciative of the work put into them.

I'll be on the lookout for a project that really showcases these lovely colors. I'm not sure if applique or pieced blocks would work better. I'll have to find the courage to cut into these beauties so I have to find the best project! Thank you so much, Dora! I really love them!

One More.....

One More Hexagon!

This is the latest hexagon I've made. If you look closely, each hexagon represents a Mother Goose rhyme. This fabric is left over from a baby quilt I made a fellow worker a few years ago. I love being able to use up my scraps!!

One More Finished Quilt!

My Christmas Wreath Twister quilt is finished! It was so fast to machine quilt. I outlined the actual wreath but not the individual twisters. I wanted the wreath to look as one object and not a bunch of twister blocks put together. I meandered in the background. I didn't quilt the border at all. I love the border fabric and didn't want to take away from it. It's only 2 1/2 inches wide so I thought it would be all right. I did outline the seam where the border is attached to the wreath. So far, so good!

Here's a close up of the quilting, border and binding.

One More Quilted Block!

This is the tenth block I've quilted. Two more blocks to go! This one was a continuous line design. I sewed around each point and sewed a leaf in all of the green fabric areas. I think I've made progress in machine quilting since this block took me about 30 minutes at most! I'm a little more confident and I don't feel quite as scared as I prepare to quilt.


I'm hand sewing the binding on my mystery quilt but it's not quite finished yet. I'll be showing you that some time next week, hopefully!! Have a wonderful weekend and keep sewing!

The Doily Beast

I have been so busy trying to finish this doily! I knew it was going to be on the large side but I had no idea how large or how difficult it would be. I found the pattern on line and thought it would be a great way to use up some of that cotton yarn I had bought. The doily finished at 23 inches across. It did use up a lot of that yarn!

It started off fine but then became hard to manage. It got large and each row took forever to get through. Each right side row was different and you had to pay close attention to what you were doing. I couldn't even watch television while knitting. It was too distracting. I had to count constantly to make sure I hadn't forgotten a yarn over. This doily makes lace knitting seem very easy! I thought of giving up but I really love the pattern.

Between work and working on this beast, I haven't been on line very much. I've found I get so much more accomplished but I miss keeping up with everything. I'm going to have to find a nice balance. 

I don't think I'll knit many more doilies! I'm taking a break. I have to find a nice hand project.

I hope everyone enjoys the long weekend! I don't mind the summer is ending. I'm looking forward to some nice fall weather.