I Like Thursday #99

Welcome to I Like Thursday! A bunch of bloggers post happy and positive posts every Thursday. You can visit LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color to read these posts. I noticed these two little fawns in my backyard. They were the cutest little things! I had to take the picture through the window screen so it's not that clear. You can still see their cute spots! I never saw their mommy. I'm hoping she was hanging around in the trees and I just couldn't see her. 

I'm making some nice project quilting Star Storm. I'm quilting feathers in this particular area. I found a nifty little ruler that has some soft curves on it. It's just perfect to mark the spine for my feathers. It was a little difficult to see the spine a few times but it worked out.

We had a few storms move through our area tonight. I took this picture after I heard about the thunderstorm watch being issued. 

Nothing seemed to be happening so I thought the storms had missed us. I started to hear thunder and took this picture just to compare the way the sky looked now. These clouds were almost black! We did get some awful thunderstorms with lightning. We lost power for about 2 hours but everything is now back to normal. Nature is amazing!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Quilting Star Storm

I have spent the last few weeks stitching in the ditch on my Star Storm quilt. Once that was completed, I could finally get to free motion quilt. I feel like I can finally color between the lines! As you can see, I quilted wishbones in the lighter fabric. I quilted straight lines in the blue fabric, one inch apart alternating with 1/4 inch apart. I've posted similar pictures but these areas are bigger and the design is so much easier to see.

I quilted 1/4 inch line from each seam line in the pink area. I used the ribbon candy motif in this area. 

The newest design I quilted were diamonds. It may be difficult to see but I basically marked dots 3 inches apart. I then quilted them in one direction and then back in the other direction to make the diamond. I then echoed the diamond motif within the diamond. I used the dot to dot method again. Then I went back and filled in the middle with wish bone. Phew! That took sort of a long time since I'm moving the quilt back and forth. All these spaces are at an angle and I can only see a small portion of the quilt at a time. 

Here's a closeup of the diamonds. They're not perfect and that's fine with me. I'm trying to make these designs with minimal marking. I feel like I'm learning a lot but if I would ever make this quilt again, I think I would quilt a pantograph or some other edge to edge design. This quilt is so hard to quilt with these straight strips at such an odd angle on the longarm. 

I Like Thursday #98

 Welcome to I Like Thursday! A group of bloggers post positive and fun posts every Thursday. You can visit LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color to read more of these posts. I've been working on my Star Storm quilt by stitching in the ditch. I started at the top and worked my way down. I'm at the end of the quilt! Once I'm done, I'll go back and fill in those spaces. Most of the spaces are 4 inches wide. I have created a little map so I know what motif I'll be quilting in each area. I've never quilted a quilt this way so I hope it works out!

I went to my local quilt shop this morning. I bought this fabric by Jason Yenter. I was only going to buy 2 yards but it was the end of the bolt so I bought all that was left. I'm such a sucker! Anyways, I think it's gorgeous so I'll have to figure out how to use it!

I saw this book near the register and just had to buy it. I love making table toppers and runners as gifts. There are some very interesting patterns in this book. Another item,  I just couldn't resist!                                               

I just finished reading this book. If you like mysteries and thrillers, you will love it! I read it very quickly. It's one of those books you just can't put down! The setting is high in the mountains of Switzerland in a new hotel that was once a sanatorium. Nice and creepy!! During a huge snowstorm!

This is the best part of my week. I worked a bunch of days together and I'm finally off! I hope you all have a nice weekend!

                                              

Sashiko Coaster Kit

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!  It was my husband's birthday this past Wednesday so today's celebration is for both events! We're getting takeout soon. My kids will be here with their significant others soon. We were going to grill but just felt it was too hot. It's more enjoyable this way. I bought this cute little Sashiko Coaster Kit. I think I need a break between knitting projects once I'm done my Brioche Shawl. I've never done Sashiko before but I thought it would be fun to try!

It comes with thread and needle.  The only problem with this kit is that the instructions are written in Japanese! I better find a good website with good directions! I'll do some research before I start! 

Enjoy the day!

Stitching Star Storm

I've been stitching in the ditch throughout Star Storm. I'm just a little bit over half way done. I don't do too much at once. I end up getting sloppy. I do like the effect so far. The quilt lies nice and flat. I'm looking forward to filling in between the lines with my quilting! As tedious as this is, I think it's the best way for me to go forward to quilt this on the longarm. My quilting is not perfect but I do think I'm improving the more I quilt. I'm also hoping that the quilting will look better after washing the quilt! Hopefully, my wanderings from the seam line will not be as noticeable!

I just received this in the mail. They have a very cute pouch that uses orphan pieced blocks. I love using up old blocks! I think we all have them. There are some great quilts in there too. This is one of my favorite quilt magazines. There aren't too many left, unfortunately.

Stitch in the Ditch - UGH

I've had the Star Storm quilt loaded for a little while but I just haven't been able to work on it. I did start the first few rows that were easy to access. I did some wishbone in the tiny little area at the top of the picture. I then made lines that were 1/4" inch apart alternating with 1 inch. I did some ribbon candy on the third area. And then I stopped!

The next section is more difficult since I can't get to the whole area I need to quilt. I was marking diamonds and realized my longarm isn't wide enough so I can't mark the diamonds continuously.  That's when I decided to quilt in the ditch for the entire quilt. I'll be able to more back and forth and not have to worry about not accessing any areas. It's tedious but worth it. 

I'm about 1/3 done the stitching in the ditch. I'm not that good at it so I'm hoping I get a little better at it now that I'm having all this practice. I did look up to see my help showed up! I'm not sure if she was there to help or yell at me. Either way, she made me smile!

Star Storm Quilt/Line Minder

I loaded my Star Storm quilt and was all set to start quilting. I made a little quilt motif map to follow since the middle star is echoed throughout the quilt. I wanted all the "echoes" that were radiating out from the star to have the same quilting motif since they all meet. However, we've had thunderstorms with lightning all afternoon and I was afraid to plug in my longarm. I'm going to wait until tomorrow to start quilting.

 I just got this in the mail. It's just a bungee cord with moving toggles. You can mark your quilt center, edges, etc.  It's a nice way to keep the quilt straight and even.

You can see a portion of it in this picture. That white toggle is the center of my quilt. The far left toggle is the end of the quilt. That middle toggle is the midpoint of that side. It's a nice way of keeping the quilt nice and even. I'll let you know if it works!

Color My World BOM Month 6 - Tall Houses

This month, Color My World, introduced us to tall houses. They were very similar to the smaller houses we made a few months ago. They didn't take me very long to make. I had to make 8 total. However, 4 houses have shadows on the left, and 4 houses have shadows on the right. They're to be placed around the large corner buildings that we'll be making soon. I wish I could tell you the size of these houses but they're difficult to measure. I think they're about 9 inches tall. The width increases from top to bottom. The bottom width is about 3 inches. 

This is what I have so far, halfway through this Block of the Month. I really love how it looks! I was a little nervous to make this since I don't have a whole lot of experience with curved piecing. The directions are so thorough and detailed that I haven't had any trouble so far.