St. Louis 16 Patch and More on Star Blocks Quilting

This is what is on my design board - St. Louis 16 Patch quilt blocks. Blocks are not yet sewn together. I have been moving them around to find the best arrangement. Now that I have uploaded this image I am not quite sure I have it yet. If I switch the 3rd block in the first row down one and the 2nd block in the 4th row switch it one up this would position the blocks with coral being in every other block.

Please feel free to weigh in on this! Hubby came in to my quilting studio as I was standing and pondering. Overall he thinks it looks too busy.  So I went on a search hunt for St. Louis 16 Patch blocks in Pinterest - even created a separate board for them. Check out the St. Louis 16 Patch Board here.  Some are more organized and some are just as wild as mine. I think I will titled it the "Wild Flower Garden."

While prettying up the images on picmonkey I played with different colors for the frame borders to get a feel for the best color for binding. Most of the fabric colors have a certain amount of gray in them so I am leaning towards a blue gray or green.

 I love the pattern instructions for this block as created by Sew with Sass by SK Burton Designs! It is almost fail proof especially when it comes to matching seams.

Look how nice the back side of each block turns out. So neat!

Progress on the Star Blocks

How many line quilting designs can one come up with?  It just happened - very improv! The only thing I am concerned with as I go along the quilting is becoming more dense.

    

Don't you love this wonky star with the fussy cut center?  This little star was outlined and then broke out into rays of lines.

Look what came in the mail today!

It was a giveaway won at 627 Handworks, sponsored by Julie Hirt, during Sunday Funday giveaway party. Squeal! Look at how it was packaged with bright colored block tape on the outside of the envelope. The wonderful Aurlfil thread was wrapped in brown paper with blue and white twine. Even her business card is a wonderful expression of her creativity. Can't wait to use the thread.

 If you haven't already seen Julie's Lattice Bones quilt you must go check it out! It is a Wowser!

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Wishing you a great weekend and upcoming week!

Craftsy BOM, Garden Pics & More

Craftsy Block of the Month

Finally done! The second Craftsy Block of the Month for March. Yep! I am working to catch up!

It was so wonderful to turn on my sewing machine again. It has been several weeks - seems longer than that.

I love how this block turned out! 

It is a broken spider web block that is foundation pieced - well in the initial stages it is since the only pieces that had a foundation are the strips along the star edge. After the first strip was sewn to the foundation I sewed the remaining strips matching seams together right sides together until the foundation pieced is covered. After covering the foundation piece I trimmed the edges along the lines of the foundation and then trimmed the foundation to reduce bulk.

Modern Quilt Blocks from Members of the 

Charlotte Modern Quilt Guild

These wonderful and amazing blocks are for the Quiltcon Challenge. Check out their website to see some WOW! quilts.  I missed the April CLTMQG meeting and missed out on the opportunity to participate.

An Afternoon in the Garden

I was looking out my sliding glass doors and noticed how the birds were lining up to take a bath. I had filled the bird bath to full yesterday morning and the birds came. I ran upstairs to grab my camera to grab a picture of what looked like an airport with with flights waiting to land. I opened the door and they all flew away. So I thought I would sit on the garden bench to see if they would return so I could get a picture of them. One did!

While sitting on my bench I looked up and noticed my sweet Cassie staring out at the door wanting to come out and sit with me on the bench, something she loves doing. She was getting quite persistent about wanting to come out, barking and pawing at the door. I ran to let her out as I was concerned she would awaken my napping hubby. 

Aren't you glad I came out to help make your flower look pretty?

As we sat on the bench Cassie was talkng in all the critters. There is a new bird that has been visiting us. I'm not sure what it is but it has a beautiful song. While Cassie looks for the critters I was looking for pretty things in the garden. I love my garden bunny. I picked it up on the way home from vacation one summer.

 The gardenias are blooming and giving off their wonderful scent.

A potted plant brimmed full with color!

It has been a good day! It ended a bit different than usual though. Hubby and I made a difficult decision to move his autistic son to another group home after having lived there for 14 years. In the last year we took measures to wean Jason from high power medications that was causing him to be listless, not enjoying life, and sleeping all the time. He was so drugged! We wanted Jason back! Well Jason is back! Now that he has returned he doesn't fit in with the other residents because they are satisfied with doing nothing. Not only that staff had been instructed not to talk to them. All the residents are not able to speak, but that doesn't mean that don't want people to talk to them. They used to be an active group home going bowling, skating, swimming, beach trips, outings in the community and etc. This is no more or so reduced that Jason is bored out of his mind. 

If you know anything about autism you know that they do not like changes!! I should add more exclamation points because changes are big adjustments that can set them off. The plan was to keep him in the same work shelter to keep something in place that is familiar. Well that is not to be because the organization that owns the group home also owns the work shelter and they are forcing Jason out of it because of our decision to pull him out of the group home. We have found a wonderful work shelter for him! We feel as though God handed us an amazing blessing as we didn't know that we would find something that offers so many choices and flexibility. It is operated with smiling staff members who love what they do. The facility is bright and cheerful in the Uptown area of Charlotte. 

In an effort for transitioning Jason, Jason spent an afternoon with the guys from his new group home. Jason will officially be a part of them on May 31st. They went out to dinner. Jason had such a good time that when the van from his current group home came to pick him up he wouldn't get on it! No! No! No! he proclaimed and no bribing him with food that usually works would work to change his mind. Mike had to go and pick him up which is clear across town and let me tell you Charlotte is a sprawling town. When Mike drove up to the group home Jason refused. After a couple of hours Jason finally cooperated. Though this may sound like a frustrating event we actually are rejoicing because we are so thrilled that Jason is going to love his new life. We don't know what adjustments he will endure but we are hopeful that it will go beyond our wildest dreams for him.

Wishing all a Happy Memorial Day!

Stringing Along

Thank you to Seven Thirty Three, freshly pieced & Quilting by the River who are hosting linking parties. Each of their icons further down the page will direct you to their blog. Enjoy each of their blogs. They are each amazing with all kinds of creative things. I love visiting each of their blogs.

Oh my goodness - is it possible that some of the fabric in this quilt is from the 80s and 90s?

Does this make me hoarder?

I once heard a gentleman spout that all quilters are hoarders! That makes me think about one of my husband's favorite TV shows American Pickers. Mike and Frank travel throughout the US looking for the best picks, usually from those who some call themselves collectors but many are really hoarders. Some of the places look like the city junk yard where Mike and Frank literally are climbing over the piles of stuff looking for their pot of gold. If climbing over stuff is an indication of being a hoarder I'm safe. No climbing to get to stash. And I can at least say I have done something to reduce the amount of old fabric in my stash. On the left is a picture of Mike, Frank and Danielle, the stars of American Pickers. Click on the photo for more information about the show.

So do you like the scrappy string quilt made from 90s color fabric? I am quite pleased with how it turned out. It will make a nice charity quilt. For the back I used the leftover fabric from the top.

It is safety pin basted ready for free motion quilting.

I have been following Craftsy's Block of the Month, and ironically March's block is the same block pattern I used for my scrappy string quilt, the only difference is my 4 block units size to 20" x 20" where Craftsy's is 12" x 12."

The batting is pieced too! I have a bin full of leftover batting and decided to sew together pieces of the same weight and fiber content. I used my walking foot and used a zigzag stitch to stitch the butted edges together after rotary cutting straight edges.  Why didn't I think about zigzaging with the walking foot before? It was so easy and fast, faster than hand basting!

Today is a beautiful Spring day that I had to take pictures of my quilt outside. And as always Cassie wants to join me so she can watch the birds, squirrels and whatever else that grabs her attention. The little fur ball is such a magnet for leaves. She leaves a trail of her collection in my house from downstairs to upstairs. I really wish she would leave her finds at the door before coming inside.

Things to be grateful for today:

• For the new accounting jobs (2 missionary organizations) I acquired that I can do at home - love working at home!
• For the new wood flooring my hubby is getting me! - Cassie's trails will be less seen on it.
• For the sweet new friends at church I am making - The Women's Group changed their meeting day so I could attend since it conflicted with my meetings with the Charlotte Modern Quilt Guild.

Stitching in peace,

Stripping and Scrapping

Need an idea for stash fabric that is outdated or do not know what to with it? I was planning to give it to Goodwill until my quilting friends convinced me I needed to give it away to another quilter or use it in smaller pieces since ugly fabric can become obscured when cut into smaller pieces. It never did make its way to Goodwill so I started to strip - cutting 1 1/2 inch strips. It will make a wonderful charity quilt, which I have made a promise to myself to make at least 2 this year to give away to someone who is either sick in the hospital or lives in a nursing home in hopes that it will brighten their day.

The strips are sewn on a foundation of 11 inch muslin blocks with 2 lines drawn diagonally to create a 1 inch wide line. These are the stitching lines. Next I drew a 1/4" line from each stitching line. This is the placement line for the edge of the next strip. Sew 1/4" seams, press and match another strip to edge, sew 1/4" seam, press and continue until the foundation block is covered in strips. The center white is the foundation block without a strip sewn on it. The block shown above is made up of 4 - 11" blocks. A tutorial for this block can be found on Bonnie Hunter's website.  Did you notice my spring flowers popping out in the picture?

Look what happened to my car yesterday. I was parked parallel on the street while interviewing for a job. It was a hit and run. I tried to remember it is only a thing and at least no one was hurt! It's just one more thing to do on my list of things to do!

Fortunately for me my sweet and darling son said  he can get it fixed for zero or less than $100. We would have had to pay a $500 deductible unless of course someone saw the accident and reported it.

As for the job interview I think it went fairly well. I was there for 1 1/2 hours. They say anything more than 20 minutes is a good sign. It will be another small accounting job I can do at home as an Independent Contractor. It is for 2 different missionary organizations. I would love the opportunity. I hope it will be mine.

After reporting the accident I met a Quilters Passion member for the first time. We had attempted a couple of times to meet and yesterday was the day.

Yesterday I had a migraine headache that wouldn't quit but I was bound and determined that it wasn't going to interfere with my interview and meeting Nancy for lunch. I even went to church in the evening with it too.

It was so nice to catch up with Nancy learning what she does on a day to day. Her 95 year old mother lives with her who is in fairly good health. Nancy is currently making baby quilts. She is a rather new quilter so it has been fun watching her brave it and challenge herself.


While at church last evening I asked the pastor if there was a day I could come in and sandwich my king size quilt on the sanctuary floor. He readily agreed and reminded me it was my church too. I do not have a space large enough in my house to pin baste my quilt preparing it for free motion quilting. Overall yesterday was a great day, in spite of the headache and the ouch on my car.

Well back to printing brochures and registration forms for the upcoming Carolina Pregnancy Care Fellowship Spring Conference. I am on the agenda to teach a workshop and the topic is: "Demystifying Financial Reporting - for You and Your Board".  I need to get busy!

I hope you are having wonderful weather like we are having in Charlotte, NC today! It is gorgeous!

A Fulfilling Day!

I started my day at 5:00 a.m. in my sewing studio, sewing borders on a scrappy Irish Chain quilt that was pieced several years ago. Actually I sewed the first 3 sides of the inner border last evening and this morning the remaining side inner border. Then I ran downstairs to spend a few minutes with my hubby before he went off to work, put some chicken in the slow cooker with a can of mushroom soup, a cup of Chardonnay, 2 Tablespoons of butter and 1 1/2 Tablespoons of paprika which was wonderful! Quickly I ran upstairs to shower and get ready for book club with some friends. We have deemed the club F.L.A.W.s (former ladies at work.)

This evening I have been sewing the outside borders, 3 are done the 4th I will do tomorrow. By the time I add the remaining border the quilt will be 91" x 102." The sheer weight of the quilt top and the drag of it has worn me out!

I am really excited that I have finally bit the bullet to finish my Irish Chain. Bonnie Hunter, scrappy quilt queen, was the inspiration for my Irish Chain. I fell in love with the one she has pictured on her blog/website. I pieced the quilt top 3 or 4 years ago and since then deliberated for a couple of years about the border color. I actually purchased fabric for a blue border and scrapped that idea after awhile. Irish Chain lends itself to have a green border - right? Don't you think green when you think Ireland or Irish? I am loving the red and green borders.

So let me tell you about the book we are using for our book club. It is titled A Lineage of Grace by Francine Rivers.

  This is Amazon.com's description:
 "In this compilation of the five books in the best-selling Lineage of Grace series by Francine Rivers, we meet the five women whom God chose—Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. Each was faced with extraordinary—even scandalous—challenges. Each took great personal risk to fulfill her calling. Each was destined to play a key role in the lineage of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World."

This week we studied the life of Rahab, a harlot that lived in Jericho. Because Rahab hid 2 Israelite spies her and her family's lives were spared. Rahab had a love of God that had settled in her heart which is amazing since her family and the people of her tribe worshiped idols. She didn't know the laws of God thus didn't know that her lifestyle as a harlot was not honorable and acceptable in the eyes of Him, that is until one of the spies spoke the truth. Once she heard it her heart embraced it and turned away from practicing harlotry. The grace of God not only showed her compassion and forgiveness but after having married Salmon, one of the spies, their son Boaz was in Christ's lineage. This expresses the love of God who loves those who love him regardless of any wrong doings they have done. We have hope when we have hearts softened by God.

Rahab's story reminds me of a song that is sung by Gwen Smith -  Broken into Beautiful







I hope you enjoy the song. Well it is a few minutes before midnight and it is time I end my day and get some rest. I am quite grateful for this fulfilling day. It has been filled with the love of friends, family, good food, again hearing the hope we have, and finally sewing in my studio, the room my husband has dubbed as my Woman's cave.

Good night and sweet dreams or maybe it will be Good Morning and Rise and Shine for you,

Good Morning! Woohoo! My Irish Chain has all of its borders.