Lone Rose Star - Completed!

 This past week I finished the hand quilting and binding on my Lone Rose Star quilt.  The binding was a challenge for me as I decided to use some of the left over strips from the Lone Star.  There were so many seams that I could not get the mitered corners to look nice.  They were like big wads of fabric!  Lucky for me the binding is bias, so I took it all off, then curved the corners and sewed it back on.  I think it did pretty well with the curve in the corners.

The Lone Star is machine pieced following instructions on On-Point TV with Nancy.  She is a great teacher and has tons of YouTube videos.  The Rose Stars are English Paper Pieced and then hand appliqued to the quilt top.  The quilt is hand quilted.

I guess you could call this my own design, at least the layout  of the quilt, although it is basically a traditional Lone Star with the addition of the Rose Stars.  

Gentle Gems - February Blocks

 This morning I completed the February blocks.  The butterfly was a real challenge for me.

Gentle Gems - Val Laird BOM

 I have started a block of the month with Val Laird called Gentle Gems.  I just got started this month and today I finished the January blocks.  Each is a hexagon that has embroidery and applique, and is a quilt as you go.  The project will be a small wall hanging, and I fell in love with the sweet pattern and decided to sign up.  These are my two January blocks.

Happy Birthday, Adeline

Today, my granddaughter, Adeline, turns 5 years old.  I made her a big girl quilt, and she blessed me so much by saying "Its the most beautiful quilt in the world!" when she opened it up.  She is such a sweet caring little girl and I am so fortunate to have her as my granddaughter.  (I have 7 grandsons and 6 granddaughters :)  )

Coronaville

Happy Valentine's Day and in my case Vaccination Day.  Today I got my second vaccination shot at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Drive-thru.  It was handled so efficiently, makes me proud to be in the Carolinas.  35 minutes passed from the time we pulled into the Speedway parking lot  until we got the shot, waited 15 minutes and left. They had at least 21 "shot areas" and I know that because we went to #20 bay and there was at least one more beside us.  It was amazing when we went to the "wait" area to see if we had any reaction, the vast number of cars there....that could not have been there more than 15-20 minutes.  It was just incredible how they moved everyone through the bays to get their shots and on to the waiting area.

I had said I would make my last house block on the day I got shot #2 - so today I thankfully came home and made the block with a Valentine's Day theme.

I made a total of 338 houses, 120 of them go on the front of the quilt.  That leaves 218 houses for the back.  They are smaller than the ones on the front and hopefully I can fit them all on the back.

                                       

I was debating on how to arrange them and decided to do it snail trail style  I have to use a filler strip on most of the rows to get it come out right.  I started working on it tonight, but I think I need a break and maybe can finish it tomorrow.  The houses don't line up so great, but then what has this world been over the last year, other than totally "un-orderly.".

Lone Rose Star Quilting Update

 I have completed quilting all the Lone Star, Rose Stars and border diamond blocks and have started on the background.  Some difficult choosing what to do, but am satisfied with a simple straight line that follows the direction of the diamonds in the Lone Star.  I have completed a corner and one side and took pictures this morning in a darkened room so my quilting would show up better in the pictures.    I have a little puffiness to deal with that I am able to keep from pleating with the hand quilting, but trying my best to overcome this problem. I would have been surprised if this had not been a problem with the piecing of the lone star and the the applique of the Rose Stars......just one more non-perfect hand made quilt touch  (well that's my story and I am sticking with it).

I Spy Success!

 Today I had some of the grandkids at the house.  I spread the I-Spy quilt out on the floor for them to play with and I am happy to report they loved it.  They played I Spy for an hour, then they took a cookie break and watched some tv shows, some still laying on the quilt. After the shows, they wanted to play some more.  I think they pretty much had all the blocks memorized, so I made them all turn around with closed eyes, and I turned the quilt around.  So it was like they had to learn all over again where the blocks were.  I am so glad I made this quilt, I never dreamed they would have this much fun with it.