More stars...

I guess I never really do get tired of stars. There are endless ways to construct them and endless fabric and color combinations you can use to piece them. Also, I never get tired of batiks!!!

I have finally finished all of the star blocks for the Millennium Compass quilt that will be a block of the month class at Cloth and Bobbin starting in October.

I find myself rejoicing in the beauty of all these vibrant colors. For this quilt, you need sixteen colors spanning the full color wheel...four for each quadrant. How much fun is that?

There are borders to come and several of them. Just picked out the fabric yesterday and can't wait to get started.

Here's wishing you a wonderful week ahead full of color and fun!

Progress...

It was far from a quiet weekend, but thankfully a sewing day with a friend helped me make progress on the new ribbon quilt. I've added two more stars and have lots of ribbons done for more panels. One of my favorite fabrics in this is dark blue with gold metallic dots,

so I'm leaning towards adding some work with Paintstiks. Time to color :)

Hello, April

Another month has come and gone. One quarter of the year already passed. It feels as if time really does move quickly. March was another good month. I can't really complain about what I accomplished. I definitely stayed busy.

-Bound two quilts

-Completed four quilt tops

-Made twelve placemats

-Finished the last four blocks of the brown star quilt

My "What Star Are You From?" quilt came back from Carol of Lorac Designs.

There is something so exciting about getting a quilt back that you have sent out. In some ways, it is like seeing it for the first time.

I just have to finish the binding and then it's ready for the buyer to pick up.

From my stash pick for March, I have completed the first 32 blocks of a quilt. This is what I have spent the last few days working on.

April is going to be a rather crazy month. I will be teaching on three days, taking a class on two days, our quilt group meets on one night, the Ribbon Quilt class reunion is one night, and one sewing day at the shop. Because I will be starting a new project for the class I'm taking, I know I won't be able to start anything else new. Also, at least six quilts will be coming back to me and the two I just got back makes a total of eight. So how will I be spending much of this month.....binding, binding, binding!

Something new from something old...

The New York Times Natural Food Cookbook. I got it in the late 70's in paperback. Last fall, I found an old  hardback copy in good condition. I was ecstatic because my copy was in three pieces. I have truly loved this cookbook. I have been making the whole wheat banana bread recipe from this for as long as I can remember owning it. The only tweak I made consistently was adding a generous quarter cup of sesame seeds to the batter. All these years, I have looked forward to brown bananas so I could make this recipe.

The other day, I got the batter ready and said to my son who happened to be in the kitchen...."What can we do differently this time?" His suggestion was to add fruit. We happened to have blueberries, so in they went. I did not expect it to be so absolutely delicious!

I decided to make twelve placemats with the Paintstik bamboo panels that I made. I clearly wanted an Asian theme for the fabric I chose. I hunted through a box and found a lovely piece that my wonderful stepmother brought back from Japan maybe fifteen years ago. I was so excited to be able to finally feel good about using it.

The bamboo panels got a 1/4" border of dark green with metallic gold dots...

and the result was this. They are super-sized placemats 15" x 20".

I've been wanting to get the brown star quilt done, so I completed the blocks for the April class...

May class...

and June class...

Thankfully, I have now finished ten out of the twelve blocks. Two more to go....then I can put it all together!