end of summer

It's nearing the end of summer - it's been wildly busy but good. The kids start back to school on Thursday. Will there be more time to sew...? Probably not but I like to think so :0)

I did manage to get eggs in the nest for this pair of blackbirds. I did a lot of the sewing of this block in the van while travelling. It sure passes the time pleasantly!
I'm taking a short break from this Bird of Paradise quilt to work on a different applique project. It's a small project so it'll be a short break.

At the sewing machine, I made it to block #180 of these courthouse steps blocks. They very quickly became these 4 block units. It was so fun to do this step I'm sorry the stack of single blocks is gone.

Now to get the them into rows and sewn together. Do you suppose I could get this quilt finished entirely before winter? :0)

Happy Quilting!!

laid out together

That big ol' bird from the last post has been bugging me. It's not quite right. I thought if I laid him out with the other blocks I'd have a better idea if he was still going to bug me.
I laid him out with the other completed blocks. Right away I think he's too big and black - stands out too much.

But, if I mix in the almost completed block of blackbirds (they haven't laid their eggs yet :0) The blackness works okay although I think I need to mix a bit of black into a couple of the remaining blocks to keep it balanced.
I think the bird still bugs me - off to the drawing board again...

Happy Quilting!!

after much delay...

There has been much procrastination over this Bird of Paradise block!
I started out with the tree trunk and leaves - no problems there. Then the tail was next - I was a bit terrified of the tail. The pattern says to piece the 18 feathers together first and then applique it. I didn't know how to do that so it sat around on the sewing table for a long while.
Finally I decided to just do it "my way" and used an overlay to place and applique each feather. I was so pleased with how the tail turned out I didn't want to wreck it by making an ugly bird. I really liked Lurline and Teresa's birds - much better than the pattern so I tried to draw mine like theirs. I drew this bird so many times and it continued to sit on my sewing table. Then I went fabric shopping looking for just the right fabric for the bird (as if I didn't have anything suitable in my stash - ha!)
Finally I cut out some fabric and just went for it. The second picture is the first attempt. The wing was too plain and the head crest just looked silly. Last night I swapped the wing fabric and I'm going to call it done. (except for some embroidery which I'm also procrastinating about in a BIG way)

I think I finished 2 other blocks while I procrastinated over this one. It's been months and I'm glad to move it to the finished pile!

Happy Quilting!!

new project

Yesterday I had a bit of a surprise to find a photo from my blog appear on Barbara Brackman's blog. I had been thinking about that bowl of cherries quilt because last week we were on vacation and spent a morning picking cherries with my Mom. I thought they were just gorgeous and they taste even better than they look :0)
I do want to make a bowl of cherries quilt one day.... But this week I started something else :0)

I have always liked this signature/chimney sweep block. Last year my husband and sister threw a birthday party for me and I thought it would be an excellent time to gather some signatures. They've been sitting in an envelope for a year and a half. Yesterday seemed like the perfect time to dig them out and get going!

So it works out perfectly - I have all the fun and excitement of starting a new project but technically I can still call it a ufo - lol.

Happy Quilting!