Some of This and That

I took hand stitching with me on my trip.  What with interacting with family, travel restrictions and other fun sewing at both destinations, only got a bit done. One star in CO and one here.  Two Gwennie inspired stars:

Two to go.  

I used about two yards for Lily's Quilt and 3/4ths yd for the quilt repair and a tenth for these two stars. I also bought 3 yards of fabric that I am keeping, so my YTD total ending August is 40.83 yds.

Speaking of traveling, I was in awe of the huge mountains (really, volcanoes) I saw from the plane and in Vancouver (Mt. Hood).  This is from the plane on the way to CO, and believe it is West Crater - Mt Hood would have been on the right side - I was sitting on the left side and saw three of them north of the Columbia almost in a row.  The other two may have been Indian Heaven and Mt Adams. WOW.
DS#2 took me on a scenic drive from Horsetooth Reservoir to Estes Park to visit the Rocky Mountain National Park.   What a beautiful drive through Drake and Glen Haven!


In Glen Haven we stopped for fudge and to admire the gorgeous quilts - all for over $1K each.  On the way back, we stopped in Drake for a cherry pie - yum!  And our destination:
Phone was acting up again, so I bought a postcard - looked like this but without the fall color.  Had lunch in a restaurant next to the Fall River Visitors Center.  It was a wonderful day.


And in Fort Collins

I got to do some sewing also.  DS#2 was gifted years ago with a quilt from DD.  He uses it a lot,  and the quilt had come to the point where it needed repairs.
 One of the bandannas needed to be replaced.  I was so happy I had read Sandra Hatch's book, llustrated Guide to Vintage Quilting (Master Quilter's Workshop).  She shows you how to repair an old quilt.  So I knew what to do.  Went to the LQS.  They happened to have some bandanna fabric. Bought 3/4th yard (I needed a 21" square), some Perl cotton thread, and a sharp tapestry needle. Fortunately, I had pins, invisible thread, and a seam ripper in my hand quilting box to round out my supplies.  Back at DS's , I removed the torn square, inserted the fabric and whipped stitched the square in place.  Again, I had to use a carpenter's tape and a straight edge and the scissors I bought to cut it.  I used the Perl cotton to tie the square once I was done inserting the block.
It is a big quilt - queen size - the one photo I took of it was too dark to show. And hand sewing?  Didn't get much done on that - I'll show how far I got in my Kathy's Slow Stitching post.

In that Box I sent Home

were
 a background, text fabric and some patriotic fabric,
 six new batiks,
 a new bag pattern
 a bag kit and a pillowcase kit,

a lovely peacock panel and some fabric for sashing it.
It filled up the entire square, medium Priority Mailing box. Sigh... stash busting not, but since some will be given away and I know what the fabric in kits are going to be, didn't do too much damage.

What I did in Vancouver

besides having a great time visiting:
My DIL just happened to have a sewing machine - an old Kenmore that is a wonderful machine.  Even did the quilting with it.  Had to cut panel, batting and backing with scissors as we could not find her rotary cutting mat.

Having fun

in Vancouver.  What a beautiful place the Northwest is!  So green!  We went to the Clark County Fair and of course there were quilts.
One of many lovely quilts at this exhibit.  My camera stopped working after this one. Ugh.  Went to a Craft Warehouse.  Their flat folds at half the cost elsewhere are from Wilmington, Timeless Treasures, Robert Kaufman, Maywood Studios!!  I went a bit crazy (may have to send a package home - no room in my suitcase) and bought a bit.  Too bad these stores are only in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.  Off to see if they sell online.  PS:  They are even doing Row by Row.

Blessings!

A This and That Post

First de-stashing report:  Used 1.5 yds for the commission quilt. Also 1/8th yd for a baby quilt block - it's a big 15" block. Then there was the .10 for the hexie star, and an 1/4th yard for the binding of the little wall hanging and the backing. Lastly, 2 yards for an envelope quilt were donated to St. Anne's and 1/10th yd for the two star blocks for the QOV medallion.  That gives me a grand total of 4.02 yds for this week and a YTD total of 41.08  yards used.  Here's that wall hanging that I bound and finished: 
It even has a hanging sleeve. I'll hang it in my sewing room when I come back from my travels.  I did hand stitch a couple of more motifs on my ancient WIP - that's as far as I got on progress this week.

Not sure if I'll be able to post, but with two computer savy sons maybe I will.  Otherwise this is Angie saying, "see you after August 24th."

WIPs Be Gone

Well not this week as I started on a commissioned quilt and a possible star for my Gwennie medallion. Have you ever tried to make a wonkie hexagon star using EPP (English paper piecing)?
Now I have and it's taken me a day and a half to get this far:
 I used only a straight line and a pencil to mark the rays. This was very hard for me.  My OCD wanted them to be all the same.  Then I remembered another quilter's summary of Gwen's work: "But she’s always has a very free style.  If points don’t match?  So What? Quilting should make you happy."  Thing is not sure I was happy while I finished this.

I also made a sample block for the next St. Anne's top.  I've simplified a rolling nine-patch block. I'll post the pattern under the free patterns tab after I get back from my two week trip.
And before I go here are the winners from the last two linky parties of WIPs Be Gone.  This week's winner is Donna - go see her lovely work here  And the winner two week ago (mea culpa, mea culpa) is Mel (She blogs here).  I've sent them emails.

Since I will be gone starting next Wednesday, I'm not posting a linky party this week.  But would love to hear from you on what you've made progress on. You can comment below. Remember, it doesn't have to be a finish. Blessings.

It's Gwennie Inspired Time!

The third round of the Gwennie Inspired Medallion QAL was log cabins.
I chose to make the medallion be the center of a log cabin. It looks mild compared to the colorful others, but that's what came to me when I went to do this.  You can see the colorful and creative others here.  Next round is stars!

SAHRR Round 5 and 6

  Ready to show rounds 5 and 6. Actually, the prompt for 5 was make 4 of something. So I chose four patch, and actually since that made my q...