The cat's out of the bag !

No, no, NO  !    Not a REAL cat !

It's just a saying, for heaven's sake !

I mean.......I can finally reveal my latest finished quilt,

"Misty Morning's Stars"

I delivered the quilt to it's recipient this morning.

 She's my childhood best friend, Shirley, and she is fighting a battle to breathe every day.  

She lives with emphysema, and spends alot of time in her chair or her bed; so I knew that a quilt would be something that she would use alot and still be reminded of our friendship.  

The quilt is pieced from 2 different sets of charm packs......the starpoints were made from one that was actually made up of triangles, called Turnovers.  That collection was "Swanky", by Chez Moi, and the squares in the middle of these stars are made from "Dream On" charms.  The grey background fabric was actually a 104 inch-wide fabric that I bought from Connecting Threads with the possible intention of using as a quilt back.   It's a bit heavier than the average quilting cotton, so I wouldn't want to piece a top with it again.  In fact, I wouldn't want it as a back either.........this quilt has a polyester batting, as I wanted it to be lightweight, yet warm, but it came out VERY heavy due to that grey fabric.

 For the actual quilt backing, I used a beautiful, vintage printed sheet .

  It had all the same colors that were contained in the prints used for the stars, and made a wonderfully, cool, smooth back.

The quilt finished with a measurement of approximately 58 x 76 inches maybe.....I can't quite remember, but it is very large for a couch quilt.  I wanted to be sure she could use it when she was in bed also.

I just machine-quilted in the ditch around the stars, and used a cable stencil for the outer border.  The binding was the same fabric as the background.

Now, I'm doing a bit of hand-quilting on my latest project.   I brought a UFO out of hiding, and pieced the backing (you can see a sneak peek of the backing underneath Lottie-dah, at the top of this post.)  I'm enjoying the slow pace of the handwork.  

Talk to you soon !

A finish, but not a full reveal........

....yes, I finished the latest quilt yesterday.   I can only share a partial shot of the quilt at this time, as I hope to give it as a gift within the next 2 or 3 weeks, and I don't know if the recipient of the quilt reads my blog.......it's possible !

So, for now, here is a peek at what I like to call,

"Misty Morning's Stars"

Oh, and I almost forgot to share these photos I took yesterday.  I went to hang the quilt on my clothesline for photo-taking and I noticed something green at the top of the clothesline pole.

Upon closer observation, I discovered that it was a Cicada emerging from it's old shell.  I had never before witnessed the shedding stage, and I was AMAZED.


God has a plan for EVERYTHING and I am in AWE !

Close, but not quite there yet.......

......I finished my latest quilt yesterday------up to the point of trimming the edges getting ready for the binding.  I haven't yet CUT the binding.....in fact, I haven't definitely decided upon which fabric it will be.

But the quilting is all done, and I hope to be able to share it soon.

It's raining now, still giving us the strangest summer I've lived through.  I'm so thankful for the rain and cooler temperatures, though.

Oh, and I found a pressure cooker at a yardsale a week or so ago, and have been having fun experimenting with it.  In just a few minutes time, last night, I cooked vegetables in a beef broth that were as good as having roasted them in with a cut of beef for several hours !  YUM !

I'm not ready to photograph the quilt yet, so I'll just toss in a new picture of my baby and me.   I know the photo is at the top of my blog for now, but that will change eventually, and this one will remain !