FINISHES- (2).... Star Boxes ... and...Aqua Rolling Stones

 I think that this will probably be my final finishes for 2023.  For me, it's been a really good year for quilting.

In the last couple of days, I finished these two quilts......

 

Star Boxes, measuring 53 x 64 inches.

Pattern adapted from Missouri Star Triple Play video

   Diagonally machine-quilted on Jazz 2.  Cotton/Wool batting

  58 inch wide backing from Hancock's of Paducah

UPDATE:  Not satisfied, I went back and pretty much doubled the diagonal quilting on this one.  I have these two photos of the finished quilting.

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Last finish, Aqua Rolling Stones, finished at approximately 52 x 71 inches. 

Standard Rolling Stone block, original design setting

            Backing purchased at Hobby Lobby, Hobbs 100% cotton batting

  Basic hand-quilting in majority of quilt, BigStitch quilting in Flying Geese borders

 

Spot in the Middle---finished !

Yesterday, I finished binding this quilt that I have seen referred to as Spot in the Middle.  I have heard others call it Framed Square.  Either way, I REALLY LIKE the finished quilt.

After being undecided on how to finish the piecing, I settled on a fairly modern design featuring ONE side border of a solid light tan, giving me a good place to showcase some "Big Stitch" hand-quilting.

I machine-quilted approximately one half-inch inside of each block's outer seam, in both directions.  Then, after hand-quilting the cable in the solid tan fabric border, using an exaggerated size stitch, I went back and quilted a square one-half inch outside of each block's center square, doing it also with the bigger stitches.  I used a thread from Coats and Clark, called Bold Hand Quilting Thread.

Each block measures 6 inches, finished, and with 10 rows of 8 blocks, plus the 6-inch vertical border on the right, the finished measurements of the quilt are 54 x 60 inches. 

The backing was happily pieced from bigger pieces from my stash of brown fabrics (mostly), and I much prefer it to any ONE fabric that I could have used by itself. 

I just had to get this little fussy-cut square into this quilt.  Quilting certainly DOES bring me joy in the many hours that I spend alone.

Somebody on Facebook dubbed this photo "a cat scan".

Lottie's at the vet

My new little baby girl is getting spayed today, and I can't get her out of my mind.

A complete hysterectomy, is the way the receptionist put it........

"they're cleaning everything outta there", she says. 

  Yuck, I never thought of it so graphically........and she's only 4 months old ~!~

So, I'm trying to get a little quilting done by hand, 

after mowing

 and mopping

 and generally trying to occupy my mind as well as my body.  

Don't you just love the way the rows puff up around the hand-quilting?
This is a polyester batting so it's 'poofier'.

Yep, it's being hand-quilted

I call it "big-stitch" and most people tend to do it with perle cotton, but I'm using different colors of quilting thread and an embroidery needle.   I find that flannel backs take better to the bigger stitches, and wow, it is faster to do. 

I'm not having to mark any of the quilting lines, as I am going once in the ditch of the colored zig, and once half-way through the zig.  The rectangles finished at about 1 5/8 inches wide, so I'm just eyeballing it. 

Every other day, I hoop the quilt in my 17 inch-square Q-snap frame, and that gives me four different colored zigs that I can quilt.   I follow them all the way across the quilt horizontally.  I start around 8:00 in the morning with the light coming through my sewing room window to where I sit in my glider-rocker, and usually the sun has gone from my window by the time I finish the four rows in the late afternoon.  Of course, I'm jumping up and down all day long doing other household things too.  In fact, I didn't get to finish my rows today, as I kept Allyssia for a few hours.

On the odd days, I take a day off from quilting to let the fingers get over the soreness caused by stabbing myself with that huge needle.  (I can't wear anything on the finger under the quilt....it just keeps me from feeling whether or not I've made a good stitch all the way through.)

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I want to send warm wishes and thoughts to those of you who are so covered up with the latest snow STORM.  I am so sorry for the inconvenience it's causing you.  I hope that you can stay in, well-fed, warm, and happily busy with your favorite craft/quilt.
All we got was a quick dusting of snow this morning, and then the sun came out and immediately melted it away.  But I'm still enamored of the last snowfall we got, and just had to use another photo from it for my header. 
We're supposed to get more snow this weekend, and all I can say is PRAISE GOD for keeping us warm and safe, and if it has to come, I hope it's a beauty like the Jan. 26th one.

Nearly finished with the "Flowers for Edith"

I always think that there is a beauty to hand-quilting that just can't be duplicated by machine.  

 I have become a real fan of machine-quilted quilts, made quickly,

 to be used with love.......even used UP, with love.  

But when it comes to looks alone, there's just something in me that longs to see

 that beautiful in-out look of the hand-stitching, as opposed to the flat-line

 look of a row of machine-stitches. 

If only a machine could leave that little gap between each stitch,

 I could let these callouses heal, make a quilt per week (or two, or three.....weeks, I mean) !

Just one more border left to quilt, and I'm on to the binding. 

Tomorrow is our local quilter's meeting.  I've been back living here for a year, and with one excuse and another, I have yet to get to one of the meetings.  

They hold the meeting from 1 to 5 in the afternoon, at the local Senior Citizens' Center.   A four-hour meeting makes it seem a little daunting to just 'drop in'.  

We'll see if I can dial up my courage tomorrow and see what they're all about.   I have such a LONGING to connect with someone IN PERSON (again) that loves to do this crazy stuff like I do !

OUTLAWS, I miss you TERRIBLY ! 

Go with me in spirit.......'kay?

What am I doing?

Somehow, I've gone from being unable to decide how to quilt this baby to turning it into a quilting sampler or something !

            Oops, I accidentally left a portion of that little sashing unquilted.  I'll fix that !

 I didn't mean for THAT to happen (making it a quilting sampler, I mean).   I'm hoping to make this a gift to a very special person, and I want it to be pretty.  Please tell me that it'll be fine when it's all done and the border is quilted and bound !

(My favorite row is the one with the diamonds in the squares.  Why didn't I try that on the first row......I probably would have stayed with it throughout !)