The windmill has been hidden behind all sorts of brush and trees in the jungle backyard. Last week we uncovered it and decided it needed a new coat of paint. The only question was what color. We wanted it to stand out against the trees. I  think bumblebee works.

Yes, it’s the silicon mat that went missing earlier this year.  You may remember that in early June I broke down and bought another pressing mat – assuming my original mat would turn up.  It didn’t and I needed to finish Eeyore, so I went ahead opened and used the new mat — which I couldn’t find when I packed for the retreat a week later.

This one surfaced when I dug through a box of “sewing stuff” under my sewing table.  It is now in its usual place in the drawer on the shelf.  I’m sure the second mat will turn up sooner or later. It’s not like I took it anywhere….

Not the 5″ squares – those are for a future project. That pile of 2 1/2″ strips of various lengths.

This is my Egg Money Quilt from the Eleanor Burns book of the same name.  I started this as a BOM at the LQS in August 2005 and finished binding Jun 2007.  I know the block in the lower right corner is not in the book. I wanted a quilt for my king size bed so added a few. Without looking in the book I couldn’t tell you which others I added.

I did this quilt using Quilt-As-You-Go techniques.

To mark the quilting in the framing, I printed circles and diamonds onto labels and then cut them out. I used each label several times until it wouldn’t stick to the fabric any more.

In the sashing I found a diamond cable in one of my books and cut it out of template material to trace around. I just reused that cable the other day.

The blocks themselves I just did simple outlining.  I can’t remember how the green inner border is quilted and the outer scalloped border has two rows of quilting following the scallop.

I used Warm and Natural batting so this quilt is heavy.

That is the viewer’s left – about the width of Piglet’s right foot.  Fortunately the pieces are just pinned in place.  I can’t really cut the extra off the left edge or there won’t be enough room for the letters at the bottom — but I briefly thought about it. (Yes, I’m missing the mane  and two strings.)

One of the things I learned at the retreat this past weekend is where to find inexpensive cotton shirts.  One of the thrift shop chains in town picks one color tag each Sunday and sells the clothes for 25¢ each or 5 for $1.  This week the color was yellow. At the first shop I picked up 10 pieces.  At the second I found 3.  There were yellow tagged 100% cotton shirts left behind at both shops.

My best guess is 19-1/2 yards of recycled fabric for $2.75 which is a little over 14¢ a yard.

This could be bad for my long-term stash report now that I know where to get the shirts…

I finished Ladder to the Stars October 13, 2013.  Quilted, bound and labeled, you may remember this picture:

Why the wait? My pattern for this original design is published in this month’s issue of The Quilt Pattern Magazine!

I designed this quilt using 9″ blocks for The Main Street Strippers Quilt Club at Heritage Fine Fabric in Belton, Missouri to use for their 2008 raffle quilt. The quilt finished at 88″ x 105″ which is bigger than I wanted. So, I scaled the blocks down to 6″ and made myself a smaller quilt. My top was finished in April 2009, but then it sat waiting for quilting inspiration and skills to develop.

In September 2013 I joined the quiltdesigners list and less than a week later a call went out from TQPM for projects for upcoming issues. What a luck! I sent in a photo of my top and they said they wanted to publish the pattern.

Eck! I had the instructions for the blocks and sashing — written at 9″, so I madly started revising and completing my instructions.  Then I needed to test the pattern. That’s when I pulled from my stash, browns, greens and beiges to make a second quilt.

I got the pattern written and the 2nd quilt top made. It was then on to the quilting. Inspiration struck and I had a plan.  It’s a good thing I had a test quilt as it turns out my vision and quilting skills just weren’t in-synch.  Given the timeframe I had to work with, I moved on to a compromise of my vision to meet my deadline.

I quilted the top at Quilted Memories using the pantograph Feather Me by Meredith England. Coats & Clark Star thread #0815 – Americana was used on the top and white pre-wound Superior Bottom Line in the bobbin. Hobbs Bleached 80/20 with scrim is the batting.

For the record the blocks in the top are various red, white and blue “scraps” from my stash. The blue cornerstones, sashing, setting triangles, border and binding is Michael Miller Krystal in Royal Blue. The gold star points and accent border is Robert Kauffman Fusions in Antique and the red border is Paula Nadelstern Holiday Luminosity Prismaglass in Red.  The sashing was paper pieced and the borders are mitered. For the backing I found a length of red and blue stars on white which came from Mom’s stash. It says Signature Classics by Oakhurst Textiles on the selvage.

After washing the quilt measures 57 x 67.

After a week of NOT working on the baby quilt, I cleared off the cutting table and traced the notes onto the music staff so I could work on the third line of music. I really need to cut the 4th border and get it traced off as well so I  can start it when I get this one finished.  This time I’m stitching a hoop’s worth of staff and the notes instead of stitching the staff then going back and doing the notes.

Last night I also discovered that the pocket on the back of my ‘busy bag’  is large enough to hold my Kindle in its case.

Now to pick colors for my next quilt.