It's a Starry, Starry Morning!!!

I am feeling so extra cheerful today because I finished my quilt top, called The Stars will Shine Tonight.

144 Stars (My Math Skills are Feeling Somewhat Better Now after Being Under the Weather)

This is the border that I hinted about.  The border stars are all red, ranging from orangey red to bluish red plus pinks and neutrals.  I had so much fun making this quilt and I have to say, I just love way the border resonates with the multicolored center.

Here is Another Shot of the Quilt Top

A Close up of the Red Border

This baby is HUGE, 99" square to be precise!  It will fit nicely on my king size bed.  This is going to take quite a bit of time on the quilting machine, but I have a backlog of other projects to quilt first, for others and of my own projects.  I may switch gears now and knock out some of these neglected tops in need of quilting.
One is a small charity quilt for my guild....I may work on it first.  Get 'er done, as my DH loves to say.

Little Treasures

Here are some scraps of fabric I found at a thrift store last week.  I didn't even have to use any of these reds for my red stars border!  Today I plan to wash, press and cut these into strips for the strip bins.

Who knows what all I'll do today?  Now that reminds me of the Doctor (Doctor Who, of course).  I watched the first installment of the new season Saturday night.  It was everything and more of what I have come to expect and love about this show.  Let's just say that if this were the only TV show in the universe, I would be fine with that because the Doctor can go ANYWHERE or ANYWHEN (my spell-checker thinks that is not a word.  It is.  I just made it up.)  The guest characters can be ANYBODY.  In one episode last season Winston Churchill made a guest appearance (Oh, I know, he was really an actor, but what fun!).
If you haven't seen Doctor Who, you are missing a treat of British clever wit and quirky humor.

I'm So Embarrassed!!!

Sometimes you have to admit to a mistake that even a rookie quilter should never have fallen for.

You may know that I am working on Bonnie Hunter's Star Struck pattern that I started in her class at Road to California.  I chose to make the quilt body 10 blocks square, requiring 100 star blocks.  I finished that part, before Easter and now I am getting back to work on finishing it.

I am planning a border of 8" blocks, the same size as the quilt body blocks.

Here's where it got tricky for me.  I figured if I made my quilt 11 blocks by 11 blocks that would include the border, right?  11 X 11= 121 blocks.....10 X 10 = 100.....121 - 100 = 21 border blocks. Wrong, so very wrong.

Yesterday I got out my 21 border blocks and wondered why they did not go all the way around the quilt!

First, I thought, where are the rest of the blocks?  Are they hidden under a bolt of fabric in my sewing room?

Then I remembered, 21 is the number that I made.  What went wrong? 

Of course, all you quilters out there are going LOL and ROTF.  You all know that to surround all four sides of a 10 block X 10 block quilt, you have to make the quilt 12 blocks X 12 blocks!  But it's all OK because I get the fun of making 23 more blocks.  And that's my project for today.

My face is so red you would think I had a sunburn!

Hope Your Easter Was Full of Beauty and Blessings!

Yes, I hope your Easter holiday was full of all the Blessings that life can offer!

As for me, it was one of the very best ever.  I had the boys and their families, an out-of-towner (my brother who showed up on Saturday), my Mother and mountains of good food, some of which I actually did not have to prepare myself!

I gave Jonah, 4, some sidewalk chalk and we went outside to write and draw with it.

"Grandma, will you write my name?....Grandma, now will you write my middle name?  Grandma, will you write my last name like yours?

Then we (I) wrote my first, middle and last names.  My heart was touched.

Jonah and I are joined forever by our last names and much, much more.

 

**WOW** I Found It at a Garage Sale!!

Hi y'all,

I was browsing at a garage sale in my neighborhood the other day when I stumbled on a very nice find, a quilters cutting table that folds up.

HUGE cutting area

Of course I already have a cutting table, but I wanted to try this one because its height, elevated to be perfect for standing and cutting.  The height makes it easier on my back and I am enjoying it a lot.

I paid $20 for this perfectly good table which I found on the internet for $189.99.  I think I got a deal!

I am starting to sew my Stars quilt into columns.  I am trying out names for this quilt and so far "The Stars Will Shine Tonight"  is my favorite. This is a variation on the song "Three Stars Will Shine Tonight."  This unabashedly sentimental song was the theme for the 60's TV series, Doctor Kildare.  I adored Doctor Kildare and always tuned in when it was playing.  I didn't watch much TV in those days when homework filled most of my evenings, but I made an exception for this show.

Now for My Other Ongoing Project...

Hello!

Besides Cheddar, my other project started in Bonnie's class, Star Struck, is really coming along.  I gave my scrappy proclivities full rein...no holding back .  But for a long time, it didn't seem like I was making much  progress at all!

Star Struck Blocks on My Design Wall

I was just making unit after unit, and block after block.  I need 121 8" blocks.  That is a lot.  For example, with Cheddar, I only needed 30 blocks.  They were bigger and set with sashing, but sheesh, still 121 is still a far cry from 30.  I guess it all comes down to attitude.  Those blocks were just getting a little boring.

I can't believe I just wrote that.  After all, non-quilters are always pointing out that quilts take so long to make and they lack the patience.  And we quilters argue back that it is the process that inspires us so the time spent quilting passes so quickly that we don't even notice.

I do get a little bogged down at times, I must admit.  But my favorite part of making the quilt is composing and assembling the big picture.  I can tell you that when that quilt starts to come together, and I can see the dynamics of shape, color and pattern creating sparks that bounce back and forth, that is when I feel so creative, so inspired, that I know that all the little knit-picky parts of making the quilt was worth it.

The journey is what we love, and we can love some parts of it more than others!

Just to make those sparks fly, I am planning a special border treatment that I am hoping will add a little pizzazz to this quilt, as if it really needed it.  I'll be revealing the pretty little pieced border in a future post.

I guess I'd better be back to piecing!