QUILTING!!

 I am busy quilting the future wedding quilt that measures 90" x 104" (see 1/31/2022 post).  I quilted straight lines in the ditch in several places and now I'm quilting each block in the way that I think will work.  I used an off white thread on a lot of places that need that color, then I changed to navy blue and I'm going to try to get all the areas that need that color.  I'm doing that since I'm not using an "over all" design, and that makes it harder because of the various colors and different blocks.  BTW, for those who might be new to reading this, I am quilting on my domestic Janome 6600 sewing machine.  It does have a larger area, but it's still hard to work with.

A quilt this large is difficult to maneuver!

This next picture shows how I quilted this particular block.

I have quilted the white sections of this block and will probably quilt the center and 4 corner sections with brown thread.

Any ideas for quilting the border of sawtooth stars?  I will probably use the white/offwhite thread over the stars and background, but not sure what to do.

I have been reading this book lately and am almost finished.  It's about quilts made while traveling over the Oregon trail or to take on the trip, or after arriving in Oregon.  It has pictures of the quilts and women who made them as well as something about their lives.  I highly recommend it!

Since we moved to Oregon in 2014, I have been fascinated with Oregon trail stories.  I met a quilter who is a descendant of those pioneers and they continue to have a family reunion every year,  I wonder if any of her ancestors are in this book!  Interesting that 12 of the blocks in the above quilt were from Barbara Brackman's Westering Women posts on her blog a few years ago.

Happy quilting!!

BUTTONS!

 I went to a small button show with a couple of my quilting friends.  We went to Lincoln City Cultural Center.  I have loved buttons for years and have a small collection.  I got most of them at garage and estate sales.  This is a picture of most of them.  I have another tiny cabinet with some vintage buttons and a few very pretty buttons.  I have a book on how to make jewelry with buttons, but haven't done that yet.  I'm kind of busy with quilting!

This is most of my button collection.

Here are a few of the buttons that were on display:

Acrylic buttons

Shell buttons

The Cultural Center also had a large display from Washed Ashore (washedashore.org).  Inside there were jelly fish hanging from the ceiling made from the plastics found on beaches.  Outside there were several sculptures of sea life made from the plastic junk that people had thrown into the ocean and has been collected from beaches.  Here's some of them.  I think they are doing very good work.  Check out their web site for more information.

This is about 6 feet tall.

Jelly Fish

Quilting is going on.  I basted another large quilt yesterday and am trying to decide how to quilt it.  Pictures will come at a later post.