FAITHFUL IS FINISHED!

How long ago did Lori have the Quilt-A-Long for Faithful?  I searched her blog and found out it was October, 2013.  So, it only took me about 1 1/2 years to get this done.  Woo Hoo!

25" square

I have a reason that it took me so long.  First of all, I used the basket block in the center and it is on point.  You can't really hang a quilt on point, so I had to add corners to Faithful.  I had to think about that for a while.  If I added corners, they had to have something in them.  It wouldn't look very good to put plain fabric there, so I thought it would look nice to have lighter fabrics fanning out.

Then, I thought they needed something else and decided to appliqué something on each corner.  So I had to find things to put in the corners.  I got out magazines and books to try to find something and the first thing I picked was the bird sitting on the star.  I love Kim Diehl's quilts and have 2 of her books, although I have never made any of the quilts in them.  I have used them for appliqué designs before though, so I used some of the flower appliqué designs and the bird from her Simple Blessings book.  I'm not sure where the circle and star came from - I know I saw it somewhere.

Backing toile fabric from Boersma's basement.

The last thing I needed was some flowers for the basket, so I took the easy way out and made yo yos for it.  Thanks, Lori, for the QAL!

I finished my stack of little quilts as well and the last 2 are below.  I am on a roll with stars.  I've got a stack of 31 solid stars (not scrappy, in other words) and 9 scrappy stars.  So, I see more little quilts in my future.

21 1/2" x 17 3/4"

17" s 14"

Happy Wednesday to all of you!

WEEKEND AT THE RAINY COAST

This past weekend I went to the coast for a women's retreat from my church.  While we had been having sunny weather for at least a week, it rained the whole weekend!  But I am still amazed when I see the ocean!  We were at Lincoln City, Oregon and the Pacific Ocean was just across the street from where we stayed in this house.  My room was on the second floor and I had access to the porch on the corner from the room!

This is the picture I took from the room when we arrived.  On Saturday, it was even foggier and the rain didn't let up at all.  Nevertheless, we had a wonderful time.  It's good to get away for a couple days to relax, enjoy God's creation and relax with other women of like mind.

Saturday afternoon we had some free time, so I decided to go for a walk.  The rain was coming down, but not really hard, so I put on a rain hat and walked out towards the beach.  When I found the path to the beach, I slipped in some mud and fell partially down.  Here's a picture of my pants.

The ground was soft, so no injury happened.  I walked around more carefully and didn't spend too much time outside, but it did feel good to get outside.

Last week I started quilting on "Faithful" and am finally just about to finish it!

Uh Oh!  When I turned it over, look what I had quilted onto the back!  Too much stuff on my sewing table.  It's off now and yesterday I finished quilting "Faithful!"  Yea!  I'll sew on the binding today.

SCRAPPY STITCHING AND A TOUR

After making the doll quilt with the stars, I decided to get out my box containing some stars already made and fabric cut out to make more.  I found that I had some ready to stitch.  All these stars finish at 4".

Then I was looking through my other pieces and saw that I didn't have enough to make stars of all the same fabric, so I wondered how they would look if I just made some scrappy ones.

I used up the last of some of these fabrics.  I like them!  I think I'll alternate some with scrappy strip blocks.

Guess what!  My "Faithful" quilt is ready to baste!  Finally!!  I just have to sew on the yo yos that are going to be the flowers in the basket first.

I have 3 doll quilts ready for basting as well.

Saturday I went on an architectural tour of some historic buildings in McMinnville, OR with my DIL and DGD.  The first building was the Spanish Restaurant and we got to see the apartment on the second floor.  It was lived in by the owner, but now it's a vacation rental.

Spanish Restaurant building built in about 1894 - I took this picture right before Christmas.

 The following pictures are of the second floor of one of the buildings - it was built around 1911 I believe.  The owners live in the 9,000 sq. ft.  second floor and have restored it to the original design as much as possible.  Included in the apartment is a 1900 sq. ft. ball room as well as a couple large work shops.  Here are some of the items in the apartment.

The following few pictures are of the bathroom.  I love these clawfoot tubs!

A cute frog lives on the edge of the tub.

Dressing table is in the bathroom as well.  

 This Frank Lloyd Wright designed window is in the entry door to the apartment!

 

The Cozine House was built in the late 1800s and is now home to the McMinnville Downtown Association.

As you can see, we had a gorgeous day for the tour!  

WOOL APPLIQUE PREPPED

I have prepped the wool appliqué for the corners of "Faithful.  Nothing is sewn on yet and the corners  will not be sewn on until after I do the appliqué, but I thought I would just show you what I have done.

I have been stitching in the ditch on this Christmas quilt and plan to do something in the blocks too but haven't decided what yet.

I will be out of pocket for a couple weeks, so don't know if I'll be able to blog or not.  Don't forget the Bloggers' Quilt Festival!  Thanks for all the encouragement!

FAITHFUL BORDERS ON

I put the final border on my "Faithful" quilt top, but I plan to add corners so it can be set on point.  Lori has "Quilt-A-Longs" at least once or twice a year and I have participated as often as I can.  This one was fun and not too hard as I had lots of extra HSTs laying around.  Go to her blog to see the other participants.

Since I made my costume dress, I decided to wear it for the trick or treaters last night.  Here's a picture of me holding the "flag" I made.  Do you think I look like Betsy Ross?  I asked the trick or treaters who I was and some of them came close with the answer of "someone who made the first American flag."

Actually, not many kids came to the house last night compared to other years.  (BTW, the quilt I'm holding is one that Lori had posted on her blog and I just HAD to make it.  It wasn't a QAL, but it is now one of my favorite quilts.

Wow!  It's November today!

WORKING ON LORI'S QUILTALONG

Yesterday I got up early, as usual, and planned to go for a walk after doing a little sewing.  But, then it started to rain!  I was happy because I really wanted to keep working on the "Faithful" block that is Lori's Quilt-A-Long.  Plus, we really needed the rain.

Under my sewing table is a plastic bucket that something came in - I think it was a bed skirt, or something like that.  You know, the kind made out of heavy plastic with a zipper.  Well, I throw extra triangles into that bucket whenever I have some - which is quite often.  

I needed 44 1 3/4" HSTs for the Faithful block and I only had 4 from my other basket of already made up HSTs, so I retrieved the bucket from under the table and started searching for reproduction triangles.  

I found quite a few and started making the HSTs.

I had to get some extra fabric because most of the triangles in the bucket were not reproduction fabric, or were too small.  I tried to use as many different fabrics as I could.  See that brown/beige HST in the lower right corner above?  The dark side with the dark brown and the kind of lacy looking flowers/leaves is one of my favorite fabrics and I think that is the last piece I have of it.  It's kind of sad to use the last piece of a favorite fabric, isn't it?

Some of the triangles were really large, so I just cut them down with this "All-in-One-Ruler."

Here's how my block looks now.  I really like it!

I think there is one more border and then I might add corners to it so it can be an "on point" wall hanging.  I'll think on it some more before deciding.  Any suggestions would be welcome.