Becky's quilt obsession

This isn't a very good picture, but someone on Stashbusters wanted ways to use up a large amount of homespuns. This one is made from plaids and train fabric. I made it in 2002 when DH and I were doing long-distance dating. We had gone to Gold Country in California for vacation, and I mapped out the quilt shops. Most of the fabrics were bought then, but I also had homespuns in my stash. DH enjoyed looking through the quilt shops. He found the train material that is in the center, found me, and said, "If you don't want to buy this, I do." It has steam engines, and he models 1895. Christine Meunier has a similar pattern in Easy Traditional Quilts - Stars . The dimensions are a little different than this one, and I added the extra "stuff" in the large triangles and corner squares. The end product looks a lot like the block "Best of all". I also added a row of 6" Sawtooth Stars to both the top and the bottom. It fit his queen waterbed at the time. ...

I hope none of you get the ugly respiratory bug I had. It took 3 weeks and 3 rounds of antibiotics, as well as all the junk for the concurrent asthma to finally kill it. It came at the end of 6 weeks off arthritis meds, so it's been about 2 months since I've felt well enough to sit and sew. I can't imagine what it would have been like 50 years ago, with out all our great medicines. No wonder people didn't live as long. Who would want to if they could hardly walk, and then only with pain? Stashbusters is having a BOM made out of almost ugly fabric. Last night, and today, I finished the first two 12" blocks. I also made two 6" blocks from all the HSTs I cut to audition for the center of the star. My almost ugly fabric is the starburst fabric that is definitely toned. We are supposed to add a little yellow and orange to the blocks. I decided that I could use this opportunity to try working outside my usual palette. I'm sure missing the brights, however. The...