Becky's quilt obsession

The train quilt was finished, and delivered to the Friends of the Nevada State Railroad Museum for their silent auction last weekend. It made $125, which I thought was good for a drag-around size. We had two grandparents striving for it, so it went higher than I expected. I did, however, tell my husband he had to buy it if it didn't go for at least $75. I didn't have to worry. It was won by a quilter / grandma for her grandson, and the quilt was being sent back to Missouri, but to St. Louis this time. People seemed to enjoy the back art big star, made from scraps, so I may have to rethink always using one-piece backs for my quilts. When I was quilting this quilt, I didn't have problems with the dreaded "baggy back". I did pay attention while loading it so I could center the star left-to-right. I deliberately didn't center it top to bottom. I'm holding it upside down, so the extra on the bottom would tuck in and still leave the whole big star on t...

The picture above, left, has now become the picture on the right, so the back art is now finished. I hope I feel good enough tomorrow to load the front, bottom left, and the back on the quilting machine. I'm in a quandary how to quilt it. I was going to quilt it following the piecing lines, such as Mary http://blog.maryquilts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/DSCN7803.JPG has done on the Heartstrings Happy blocks, but my center patches are 6" rather than the usual 4", so I thought I would have to quilt in the centers. Then the border is 8 1/2", so now what should I do? The train fabric has little swirls with 4 dots, almost like a bass cleft, including the border fabric. I suppose I could fall back on my swirls templates, but they will really mask the train blocks, and seem to make a quilt less puffy than I would like. Maybe I should try a panto?? Any comments /ideas would be helpful. DH asked if I was binding it all on by machine, but I think I want to hand tu...

The train donation top is finished, and I started playing with the scraps for some back art. I don't know where I picked up this obsession of using up all the small scraps before I move on to another project. I'm sorry the train quilt picture is a little fuzzy, and the colors are closer to real in the backart picture. I hope to start quilting it tomorrow, so will have a finished picture in about 3 days (I hope). Backyard update I'm still playing in the back yard with iris transplanting. I became frustrated Saturday - I thought I would have the help of DGS - and he's such good help - but he had to go home too early. I was trying to hold an iris with my grabber in one hand, and use the hoe to pull dirt over the rhizomes. DH came home, and I asked him to come outside in about 20 minutes and help me stand up. Then I did what I call the "Mom Ackley" way of gardening. She sat on a cushion and inched her way down thru the garden area. She was, however, able ...