Becky's quilt obsession

The box is taped, labeled, and sitting by the front door for tomorrow's pick-up by our mail carrier. Four of these are out of the HeartStrings red-white-blue Chinese Coins project. The right top one uses some of the HeartStrings R-W-B swap blocks, and some other donated blocks. I nearly had heart failure when I was quickly hanging these for DH to photograph - one of the blue stars had run. Off it went to the washer and Synthropol - and it worked!! They are all washed, ready for cuddling. I still have the basket-weave top and another funky caterpillars top to put borders on, quilt, and bind. I decided to put these five, with pillowcases, in the mail to meet Alycia's deadline, and will finished the others soon. I forgot about labels, sorry Alycia. I meant to at least write on the quilts, but I forgot that, too. I'm excited about attending the Nebraska HeartStrings sew-in next weekend. We are going to the quilt study museum (it has a fancier name) in Lincoln on Fr...

I cut and fiddled on the design wall trying out everyone's suggestions. I ended up with the blue paisley. I was really trying to make the center glow, but the yellow I had just died - no luminosity in that one. So this is the layout. I have one more row of strings, alternate blocks, and setting triangles, but that would involve standing on a ladder to reach, so you just have to imagine those. Thank you to all that responded with your advice and suggestions!! Now if I can just piece it together without turning blocks the wrong way! Happy Quilting, Becky Email me

I'm working with another set of Chinese coins made by a HeartStringer last year. I'm really enjoying this grouping as it is a nice change from the others. These did not play well with the others, but are beautiful on their own . I tried to load a larger picture so you could click it. If you do, you will see pink, toile in red and cream, toile in blue and buttery yellow, and a variety of reds, blues, and gold-browns. There are flowers and geometrics, with some damask roses thrown in. These do not say "hurly, burly man", but instead "girly girl". I just love them. As I was trying them on for different projects, I remembered that Mary posted a picture of a basket weave HeartStrings quilt. I thought these would look good in that. When I measured out the strips, almost all of them were about 11-12" long, just right to make into 5 1/2" squares. I tried setting them as a basket weave, but there wasn't enough of them to make that work in the QOV size. ...

I've started working with the Red, White, and Blue Chinese coins that were made by my fellow HeartStringers. I have two finished http://tinyurl.com/cptwxs , and one I still need to take a picture of that I call string X-X. I also quilted another top made out of some swap blocks and extra blocks I had. Pictures of those later. This must be the 4th or 5th funky caterpillars I've made. This time I tried varying the setting squares. The one in the center isn't that bright in real life. The swirly fabric was one I've had a long time and couldn't figure out how to use, but I love the swirls in this setting. I'm trimming some more Chinese Coins, ,and plan to put them together today. I'm also planning to trim up the one I finished quilting yesterday and make binding. I will be sitting with our Guild's opportunity quilt http://tinyurl.com/cgm98r some this weekend to sell tickets during Shop Hop. I'm hoping to be able to see well enough to turn bi...

I'm trying to finish up this quilt that I made from a jelly roll and a fat quarter pack from Connecting Threads. DH gave it to me for Christmas 2007, and I finally figured out what to make with it. I'm trying to figure out a border, and I don't have any yardage from this grouping. Which do you like better, the green on the left, or the purple (with black in it) on the right? I'd appreciate your feedback, either in a comment or an email. Thanks for looking ! Becky Email me

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...