Asteria block 2

And… Blocks 1 and 2 together. Mine is going to look SO different than the original Asteria pattern.

(I’m not sure that I like these iPhone photos)

Random Musings

Yesterday I dusted off another languishing project… One that was started about four years ago… and I had NO idea how to hand quilt.  I still don’t really know how to hand quilt, but at least I am now a little more aware of some of the tips & tricks than I was then.

I can’t seem to finish anything. Though I’m not really aiming to finishing anything.  At least I’m finding short bursts of energy to do something, right? That’s progress.

What I love so very much… if at all possible… is to make Sundays a cozy day of doing things that blot out the work of the past week and refresh & fortify for the coming week.  Yesterday it felt so good to throw a few logs in the fireplace insert, dig out some hand stitching and watch an old movie and an old episode of Downton Abbey.  (Don’t worry, the new season doesn’t start until January)

One of my favorite scenes is right before Matthew proposes to Lady Mary.  The snow is swirling, Lady Mary’s dress is this rich, beautiful wine color, the warm glow of the lights from inside Downton Abbey are illuminating the two and a magic moment is in the process of being made.

It was a toasty 72 degrees F. in our living room yesterday.

I made more progress on the quilt yesterday than what I had previously done on the entire quilt, which wasn’t very much.

I think snow days in our city give me the same feeling as a cozy Sunday.

I’m itching to spend a little time learning about the quilts & quilt blocks that were popular in the 1920’s.

I am thankful for these little things.

Asteria block 1

Taken with my iPhone.  Notice how the Pippa fabric is reflecting off of my phone onto the top of my sewing machine. Weird.  What if we could buy pretty fabric-like printed sewing machines?  That would be cool.

Same quilt, different fabrics

My local quilt shop where I work recently started the Asteria Block-of-the-Month program.  It is a HUGE quilt and finishes at 106″.  Yikes!

We were talking about how to make this quilt in different fabrics and in a smaller size.  I think one of the challenges quilters face is how to envision any pattern in their own style.  For some reason, I LOVE this kind of challenge.  And I feel like it is my mission to help & encourage others to do the same.

This Pippa fabric from Michael Miller arrived at the shop while I was working and I fell in love with it. I haven’t totally decided on all of the fabrics I want to use yet, but I know I want to use this Pippa fabric and the one next to it which is Reminisce from Art Gallery Fabrics.  (I drew up the blocks in EQ to play around with color & fabric in the image at the top.)

So now I am off to make the quilt.  I guess this was the shot in the arm that I needed to find my way back to my sewing room.

Stay tuned…

Using the uglies

I’ve been wanting to try braiding a rug for quite some time.  And when we swapped rooms for my sewing room, I sorted through my fabric & pulled a bunch that I wasn’t that fond of any more thinking that maybe it could be made into rugs one day.

It’s been more than a month since I’d been to my sewing group. So today I took my bag of 3″ strips and started sewing them together.  Maybe this will be a good evening in front of the fireplace project?

Here are some of my rug inspirations:

Rainbow Rug from t-shirts
Braided t-shirt rug
Crocheted rug
How to braid a rug
Braided rugs on Flickr