Archive for the Category »Sapphire Star «

Sapphire Star – complete!

Sapphire Star is now complete! I decided that waiting another six months to finish just wasn’t going to work for me. I wanted it done! But, last night we had movie night at our church. What’s a girl to do? I quickly trimmed the quilt, cut some binding, and sewed it on by machine. All that was left was the hand sewing. I grabbed my gear and we were off for movie night. I sat in the back row and pulled out my handy-dandy Verilux Natural Spectrum Book & Travel Light. This [ ... ]

Exile and giveaway

Exile. How sweet the word! Sweet hubby and I decided to exile ourselves this week. Away we flew in Dad’s RV, away to a nearby, not-to-be-disclosed location, away from phones, away from email, away from the rest of the world. We got to our destination, plugged in, and hunkered down. Yes, there was snow on the ground, but we were warm and toasty inside. We watched movies and read and ate ice cream and pretty much just sat around until our rear ends were sore. Then we laid down and watched more movies. We only left the RV to treat [ ... ]

Improvised marking

Today was Craft Day at our little church. It’s a really nice time where the ladies can all gather together for food and fellowship. We each bring whatever craft we like and sit and work and chat. Ahhh…relax! I grabbed the Sapphire Star quilt I’ve been hand quilting. It’s been sitting for several months and I really need to start working on it more regularly. Anyway, I got to church with the quilt, my needles and thread, and my thimble and peacefully began quilting. I’m just doing a simple running stitch 1/4″ away from the [ ... ]

More markless marking: tape

I thought I’d show you some of I what I did while I was visiting my dad last week. I started hand quilting the Cosmic Jewels quilt. “Cosmic Jewels” is the name of the Debbie Maddy pattern I used, but I need to think of a good name for my own quilt. I’m thinking I’ll call it “Sapphire Star.” In any case, I had filled my suitcase with my pin-basted Cosmic Jewels quilt, a rectangular hoop, needles, thread, and my Roxanne thimble. I splurged on that thimble back in 2000. I remember the [ ... ]

Preparing Cosmic Jewels

Looking at our calendar, I realized that we’ll be traveling more than usual between now and the end of the year. I like having a small project to carry around with me to keep my hands busy. Since my sewing machine is getting its yearly checkup anyway, I thought it might be a good idea to hand quilt my Cosmic Jewels quilt. (Its new name is “Shapphire Star.”) Just some simple quilting, nothing fancy, no marking. I dug through my stash and found a large piece of blue and white fabric for the backing. Then I dug [ ... ]

Cosmic Jewels quilt top is complete!

I finished piecing together the blocks for the Cosmic Jewels quilt. (Its new name is “Sapphire Star.”) I did end up changing that one fabric that was bothering me along the right hand side. I decided to leave everything else as originally designed. Next I’ll start digging around for some batting to use up. Since this will just be a wall quilt for my home and is not intended to be a show quilt, this might be a good time to use up some odd pieces left over from other quilts. As I was pressing the quilt top, [ ... ]

Give away: winner of Cosmic Jewels pattern

I pinned my work in progress to my “design wall” which is actually just a piece of styrofoam covered with black fabric. I mostly use it when I take photos of my quilts, so it is not permanently mounted anywhere. That way I can move it around to wherever the light is best. Anyway, Saturday I spent a little time trimming each of the squares so they were each 4″ square. I’m hoping that will make my finished piece more accurate. Then I pinned the blocks up so I could stand back and see if I wanted to [ ... ]

Give away: pattern and Debbie Maddy workshop

Tuesday and Wednesday my guild had Debbie Maddy do two workshops and a trunk show. She brought seven suitcases full of quilts! Wow! I suspect every quilt I’ve ever made could have fit in juast one of those suitcases. Most of her patterns use her method for making diamonds with no “Y” seams. This lets even beginners make striking quilts and they go together quickly. On Wednesday I had the opportunity to take her Cosmic Jewels workshop. She was very informative, and I loved her Texan accent! I don’t do a lot of piecing, [ ... ]
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