I misspelled Sharon's website earlier

Here it is again: www.sharonschamber.com. Sorry about that. I worked on my quilts again today, and am ready to start working on the binding. I'm so psyched about this, and want to finish so I can move on. I've learned so much since I started these quilts. Can't wait to snuggle with my Emma under hers.

Friday night sew in results

I'm still working on my pink and brown beauties. I am so close to being finished! My plan was to hand sew around each square and stitch around each swap block, then stitch an X in each plain block. I am almost finished with the second one. I have been doing a lot of research on how to do the bindings, and the method I've chosen is Sharon Schamber's. If you haven't read it yet, go to her website http://www.sharonschamber.com/ and look at her free stuff. From there, click on binding. It is very detailed, with lots of pictures. When I started these two quilts I didn't use starch, but I know the benefits of it now, so I will use it with the binding.

Eight Point Star with log cabin miniquilt

When I started this last year, I had a bundle of fat quarters I won in a gift exchange. I loved the look of them together, and put a large sunflower print as the back, I wish I had taken a picture of the back! I machine quilted it, just an outline around the star and along the main strips radiating out from the star to the edge. The log cabin block was the easiest way to include a bit of all the fabrics, the middle strip is too wide really, but that's the way I made my eight point star, I didn't really measure anything or draw out the pattern first, just cut out strips and made my points, and the finished product evolved from there. The binding is excess backing folded over to the front twice and sewn down.

what do you call a forgotten UFO

I was looking through my stash for some Halloween fabric and found this. It just needed sandwiching and quilting, it was small enough I did it this morning. It's a gift for someone close to me, I was going to give it to her last year, with the baby and Daddy's funeral, it got pushed far down the list of priorities. I love it, and hope to find similar fabric again for a bigger project when I can get around to it.

learning how to draft a quilt pattern

The next lesson in Harriet's book was drafting with graph paper and colored pencils. I really needed that because I have no problem seeing the finished quilt but deciding what the block actually is can be tricky. I stopped for graph paper on the way home, got out what colored pencils my son had left (what happens with them all) and got busy. The baby and I colored together until I had to take the sharpener away from her, then it was time to stop. It might take me a day or two to get through this lesson!

Friday night sew in--let's do it again

September 17th

can't wait to see what everyone is working on

triple rail fence blocks are coming together

I liked the subtle differences in the greens that Harriet and Carrie used in the book Quilter's Academy, Freshman year, so I stuck with similar colors. There is a lot of green in my house, so these will blend. Where Harriet and Carrie chose red and cream, I chose pink and cream instead because I was afraid my quilt would turn out to look too Christmas-y.