Catch a Falling Star

Quilters are crazy about stars – as evidenced by the many, many star block designs:  Hunter’s Star, Amish Star, Friend’s Star, Starry Path, Lucky Star, Army Star, Brasstown Star, Ohio Star, Eccentric Star, and I could go on and on ...

And sometimes Quilters are just plain crazy.  Last night was billed to be a great star-gazing night because it was the first meteor event of 2012 and was supposed to be excellent for viewing in my area of the US.  Since most meteor showers get their names from the locations of the constellations from which they appear to streak, last night’s event was known as the Quandrantids (after the constellation Quadrans Muralis – between the constellations of Bootes and Draco – shades of Harry Potter!). 

It’s odd to think that this constellation is no longer recognized by the astronomical community, but the name of the meteor shower lives on.  

So I dutifully set my clock to go outside (in the extremely frosty weather!) at 2:30 am.  I wrapped up in my faux snow leopard snuggy and lay on the walkway to our front door where the bushes blocked out the light from the streetlights out front.  And it wasn’t two minutes before I saw a shooting star!!  It was very clear and lasted a good 4-5 seconds before burning out … and it was eerily quiet.  What a hoot.  I was so excited.  The following is NOT my picture but does show a shooting star if you enlarge it - but then read on ...

Image by Tyson Hofsommer, Kansas City,
 during the 2002 Leonid Meteor Shower

And then I waited and waited for the spectacular event that was promised with lots and lots of meteor scraps burning up in front of my very eyes – and remember, it was quite literally freezing outside!  After about 12 minutes without seeing another shooter, I gave up and crawled back into my warm bed.  Oh well, I did get to see one, so I guess I’ll stop being greedy.

The next event will be on April 22 - the Lyrid meteor shower originates from the Comet Thatcher.  If it’s viewable in your area, go outside and see and be sure to make a wish (maybe that more fabric will come your way?)!!

Now for a  nostalgic look back at a quilt I made awhile ago - this is a baby quilt made for a friend in 2003.  Sorry about the picture quality (it is a picture of a picture) but it pre-dates my digital camera.  The design is from the book “Quilts for Katie Rose”, an excellent source for baby quilt designs, and is called "Stars and Pinwheels".

Enough star-gazing.  It's time to go upstairs and quilt!

Let's Talk Weather and WIP

Just check out this weather forecast and see why some of us in Florida are putting on every wool item that we own!  I even wore my earmuffs when I went for my walk this afternoon (I hate when my ears get cold – and it was only 46^◦ out there!).

Outlook

8 PM	9 PM	10 PM	11 PM
Clear	Clear	Clear	Clear
37°	34°	32°	31°
0%	0%	0%	0%
Wind: 4 NNW	Wind: 3 N	Wind: 3 N	Wind: 3 N

For my Celsius friends, 37° = about 3° Celsius, and 32° = 0 Celsius - and that's pretty cold! So, I’ll be staying in this evening and continuing with my Lil’ Twister.  It’s coming along nicely – especially because I remembered to put the border on before I started cutting – LOL!  This is my progress:

Starter Squares

Beginning to Cut

These will make up a scrappy border

Twisters in Progress

The light blue border has multi-colored numbers in it and I'm keeping an eye out for an outside border that will also be kid-friendly.

A Finished Top

This is my first finished top of 2012.  It has lots of novelty prints and it doesn't show up well, but the outside border has tiny multi-colored hearts on the black background:

It looks like a Disappearing 9-Patch, but it is actually made using a design from Marcia Hohn’s Quilter’s Cache website.  Her measurements made it easier to use small novelty scraps leftover from other projects.  Her block can be viewed at:

http://www.quilterscache.com/T/TamsPatchBlock.html

And I sewed up a few blocks from kits for a Quilts of Valor group that meets in a local quilt shop.  I hope to join in with this group this month.

Each stack in this photo has 4 blocks in it, for a total of 16 blocks.  Of course, these worked up quick as a whistle, but I didn’t want to take more kits until I find out more about how they are to be put together.  The directions in each kit referred to an "A" block (which these all were) and a "B" block that was similar to a snowball (but they had no kits of those).  It will be exciting to see what comes of these!

And today I’m starting on the first of my NEWFOs for 2012 (see my sidebar button) – it's the Lil’ Twister.  I’ll post about progress on that later!

Last Quilt Finish of 2011

I put the binding on my last finish of 2011 this morning.  This poor Split 4-Patch has been waiting since before Thanksgiving for its binding and I thought it deserved to be done this year!

And since this is the last day of the Year, I’ll leave you with this quote from Sark:

“Invent your world.  Surround yourself with people, color, sounds and work that nourish you.”

That pretty much sums up what quilters cherish.  To inspire your creativity and love of color, here is a picture of a unique geological phenomenon called Danxia landform.

Click to enlarge - it's amazing!

This one is in Zhangye, Province of Gansu, in China.  The color is the result of an accumulation from millions of years of red sandstone and other rocks.  Can’t you see a gorgeous quilt?  Maybe in batiks?  There’s certainly inspiration everywhere in this gorgeous world!

2011-International Year of Forests

As the year comes to a close, did you know that 2011 was the International Year of Forests?

According to Wikipedia, the United Nations made this declaration to raise awareness and strengthen sustainable forest management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests for the benefit of current and future generations.

Amazon Rainforest

Here in the US, a campaign was organized by the National Association of State Foresters in partnership with the US Forest Service to elevate awareness and understanding of the value of America’s forests and showcase the connections between healthy forests, people, ecosystems and economies.   Read more about their activities at “Celebrate Forests.  Celebrate Life”.

I found some interesting, and free, paper-piecing patterns for trees at the Forest Quilting website including a darling pine tree pattern that she calls "Pine with Skirt" (there are also other pine tree patterns).  Check it out at:   http://www.forestquilting.com/masterlistfree.html#free_paper-piecing_index

It reminded me that I have an old UFO called Harmony Village that needs a few more blocks.  Maybe I’ll fit in making this pine tree during 2012!

2012 NEWFO Challenge

I was finally catching up on some of my favorite blogs and I found a cool link over at http://pattilousquilts.blogspot.com/.  Pat and I both sew quite a few quilts for donation , including some for the Sunshine On-line Quilt Guild that supports Wrap-a-Smile and Wrap-Them-in-Love (see the Sunshine button on my sidebar).  I must admit that Pat is way more creative than I am – her wonky baskets,  string quilts and liberated houses are just fabulous … to say nothing of her “designed” quilts – enuf said!  Oh, and be careful when you scroll down in her recent post … the picture of the Snickerdoodle cookies will make you drool on your keyboard!

Well, Pat found a website that is sponsoring a Mr. Linky each month of 2012 for Show and Tell – and get this – it’s not UFOs (UnFinished Objects) but NewFOs!  Now that’s an idea that I can get my head around.  I really like variety and trying new blocks and cute designs, but I get tired of forcing myself to complete old UFOs continuously.

I tried last year and successfully completed 11 of 12 UFOs, but I also found myself creating more UFOs.  Pat provided the link to Cat Patches that is sponsoring the Link Parties:  http://catpatches.blogspot.com/2011/12/whats-on-your-2012-newfo-to-do-list.html

The concept is for each of us to think a little about what we’d like to make in 2012:

• Is there a technique you’d like to try?
• Is there a special color combo you’ve been meaning to work with?
• Have you wanted to start AND finish a quilt each month?
• Do you plan on making next year’s Christmas presents; and to start early?

So I’m making up my To-Do list now.  Like Barbara at Cat Patches suggests, I’m staying flexible (not posting all twelve ideas at once), but I really do want to get a Lil’ Twister done with these fabrics:

And I received a Layer Cake from Connecting Threads with lights and darks of a rainbow of colors that I think would look good in the Alaska Homestead Block from Marcia Hohn’s Quilters Cache:

So those are my modest January plans.  I will get to a few UFOs in 2012, but I’m

XOXOXO

THE QUILTING ELVES AND I WISH YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS !!

Last Box of the Year & Reindeer?

I boxed up the last of this year’s donation quilts today.  I am sending off 5 quilts to Wrap-a-Smile for distribution to children around the world who are having cleft palate surgery.  I have posted about these as tops when I finished piecing them, but these are now finished – quilted and bound - and ready to go.  My timing is unfortunate, as I’ll be standing in line tomorrow with the desperate Christmas rush people, but that’s the way it goes!

Lottery Blocks I won

 

Lottery Blocks Detail



Road to Treadleonia Detail with backing

Road to Treadleonia - Block Swap

Frog in the Pond

Frog in the Pond Detail

Broken Dishes with Critters

Broken Dishes Detail with Backing

In Memory of Bev B

In Memory of Bev B Detail

And this was the false reindeer that I saw in the back of my neighbor’s yard today.  Well, I must admit, my dog saw her first and it took me awhile to spot her!  She was just happily munching her way down the fence line … waiting for the elves and Santa to get ready, of course!

Deer or Reindeer?

Nope, not a Reindeer but I'll keep looking for them!

Back to Regular Programming

I finished up the second quilt for the local quilt shop’s March of Dimes project yesterday, so today I’m back to those pesky UFOs.  I still have:

·         a jungle quilt,

·         a Mystery quilt (the mystery has long been resolved!) using Dora the Explorer fabric scraps,

·         a “sort of” D9P with novelties and

·         a Little Twister,

all sitting around waiting to be finished and looking like clutter!

I also have to gather up my leftovers from baby quilts to send to a woman’s prison ministry in Colorado.  I have been wanting to find a good use for these fabrics since I usually use older kids prints for my donation quilts.  These were extras purchased for friends and family quilts and I always start over with something new for those.  I saw a request for scraps on a quilting message board and thought that would really help me clear out some stuff -  a win-win situation if there ever was one!

These are the final pics from the LQS quilts:

Monsters  and Their Trains

Monsters - Detail with Monster Footprints Backing

Sports of All Kinds

Sports - Detail (before binding)

What's Been Happening

I’ll have to admit that this is what I really have been doing:

But that having been said, I did get some work done on the last quilt for the local quilt shop’s collection for March of Dimes quilts.  This is the progress on a little boy’s quilt with fabric that has balls from various sports:

And this is the goofy cardinal that has been distracting me while I read:

The picture is taken from inside the front door looking out - that is a real cardinal sitting on the fake berry wreath that I had up for the Fall.  We have real holly berry trees in our yard, but this lady liked the looks of this wreath and kept coming back!  Too funny.

Fun Event for a Good Cause

I was lucky enough to attend a volunteer event at Scrap and Sew, in Lutz, FL this past weekend.  This was a whirlwind event from 6:00-midnight (way past my usual bedtime!) and the response was great.

The recipients of the quilts will be kids from the Murray Child Development Center, a March of Dimes facility (the Easter Seals people).  Each sponsored child receives gifts per his (her) wish list and a quilt made by the volunteers.

The Murray Center serves children from 6 weeks to 6 years old.  They provide educational, childcare, therapeutic and family support services to children of all abilities and their families.  Many of the children have special needs and/or disabilities.  The center cares for children with conditions such as spina bifida, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, birth defects and/or developmental delays.  Physical, speech and occupational therapy are provided on an individual basis.

These are a few photos of some of the group as we watched a short March of Dimes video plus several of the quilts in process and some of the finished quilts stacked up.

I worked on my Monsters fabric quilt at the event, but had to bring it home to finish the binding.  I’ll take it back in next week.

I also donated this Ohio Stars quilt that I had finished earlier:

I also have fabric for one more quilt for them ... I should finish it next week also.

It was a fun event.  Oh, and did I mention we had pizza and cookies?  Yeah, a good time was had by all …