Rocheport shopping and starting the graduation quilt.

    This past Sunday, I joined my favorite group of rug hookers for a little hook-in in Rocheport, MO.  They have a great wool shop, White Horse Antiques.  The owner, Marcia, teaches rug-hooking and this is where I learned.  She has a monthly hook-in during the winter months and I try to go every chance I get.  On this occasion, I went a little early so I could buy some rug binding from Marcia, but I also wanted to stop by one of my favorite antique shops.  I always find something I like there.  The owner looks for sewing collectibles, so that inventory changes all the time.  Here's what I found;

This adorable little cockatoo pincushion.  So cute.

These aren't sewing related, but they were still a nice addition to my collectible cabinet.

I have looked for a Scrabble game with wooden tiles for years (for a price I was willing to pay), and they had one.  They also had these little wooden circus toys.  The graphics on them are wonderful.  They have a different animal on the reverse side.  The horse has a zebra on the reverse and the elephant has a bear.  I would love to know what kind of a set they were.  They almost look like puzzle pieces, but don't fit together. 

Back to the sewing room.  Here's what I've been doing.

Twenty of these adorable nine patches went to guild meeting this week for a swap.  We take some every month and at the end of the year, we take home the same number we have contributed.

I did a lot of cutting from my 2-1/2" scraps so I'm ready to sew some for next month.  They will make great leaders and enders.

These are bingo boards.  We had the directions for making them before the meeting, then played bingo on them for fat quarter prizes.  Now they will go into a charity quilt.  I thought this was a great idea. 

What's on my design wall this week?

I have started my grandson's graduation quilt.  

It will have some pieced stars, as well as some stars with embroidery.  In Logan's case, it will mostly be sports related embroidery designs.  

I don't have any quilt designing software (and don't want any).  My designing is done with a book of traditional quilt blocks and a piece of graph paper.  A simple quilter has simple ways.

The star, of course, is Sawtooth Star and the alternate block is Homeward Bound.  I thought that appropriate for a young man leaving home for college.  We always want them to find their way home again. 

What's on your design wall?

Judy

Grand Illusion flimsy

Hallelujah!  The Grand Illusion top is finished.

  Not exactly as Bonnie designed, but it works for me.  I turned the border strips the opposite way, so they would be next to the narrow pink border.

Now to buy some backing and decide on the quilting.  And…..

 decide what to do with this green blocks I didn't use, and……..

cut up the scraps into usable sizes.  Be sure to go to http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2015/01/grand-illusion-mystery-link-up.html to see everyone else's links.  They are all beautiful!

     Meanwhile, I have been thinking about the graduation quilt I want to start for our grandson.  Deciding on a pattern has been on my mind for several months.  I used a square in a square block for his brother's graduation quilt, so don't want to use that.  They both love sports, so I need to include some machine embroidery on some of the blocks with sport designs.  I made these sample blocks yesterday with a plan in mind to include some embroidery in the center of the star blocks and alternate with the "Homeward Bound" block.  (I am sure that block has some other names.)

I like the graphics and it should make a masculine looking quilt.  I like the name of that block for young man leaving home for the first time, off to college and the big world.  

We have a cold snowy day here in Missouri, so I hope to 

Keep on stitchin,

Judy