Friday finishes

I have two finishes, finally. I put the speed on to get them done for the first guild meeting of the year. Sometimes it take some sort of incentive in order to get the gears moving. These are both English Paper Pieced, and the result of my recent fascination with the kits shape, which is what forms the points of the stars.

The first one is called Castor and Pollux. It  is actually a design developed by Nancy Cabot and originally published in the Chicago Tribune back in the 1930’s. Here’s a link to more information about her, if you happen to be interested. Nancy Cabot. She did some fascinating patterns. There are more of them that I would love to do. There is a pattern for this quilt, along with the papers and acrylic templates available in our store here

The second one is called Orion’s Belt. There will eventually be a pattern and papers and acrylics available for this one as well. You can click on the pictures for more detail to make them bigger. I’m Linking up to Finish it Friday

What I’m working on....

I have gotten two small hand piecing projects to the finished top stage. On Sunday, I posted that I’d gotten Orion’s Belt finished, except for should I add borders. The verdict was unanimous for yes, so today I added on the narrow black border. Once it’s quilted, I’ll probably trim it back a bit.
And since I was on an add borders roll, I decided to add them to Castor and Pollux as well. Both of these are English Paper Piecing small wall hangings. But they could certainly be enlarged to any size. If anyone is interested in the papers or the acrylic templates for these projects, they will be available in our online store, once it is launched in the next month, or so. If you want them sooner, email me at caleeshepherd@gmail.com and we can make arrangements from there.
I’m going to link up to The Needle and Thread Network and also to Sew Fresh Quilts and finally to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday.

Slow Sunday Stitching.

I have finished the hand stitching on Orion’s Belt. Woohoo, yippee and happy dance! I love all the bright scrappy colours in this one. Now, I have a question.... does it need a narrow border of the black to finish it off or is it finished the way it is? What do you think? 
Once we have our web site up and running, hopefully within the month, the pattern for this, along with the papers and the acrylic templates will be available for sale. In the meantime, I am going to start another one, again using the kites. This one has a very strong secondary pattern to it, which I think will be fun once there is more than one block together.
I have to get it drawn up in Corel Draw and then cut before I can do much on it. Although, thinking of it now, I still have lots of kite papers left from doing the others, so I could get started on that  part of it. I love the  colours in the Electric Quilt drawing, so I’m hoping there is something in my stash that is close to it.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching, and then I’m going to go stash diving to see if I can find some fabrics that  work.

Slow Sunday Stitching

It’s a glorious Resurrection Sunday morning. It’s warm out, and the doors and windows are open, letting in the breezes and sounds of spring. It seems like it’s been such a long winter. But that makes the first warm days of spring even more precious. It’s a perfect time to, as Kathy said in her post today, “just be”.  Not feeling like I have to be doing, but rather to sit and be still, to enjoy the thought of what Resurrection Sunday means to me, and to enjoy the beauty of our Lord’s creation. There are cardinals out there, singing their songs to each other..... what a wonderful sound.
I’m making progress on Orion’s Belt. All of the stars are finished, and I’m starting to put it together.
I’m trying to do it in a logical manner, taking photos as I go, so that I can write it up as a pattern later.
So for the rest of today, after I link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching, I’m going to sit here by the door, or maybe even venture outside, and enjoy the breezes and sounds of a perfect spring day, while taking many slow stitches.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I left a comment on somebody’s blog this morning, after reading that they were sitting outside stitching. The comment was something to the effect that it wasn’t warm enough here yet for outside stitching. Well, this afternoon proved me wrong. It was gorgeous, and allowed for a blissful hour sitting in the sun and stitching. It felt so good!!
I’m still working with my kites and diamonds. I’ve got a few of them surrounded by the Kona Pepper now, and am liking the way that they look, sparkling against the night sky. This one will be called Orion’s Belt. I’m trying to diversify the fabric selection a bit, and not just stick to the batiks, as much as I love them.
I’m probably going to make four of the blocks and then call it finished. I’m making these more as samples for patterns, rather than full size quilts. I have at least three more designs, based on the kite shape, to make up. As long as I’m having fun with these, I’ll keep going.
It’s time to link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and get some supper.

More stars from Kites

After finishing Castor and Pollux I had a bunch of kite shapes left over. So, what's a quilter to do but start something else with them. I’m doing sets of fours with them this time, two lights and two darks, and they’ll be part of another new pattern. However, There is going to come a point when I’ll have to stop sewing in order to actually write up the patterns. But for the moment, I’m having fun. There seems to be an over abundance of orange in this mix, so it just might be time to drag out my bins of scrap strips and get a greater variety of colours going. I might throw some prints into the mix, too in order to break up the preponderance of batiks and tone on tones. The background is going to be a Kona solid, probably the pepper colour, which is as close to black as it can get without actually being black, if that makes sense. I’m hoping it will be easier on the eyes to sew than black. The idea is for it to look like stars in the night sky. I seem to be on a roll when it comes to these kites, and blocks that look like stars. I just might start a series of quilts named after constellations. This one is going to be named Orion’s Belt.
I’m going to link up to Lorna’s Let’s Bee Social. Then it will be time to get some lunch and head up to the quilting studio to get some more work done. I’m having a three way race up there to see what will happen first.... the quilt gets finished..... I run out of the bobbin colour I’m using..... the new thread order with more of the bobbin thread arrives. Stay tuned for the results of this exciting race. (grin)

Edit: running out of bobbin thread won. Now, I wait for the delivery of more thread. And maybe, make some more stars.