Washington

While here in Washington (the state, not D.C) to help out my brother and sister-in-law after her major back surgery, I have made a flock of new chicken pincushions,

a placemat using a pattern from Aunties Two (using part of a jellyroll and fusible batting strips from Bosal--very time consuming, by the way),

mended, including a new invisible zipper in my niece's dress--ye gads, I haven't put in an invisible zipper for at least 25 years!,

and finished some Triangle Frenzy table runners. The sunflower one will remain on this table in Washington.

In between some sewing times, we got to listen to old-timey music, here in my brother's "tune room" with 2 of their friends,

and at the Centralia Campout with lots of other friends. Other visitors also graced us with music in the tune room. My brother doesn't miss much opportunity to play his banjo, and I even got some dulcimer pointers from Susan, pictured just below.

The best part of the trip is seeing my sister-in-law able to be up and about, and especially seeing her get to take a short stroll in the yard on my brother's arm. Woohoo! She still has a LONG recovery to be back to normal, but she has taken great strides so far--in more ways than one. :)

Baby Quilt and other things

Yesterday I finished a quilt for my new great-niece or -nephew due in early November.

I saw a sample of this pattern at Stitch and Sew in Arthur, IL, and had to buy the pattern and fabric.

Only 3 yards of fabric to do the top--not bad.

I backed it with Minky or Cuddle--not sure which it is--and thought some about self-binding but like the traditional binding better.

Here are some of our surprise lilies in full bloom right now--so pretty!

My sister-in-law calls them "naked ladies." :)

Did you know that there is a Highway 36 Quilt Trail in Missouri? A bunch of us went to Missouri Star Quilt Company last week, spending the night at the Home Inn Hamilton (B&B) south of town. While there, we learned about the Quilt Trail. The quilt below is of all the barn patterns you can get by visiting every shop. MO Star has 2 of their block in this one, at the top corners. We determined that we would visit as many as we could on our way home to IL, and we got to 8 shops besides MO Star (which is fabulous, by the way--if you are close by sometime, stop there). Be prepared to spend money when you visit these shops!! Now I have patterns for 9 barn blocks, plus the Row by Row from all who were participating. Fun! 

I'm excited about Bag It, Patty Dudek's quilt-along on Elm Street Quilts. It starts in September!