More Sewing and Sowing

Primitive Gatherings Picnic Quilt #2 is back from the longarm quilter. I love what she did with it. I asked that she try to keep a vintage feel to the quilting design and I think she was very successful. Cross-hatching, wreaths and feathers did the trick.

The binding is now sewn on one side by machine and my daughter, Aimee, has offered to stitch the other side down. This will soon be a finish!

Speaking of Aimee, she wanted a table runner for her birthday earlier this month (I made the St. Patrick's table runner for her sister, Angie, last month) and she referenced a small Lori Smith "Fit to Frame" pattern I made last year as something that had the feel of what she would like. So using the small stars that make up that design, I made a few extra stars, added sashing, and cornerstones and modified the borders a bit. This is the end result--just sewed the final border on last night and now I need to get it basted and quilted. I think this one may be in for some straight line quilting. Okay with you, Aimee?
No, Chris, I haven't abandon your birthday gift. It just hasn't come together the way I had planned so it has to wait until I get new inspiration. It is coming, though. : )

I was also doing some sowing yesterday with Randy's Barrister's Sow-Along. (Our Master Sower now has a tab on her blog for keeping track of all of the block instructions!) I have now completed the latest five blocks posted--three regular and two bonus blocks.
These four all turned out as planned.

This one, however, apparently had a correction posted on the cutting instructions after I had already cut them. I didn't recognize the problem until midway through the making of the block and at that point I was too tired to remake the block. I toyed with it and came up with the border and cornerstones to make it the right size.

  

So now I am all caught up on the plaid set, but I still need to do the Christmas set, which will be even easier since this bundle of Christmas fabrics came in the mail recently from Sio of Scraps and Threadtales blog. My sincere thanks for your contribution!

A shop hop began today that encompasses a 500 mile loop through Northern Utah, Southeastern Idaho and Southwestern Wyoming. It runs for two weeks to give everyone the chance to make the loop. Three shops in my valley (at the south end of the loop) are participating and I visited one of them today. This shop has the best selection of batiks in the valley, so I spent most of my time in the shop petting them and changing my mind over which ones I would get (while DH sat in the car with his Nook).  This is what had to come home with me (the patterns were in the 30% off bins)...

If any of you (Carla) will be visiting the shops in Logan, let me know and maybe we can meet up!

You are all very patient with my lengthy posts. If I would post more often I wouldn't have so much to squeeze in each time. I will leave you with the sight that greeted me from my deck this morning. Our recent record-breaking heat suddenly left us, and a cold rain in the valley meant a new dusting of snow over the mountains.

 Until next time,
Janet O.
p.s. I am approaching my one year anniversary of blogging and I am planning a giveaway for my blog friends in a couple of weeks--so stay tuned! : )