Perfect wins out

What great thought-provoking solutions everyone sent.  The entire process was really interesting to me.  Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

I opted to removed the incorrect sections from the bears paw block and resewed them.  It probably took me about 5 minutes to "unsew" the offending sections and less than that to resew them back together.



Now they look "right" but I will admit that I think they were more interesting with the two sections going the "wrong" way.  Now there's nothing to really get excited about in this block.  Unless you look closely and see the little coping strips I added to make the sections the right size. VBG

I also did get to a small block for the same project.  I didn't have dark thread in either of my machines so I hand-sewed the center square (I opted to make it as a pinwheel with the center square appliquéd onto the center rather than use the templates offered!)


I was cutting the pieces for the next block at my cutting table and got a different view of random orphan blocks on my design wall.  For some reason they called out to me to put them together as is!  So I think that may be my next project when we get back to the cabin.


When I visited Cyndi Black's shop in Maine last month (The Busy Thimble), I bought some of her cheater cloth fabrics, which I believe were on her sale rack!  I've seen some people use them on backings or as part of other quilts.  I think they're lots of fun, and once they're quilted, I think they'll make nice donation quilts!





This will likely go on the back of the Moda Blockheads II that I've been making in red/white/blue.  I'm even thinking I may give it to my son once he graduates from the Marine Officer's Reserve training at the end of the year.




This was on the back of one of the quilts in the teacher's tent at the Sister's Quilt show last month. 





Several years ago when I used to go to Wisconsin regularly we visited a quilt shop which reproduced antique quilts into cheater cloths.  It was done beautifully and artfully;  I don't think it was inexpensive to reproduce, either.  So I'm saying this so you won't poo-poo these cheater cloths.  I think there's an art to reproducing them.  I had bought a larger version of the squares a few years ago and had it quilted--I have to say with a flannel back, it's super comfy and looks awesome.

Yesterday little Emma (who turns 7 today!) had her horse show at the camp she's attended this summer here in Bend.  She's not a large child and the horse is plenty big so it's pretty impressive to see how well she handled Josey doing various maneuvers!


I'm off to Bend this morning for the local guild's quilt show (a few years ago I snagged the Rocketeer machine for $75 at the show!) so I'm sure I'll have some great quilts to show you, hopefully tomorrow.

Our 3 weeks with the grandkids at our cabin is drawing to a close as we have to drive them back to SF on Monday for them to start school.  We certainly loved our time with them.


  My dh and I, however, are returning after just a few days in California back to the cabin for the last vestiges of summer here in Central Oregon.  The weather always changes right after Labor Day--very chilly mornings, which I just love.

This was a sunset this past week!


Have a great weekend.

how important is perfect?

I have never professed to be a perfect quilter;  in fact, I have been known to chop off corners, add coping strips or other short-cuts to cure inaccuracies or imperfections.  That's just my style.

I just finished up the latest Cheddarback large block and put it on the design wall to take a picture and was somewhat disappointed to notice I made a mistake compared to what the original plan was.



So my question is whether you would fix the two little bears paws so that all 4 are the same or would you leave it as is?  I'm not sure it'll be noticeable when the quilt is ultimately done;  but the imperfect voice in me wonders if there's really a "right" way that has to control.  I haven't decided yet...😆


I did finish this little block from the Moda Blockheads II that did turn out correctly.  HAHA.  I'm even happy with the curved piecing, which I am usually awful at!


When I was at the little Sunriver quilt show last weekend, I shopped in the guild's little booth and picked up this adorable apron made out of old jeans.  I love it, especially because I have an old pair of jeans that wore out and I think this is the perfect us for them.  Isn't this just adorable?  It's also perfect, I think, because when I cook, I'm always wiping my hands on my thighs!


Maybe I will get a little sewing done this week.  We are on our third week with our grandkids staying with us at our cabin.  They are now ALL riding bikes (I am proud to say that I taught all of them!) and want to go bike riding all the time.  It's the perfect place to do that because we have miles of paved bike paths through the area.
Life is good!! ;-)

Small local quilt show

I was lucky to be at the cabin at the time of the local guild's quilt show today.

Earlier this week, in the local book store, there was a display of quilts made during a "thread challenge"!  Quilters were given a spool of thread (usually a bright color) and each made a quilt using their threads.  Here are a few of them.









Here are some quilts from the show in Sunriver:






The local guild had a block of the month and the quilts were displayed together.  I think it is fun to see the same pattern with different fabrics!





A woman was selling her own patterns in a booth and I thought this would be perfect for a kid's donation quilt!


This is a raffle quilt and I won't be unhappy if I win it!


Hope you are having a glorious weekend!

July mini

Just under the wire I completed my July mini!

This was a Primitive Gatherings pattern from last year, I believe.  I am very happy with how it turned out;  I especially am so very impressed with the beautiful quilting done by my friend, Sandy Lachowski.



Check out this quilting!

There's no way I would even think of sewing flowers to replicate the flowers on the top.  That's why I'm not a machine quilter and I pay for the talent in others!

Progress on Moda Blockheads and more Vermont beauties

I've been working hard at trying to finish up the Moda Blockheads II, which I fell woefully behind on!  I think I have about another 10 to still do. UGH...


In case you're doing this project, you'll notice that I pieced it differently than they suggested:  their instructions said to piece it across in rows.  I decided to do each star separately.  They aren't perfect but close enough.  They're TINY--3" stars, and we all know that minis aren't my strong-suit.  ;-)












Can you tell I'm doing them in patriotic colors?  VBG


I realized there are more Vermont show pictures I failed to share:

This is a Primitive Gatherings pattern which I really did love.


This is Lorraine Hoffman's Moda Blockheads I and I loved her setting.  Here's a close up.



I have made a variation of this quilt and still love it.

Here are some of the antique quilts I really did love.  Wendy Reed (constantquilter) and Barb Vedder (funwithbarb) have posted some pictures but there are some I photographed that I think they didn't post.  Please enjoy the appliqué and don't miss the hand quilting!

This one was hanging from the roof so I couldn't get a great picture.  I tried a corner of the quilt using the close-up on my phone!  I do love the color combination!  And check out the buds in the flowers!!




















There were several quilts with letters and dates pieced and appliquéd that I thought were really interesting!  So different from the way that present-day quilters add letters.






This sampler was sashed in a different way that I liked a lot:


I also loved the corner flowers in the center;  this was a flower that the quilter used a little differently in another quilt.




Credit must be given to Sharon Waddell, who presented most of these antique quilts.  She also did a program walking around the exhibit pointing out things and histories we didn't realize.  She's got an amazing collection of quilts and I really did appreciate seeing these antique quilts from New York, which we wouldn't otherwise see on the West Coast.

Next up will be the quilts from the Shelburne Museum in Vermont.  I will post those tomorrow since we are driving back up to the cabin on Monday with the 3 grandkids and I expect I'll have little time to post.

Have a great quilty weekend!!