Hunters Star is finished!

I finished the binding last night while watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs. (Bummer - Tampa was ahead the whole game until the last 5 minutes when they gave up the tying goal and the winning goal.) I just need to make a pillowcase to put it in and then I can ship it off to Alex in Vermont who is graduating on June 13th. He is headed to UVM (University of Vermont) next fall and I hope he likes his graduation present. He requested medium blue and white - I think this Hunter Star fits the bill.

I used warm and natural batting. The backing is a medium blue cotton that looks like a striped linen. I used the walking foot and outlined each of the stars about 1/4 inch outside the star. Before doing the ones on the edge I did a quick basting stitch close to the edge so the final quilting would be smooth. The quilt is 64x80 and just needs a visit in the washer and dryer and some writing on the label.

Two finishes this week - think I can get another finish this month? It would be nice to get another UFO checked off the list. Maybe one of the RSC quilt tops from last year can find a backing and get quilted? We'll see =).

Slow stitching Sunday...

I have one side plus half of another of binding to finish off tonight on the Celtic Solstice Quilt. I hope to get a little quilting time in tonight as well - I have two stars left to machine outline and all the side partial stars to outline on the Hunter Star graduation quilt. Progress....with hopes to mail it out later this week. That June 13th deadline is coming up quickly!

Yesterday afternoon my employee was going to take something out to the dumpster and opened the door and saw this! Only in Florida. The nice police officers came about 15 minutes after we closed and captured him and relocated it. I hope we don't find any more of them out there today when I head into work.

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday.

Oh, I tried a new recipe this morning. It was for a chocolate cake donut - without a donut pan I made muffins. They baked for 9 minutes at 450 degrees in the muffin pan. I had to save off two to bring into work for Gail and Dustin... since I mentioned I was planning to make them this morning. Nice and easy and oh so yummy! Here is the link.

http://www.somethingswanky.com/baked-chocolate-cake-donuts/

One whole week!

One whole week with no post and one more week of school and the kids are off for the summer. Yikes! Where has the time gone this year?

I have been avoiding the sewing room... since I have been trying to avoid some quilting. But... it needs to get done so today is the day to start. I have three stars outlined on the Hunter Star quilt... and lots to go. So if you hear a lot of muttering today and tomorrow - that is me pulling and tugging the twin size quilt around and under my little sewing machine.

Yesterday was spent attending an awards ceremony at school. Aidan made all E honor roll (exceeds expectation) and was awarded the Golden Bear award for the male in his classroom by his teacher. Quite an honor. Tomorrow night is Emily's bridging ceremony to 1st grade.... and we will be missing the kids soccer awards ceremony to attend the school function. Yesterday after awards and then a quick shopping trip I got wrapped up in resting with lots of water while watching Grey's Anatomy on Netflix. Too much sun Monday and not enough liquids although it seemed like I was drinking enough water. The Florida sun and humidity does not mix well with me! I started watching Greys last week and I'm almost through season 2. I swear - it is addicting and I really need to go to sleep before midnight tonight =). Time to take the garbage and recycling out and then back to tugging and pulling that quilt under the machine.

Wednesday - leader and ender sewing....

While sewing the Hunters Star quilt together I have a  basket of 2 inch squares next to the sewing machine. Here and there I put two together and then make a four patch. I had a little pile of four patches so I started putting them together. The thinking is a very scrappy Irish chain quilt.... as a very long term project. The middle square on each of the outside rows is a 'light'. Hopefully it will show up OK in the final quilt.... if not..... oh well, it will be a very scrap happy quilt.

This is the Hunter Star quilt assembled as a top. The points all match - hooray! It fits well on Emily's twin size bed so I don't think I'll make it bigger with borders. The 64x80 size will have to do for Alex's graduation quilt. Now to find backing fabric tomorrow and pin on Friday and start quilting it Saturday.

Time for lunch, then garbage and recycle run and then I suppose I should run the vacuum around the house a bit before picking up the kiddo's from school.

Design Wall Monday

This is what I have been working on the last few weeks. It is not sewn together yet but all the blocks are made. They just need to be trimmed down to 8.5 inches. I hope to have this as a top this week so I can quilt it next week, get the binding on and ship it out the beginning of June.

I'm linking up with Judy at Design Wall Monday.

Monday - design wall

Since it was raining this morning I got to sew instead of taking my walk. This is the status so far of the Hunter Star quilt. 13 blocks are made out of the 80 I believe I will need for a twin size  quilt for a graduation present. I think since the rain has stopped I'll grab a quick 2 mile walk and then head back into the sewing room.

I'm linking up with the design wall over at Patchwork Times. Head on over and see what other projects are up on the design wall (or floor) today.