Star Light Star Dark

I've made progress piecing my Star Light Star Dark quilt, and I can't wait to finish up! I showed off my big stars in my last post. Here they are with my small stars. I'm holding off on showing my other fabrics in favor of the big quilt top reveal when I get it all pieced together. :-) This project has been so quick and easy. Now to start thinking about how I want to quilt it. See others' progress on Instagram. There are so many beautiful versions in progress.

 

Quilting with the Kiddos

My kids continue to make slow progress on their projects, but mostly I had to help my daughter do her next two line of quilting so I'd have enough pins to baste my 58" x 83" secret project!

 

La Passacaglia

I was out of town on a family vacation last weekend. Since it was a relaxy, hang out in the vacation house kind of trip, I finally got my act together to pack along my La Passacaglia project to start basting and piecing. I'm happy with the progress I made, but I'll have to make an effort to work on it. I figure by the end of the first rosette I'll know if I'm hooked for the long haul or if rosette #1 is destined to stand alone as a mini quilt or on a bag. Right now it feel like magical bonus sewing, since it was done at a time I couldn't have been machine piecing. At home, I might work on it while watching TV in the evenings with my husband, and I intend to tote it around to work on when I find myself with a few minutes waiting for school pickup time and such. Here are the first ten (of 90) pieces in rosette #1.

 

Bee Blocks

I finished up my August bee blocks. They'll be mailed next week once the kids are in school and I can go to the post office alone. ;-)

 

Secret Sewing

Mostly this week, I've been working on cranking out a finish that I can't quite show off yet. Come back tomorrow for a full reveal.

 

I'm linking up to Let's Bee Social, Needle and Thread Thursday, and Star Light Star Dark Progress Linkup.

I've been in and out of town over the last month, which included some excellent fabric shopping at Portland and Santa Monica quilt shops! I've managed to squeeze in some sewing time between my recent travels. Here's some of what I'm working on this week.

 

Sewing with the Kiddos

Both of my kids are working on quilt projects during their summer vacation. I shared a peek on my Q3 Finish Along list. More recently, my daughter has begun quilting her project. She's using a walking foot and decided on rainbow-like arches of quilting with rainbow variegated thread, inspired by Allison's HST quilt. She's "driving" while I assist, reminding her when to stop and reposition her hands, and holding the weight of the quilt for her while I advise on the general path she should be taking. This part is slow going. It's not the best ergonomics for me, leaning over her as she sews, so we only do one pass at a time. Here's the beginning of her quilting.

And my son has one row and one column left to piece on the twin-sized bed quilt he's making for his sister. She's been hogging the sewing machine (and I'd need to switch the foot and thread), so he's kind of on hold.

 

Star Light Star Dark Quilt Along

I'm participating in the Star Light Star Dark Quilt Along with Jessica from Quilty Habit. This week we got our first piecing instructions which were to make these 18" star blocks. I'm loving how this project is going so far. We had the option of a 4-block or 6-block version for the quilt along and I decided to go with four. Purple is obviously my first color and I'm using yellow and orange as my second color. The left blocks of the quilt will feature the lights and the right blocks will feature the darks. I'm choosing to set mine with same colors in diagonal placement, as shown below. Our next step is to piece the small stars next week. See others' progress on Instagram.

 

Bee Blocks

For The Bee Hive swarm Tisha this month we're making Tic Tac Toe blocks with grey and low volume, using a jewel toned fabric for the feature X. I love how fast this block goes together, and that it's so easy to chain piece! :-)

For Serenity Circle of do. Good Stitches this is our palette, heavy on the lime and low volume. I LOVE IT! Wondering if my purples aren't pink/fushia enough. Hm. I'll have to think on that. Work in progress fabric pull. :-)

 

La Passacaglia

I finally dove in and made some fabric selections for my new La Passacaglia project. I have loved so many of these quilts that I've seen in progress and finished by others on Instagram. I don't have an overall plan for the colors and fabrics I'll use throughout the project, but I cut out the first 90 pieces for rosette #1. Hand piecing, here I come!

 

Thanks for visiting. What are you working on this week?

I'm linking up to Let's Bee Social and Needle and Thread Thursday.