September and October Sewing and Stuff

 I think September is sewing month but most of my months are sewing months! Some more than others...but I've worked on a couple of things lately.  My preschool class started last week so I was busy the week before getting things ready and meeting the kiddos and families at open house. My husband got a new puppy to celebrate his retirement from 39 years of teaching. She's an adorable and very busy yellow lab.  Some of the pictures further down are from October too! 

We had lots of beautiful butterflies in our late garden.  They loved the zinnias that had sprung up all over the garden.  The late ones were gorgeous.  I guess we tilled in the seed heads from the early ones when we tilled in August.

My favorites were the sunflowers.

This is a top that I finally finished for my daughter.  I started the center about 5 years ago.  She wanted it bigger so I just kept playing with the borders.  I can't wait to get it quilted.

 

Our quilt group meets at the senior center and these were a couple of very old unfinshed blocks that someone had donated.  They were up for grabs so I took them, quilted and bound them for table mats.

 

The baby quilt is one I made for one of my daughter's college friends.  It's on top of my bed - therefore the quilt under it.

My "Love Shack" wallhanging that I finally finished.  It was from a class I took with Bonnie Hunter in January 2011.  It looks crooked but it's really not.  It's the photographer!

This is a donation quilt that my quilting group made back in April.  I finally got it quilted. We gave it to our Children's Center for an fundraiser they recently held.  I believe the pattern is called Arkansas Crossroad.

This is another donation quilt that our group made and gave to the Children's Center also.  I quilted it with black as it has a black backing. 

Easy Street Clue 1

Sketti anyone?  No butter or ketchup needed!  20 strip sets

Today I got really busy and made the cute little 4 patches for clue 1 of Easy Street, Bonnie Hunter's new mystery on Quiltville, http://quiltville.blogspot.com/,  Look for the Easy Street tab at the top.  I needed to make 192 of these patches.  I remembered that I had made lots of 4 patches for another quilt and that there was a "nesting" technique that might make it go faster.  After sewing a grey strip to a B/W background strip, I cut these strips into about 21" lengths.  I matched each strip set to another strip set that had a different B/W print.  After smoothing and nesting them carefully, I cut these into the 2" parts to make the 4 patches.  But since I cut the 2 parts together and they were already paired up, it went pretty fast.  I timed how long it took to sew the pairs together and I did about 200(I have some extras.)in 35 minutes.  Then I only needed to twirl the seams and press. 
Here's the link up to more fun with other quilters and their blocks!

easy-street-monday-link-up

Nesting the strips

The 4 patch on the bottom is one I sewed and tested for size.  The stack shows pairs ready to be sewn together.

My 200 4 patches with swirled seams and pressed.

November 
I haven't posted since August!  I've done quite a bit of sewing and quilting and have spent less time on the computer.  I will try to get photos updated soon.
Today I started on Clue 1 on Bonnie Hunter's "Easy Street" mystery. 
Here is her blog and click on the Easy Street tab at the top to see it.
 http://quiltville.blogspot.com/

I have other projects in the works but will save the pictures of those as they might be gifts. :)