Indian Paintbrush

The Indian Paintbrush have been blooming here for a couple of weeks along with the Bluebonnets.  They are almost done for the season.  It is always so pretty to see them on the highway where I drive to work.  However that highway is being widened so many of the large patches are now under what will be more lanes but there are a few patches and hopefully will spread.
I haven't had a chance this year to take any pictures but found some Paintbrush pictures I took last year about this time.

  

 

Subbing and Sewing

 I teach preschool on Mondays and Wednesday.  I have a sweet group of 4's.  The last couple of months, I have been substituting more at the elementary school where I used to teach.  I do this on some of the days I'm not at the preschool.  It seems that I have had less sewing time especially now that it is gardening weather also. Here are some of my more recent projects. 

I finished this baby quilt back in the winter from scraps I had left from my brother-in-law's Strip Twist quilt that I made him for Christmas.  I used a striped shirt for the binding....I cut it on the bias as I wanted the bias stripe.  I wouldn't cut from a shirt for a bigger quilt as there was lots of piecing the short pieces. A shirt doesn't have a big area for cutting bias.  I sent this to a quilter who lives in Washington who was collecting quilts for the victims of the mudslide.  It's good to have a quilt on hand with no designated recipient.

In March, my quilt club did a 3 day retreat.  We go to my family's homeplace that the family uses for weekends.  I worked on this Boxy Stars quilt, another freebie on Quiltville.  http://quiltville.com/
I took this class with Bonnie Hunter in McKinney in early January.  It's an easy pattern but it was great to take as a class because she gives little tips to make it come out better.  I decided to make mine to fit our king bed so I made lots more of the stars.  I am planning on borders but have put this aside for a bit.  It was made with scraps left from other projects, fabric I had stashed and not used, and FQs.  I think I only bought one FQ to have more yellow.  The background is Kona that I bought with a gift card my brother-in-law gave me for Christmas. 

Bonnie showed us how to scrimp just a bit when you sew a second seam when adding squares to corners. You end up with slightly smaller seams but you end up with useable HSTs.     
I used the HSTs to make tiny pinwheels and I turned them into 5 little doll quilts that are for some special little girls.  I'm in the process of binding them. 

I started a quilt for someone and here are some blocks that are going to go into it.  Just a peek for now. The plaid is more turquoise, green, and yellow than it looks here.  I love the vintage John Deere fabric in the centers. It will be a scrappy lap quilt.