I am in LOVE!

And the object of my affection is my new Sashiko machine by Baby Lock.

You can find out more about them here.

My good friend, Lin, and I drove up to Prescott last Friday to check them out and I came home with one.  Lin's comes in next week.  Needless to say, I came home and immediately tried it out.

I had made this little 6" block to demo a Tri-Rec ruler and thought it would be perfect as my first subject.  I used a 30 wt. Aurifil cotton thread in a golden brown hue.  I was so excited I just could not wait to quilt something else, so I rifled through the now infamous closet and found a UFO that would be perfect for this style of quilting.

Count Down to Christmas, a Monique Dillard pattern, I had pieced last year.

Here is a close-up of the stitch.  It looks like hand quilting on the front and a straight stitch on the back of the quilt.  I am fascinated by how it works.  The only thread is in the bobbin, and a ingenious industrial engineered combo of a hook and needle pull the thread to the front to look like hand stitches.

Needless to say, I am itching for another project to quilt.

So, I searched my bucket of future quilts and found the fabrics and pattern for a darling small quilt called A Rainbow Garden, designed by Glenda of Liberty Homestead.

You can see her designs here.

I forget that a small quilt can take as long as a full sized quilt to construct, so it will be awhile before I can use Sashi again.  

The pattern is from her book, Farmhouse Quilts, The Scrap Basket.

You can find it here.

It is the quilt in the center at the bottom of the page. Oops, it is the one in the top left corner!

Here is my first block:

Only 46 of those little 2" finished pinwheels to make!  And then there are the 6 baskets, the embroidery and then the wool applique. It will be awhile before I am back with a flimsy.

I have kept up with my monthly goals.  My pile of flying geese is growing, another set of blocks for my red and white quilt are done and my Le Jardin block is close to completion.

This one has been hard for me to keep on task with.  It is not my favorite block in the quilt from a design standpoint and all those tiny leaves!  Only 4 more to sew down.

Finally,

the beginnings of my red and green quilt.

Yes, I have been a busy bee.

Between the Australian Open Tennis Tournament and football playoff games, I have had a lot of time to sew!  Very sad my 49ers did not make it to the Superbowl, but I am a chameleon who now wears the Seahawks colors!

Back to making pinwheels. 

 Hope I can keep up this productivity with all the projects I have in the works.

Rainy Day Blues???

A crisp, clean rain is falling today and I am loving it!

US Open tennis to watch and sewing to be done...serendipity!

I finished piecing Holiday Happenings, designed by Monique Dillard.

I have a long list of tops that need to be quilted now. 

I saw an interesting adaptation of cross hatching on Diane Gaudynski's blog called Houndstooth.

It might look interesting on the borders.  My first inclination is just to do continuous line quilting in the pieced blocks and maybe wreaths in the light squares. 

Any ideas on how to machine quilt this one...holiday themed?

Finished 2 more blocks for my sampler.

Take a look at the Flickr site if you haven't lately.

I seriously love these blocks in the brown and pink colorway!

Slowly, but surely, I am appliqueing those little willow tree leaves on the last block of Autumn Houses.

What a painful process it has been...7 more to sew down.

At night, we hear a bone chilling, bleating sound that we could not identify. 

Yesterday evening we discovered its source.

A coyote has moved into the valley behind the cabin. 

A family of foxes has inhabited the area for the last few years.

Mr. Fox is the source of the noise.

He is admantly barking (sounds more like bleating though) at the coyote to leave his feeding grounds.  

I love Mr. Fox's tail.  

My rainy day goal is to finish those darn leaves, and then finish piecing the center of Pinwheels for Caroline.  Wish me luck and don't forget to leave any suggestions for how to quilt my Holiday Happenings.



Countdown to Christmas

by Sweetwater for Moda.

Holiday Happenings,

 designed by Monique Dillard, published in the BHG publication,

'Quilts and More.'

This is my Labor Day weekend project.

I plan to teach it as an introduction to quilt piecing class this fall. My schedule will not permit a full beginning class until 2012.  I have opted to make it a square instead of the long runner seen in the photo.

Advent calendars were always one of my kids' favorites.

It felt good on Friday to hit the trails again.  Only 31 days until we leave for the 13,000 ft mountains of Peru.  I was surprised how winded I got after being away for less than 2 weeks.  We will head to Ouray this next week to get even higher in hopes of building up some excess red blood cells.  I'll need all I can get!

While hiking, I found yet another member of the Gentian family that I will add to my Wildflower page.  I captured a picture of the Fringed Gentian in full bloom.

It is now my second favorite wildflower after the Fairy Slipper Orchid!

The texture of this little mushroom enticed me to play with my macro lens.

And some early fall color...

I am using the new blogger interface.  Uploading photos seems to take forever, but the rest of it is user friendly and a lot cleaner looking from a graphic design standpoint.  Haven't figured out how to access my pages though...may have to switch back in order to add to my wildflower pages.

Hope everyone is having a safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend!