FMQ-ing Again

As you faithful readers know, I make baby quilt tops for St Anne's Sewdality.  Starting this month we're going to try a different process.  Other members will make tops and I will quilt them.  I'll get to practice more FMQ-ing that way (and start linking to FMQ Mavericks again).  Here's the first top (one I made) that was sandwiched and given back to me:

 After all the straight seams were SITD, I did loops around the octagons and serpentined (sp?) around the owls.

I then made four leaf motifs in the cornerstones and then stippled the outside border.

There are cute little flannel owls on the back, too.  

BTW: "I'm participating in the Pink Doxies new link up, #BraveQuilter. As part of the #BraveQuilter link party for September, I going to try a new applique technique (for me) as seen in Lara's book, Crafted Applique ".

My Design Wall and Gwennie

With my two weeks of traveling in August and all the other crazy stuff of the past month, I only finished 3 stars for my next round of my Gwennie Inspired QAL. They're the blue and yellow stars on my design wall.  The fourth is in the final stages of being constructed.

Those hourglass blocks are the first of my leader and ender quilt blocks (as per Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville).  The four sawtooth stars are for a new medallion quilt I started.  The block assembly instructions are from Barbara Brackman's Star in a Time Warp BOW she did last year.  They are a snap.  I don't usually like working with triangles because of the bias, but if one just guides the fabric in doing this star, no problems.

I hope to get back to my Gwennie Inspired this month in between working on the commission quilt I'm hoping to finish soon.  What are you up to?

Some of This and That

I took hand stitching with me on my trip.  What with interacting with family, travel restrictions and other fun sewing at both destinations, only got a bit done. One star in CO and one here.  Two Gwennie inspired stars:

Two to go.  

I used about two yards for Lily's Quilt and 3/4ths yd for the quilt repair and a tenth for these two stars. I also bought 3 yards of fabric that I am keeping, so my YTD total ending August is 40.83 yds.

Speaking of traveling, I was in awe of the huge mountains (really, volcanoes) I saw from the plane and in Vancouver (Mt. Hood).  This is from the plane on the way to CO, and believe it is West Crater - Mt Hood would have been on the right side - I was sitting on the left side and saw three of them north of the Columbia almost in a row.  The other two may have been Indian Heaven and Mt Adams. WOW.

DS#2 took me on a scenic drive from Horsetooth Reservoir to Estes Park to visit the Rocky Mountain National Park.   What a beautiful drive through Drake and Glen Haven!

In Glen Haven we stopped for fudge and to admire the gorgeous quilts - all for over $1K each.  On the way back, we stopped in Drake for a cherry pie - yum!  And our destination:

Phone was acting up again, so I bought a postcard - looked like this but without the fall color.  Had lunch in a restaurant next to the Fall River Visitors Center.  It was a wonderful day.