WHAT KEEPS ME BUSY

 It's mid-August and I am knee deep in projects and "must-do" activities. Just so you don't think traveling quilt teachers just show up, ready to teach well-rehearsed classes, take a look at what I am doing.

PACKING FOR HOUSTON: yes, packing and shipping has to happen for me in August as I will be away for almost two weeks in September, teaching on back-to-back cruises. Before I can pack I have to prepare kits, get handouts copied, gather supplies for class, find and pack the class samples, lots of preparation is required:

Love the table surface my Bernina Q20 provides for class preparation

Boxes in various sizes stacked everywhere

Kit preparation for Western Sun

I have 6 classes and 2 Lectures in Houston and that requires a lot of quilts. Recently I gathered up all the class sample quilts and did a "dry run" in my large suitcase to be sure they will all fit. It would be expensive to have to ship quilts too. Fortunately, they fit:

Next week I am teaching two classes in Colorado Springs and giving a lecture. Those classes needed Kits and Handouts prepared. I am ready. Here is stuff for Colorado Springs, the Cruises, and the box on the floor is packed for Houston:

Recently I offered a variety of quilts for sale. Several of those were bought so that involved boxing and shipping some of those, meeting with people for pickup here, and updating the blog posts:

Before all this started I began quilting Diamond Jubilee. It is still in progress and I am eager to get back to it:

Quilting in the paisley center hasn't been decided yet

Something different is going in the red backgrounds, just haven't decided what yet

The back shows the quilting better

This next project was started YEARS AGO and is on my bucket list to finish. When the design wall opened up I got back to this, I call it TEXAS STAR, still a long way to go. For more information on this see BUCKET LIST QUILT # 3: 

There is always a Leader/Ender project underway, here are a few at the same time in case I get bored. The 3" Old Italian Blocks are my SUMMER SEW A LONG :

With school back in session we had our two local grandkids for a two-night sleepover two weeks ago. And this week Oliver came for a quick visit--he is 17 months old now. So you know those events keep us busy:
            

Oliver and PopPop

Stella 10 and Sam almost 7

So, lest you think I have nothing to do, here is peek at my world. My kids think I am "retired"--HA! Not yet.

Let's quilt,

Barbara

BUCKET LIST QUILT # 3

My "BUCKET LIST" of quilts I still plan to make includes a few I started years ago. This is one of those,  STAR OF TEXAS. 

I am enamored of all things TEXAS, I was probably meant to live there, but for now I want a "TEXAS" quilt:

STAR OF TEXAS was started at least 25 years ago when I saw a tiny little image in a magazine of the center square made up of many small five-pointed stars. Using graph paper and a calculator, I drafted the center using 64th's of a inch. Yes, crazy, I know, but I am a numbers person and it was fun. 

I played around with Electric Quilt--whichever early version I had then, long gone now, and got the center made. The off-white background was what I had on hand and seemed the best choice at the time.

Once the red border was added I knew the yellow-ish cream muslin center fabric was wrong. And I didn't know what I wanted to do next so I packed it away, with a big bundle of red, white, blue and gold fabrics and left it. 

About 10 years ago I tackled it again, taking off  the red borders and carefully removing the background fabric. I had created full-size paper templates of the 5 background shapes so it wasn't too hard to cut new ones and replace them with white Grunge--much better!  

Now I had this. NOTE: the red borders are just on the design wall for inspiration--they haven't been sewn in place yet. I expect to cut them down a bit:

Now that I have looked at it a few times  I know what to do next. Playing with EQ 8 I came up with this design. I did not take the time to draw the actual center star as it is made--this simply allows me to get right to playing with border ideas:

62" square

But wait. What if I want it larger? Here is another possibility:

71.5" square

For now, I will make the red and blue stars for the borders since they are definitely going to be used. They are 5" standing with the star center point at the top but 7" if I set them on point as shown in these border ideas. Does it make a difference to Texans if the star is sideways?

This one has moved up to the top of the list of quilts to make/finish.

Let's quilt,

Barbara