moving along

Someday:

these might actually end up being a quilt!  I have a big tub of strips/scraps and when I just don't feel like working on anything structured, this is what I do.  Now my scraps are not organized in any way.  I don't have a bin that is all 2" squares or 2½" strips, etc.... I used to throw all the 'little stuff' away.  And actually the reason I started saving strips/scraps was because of paper piecing.  Some paper pieced patterns have some small pieces!  Then I started seeing strip quilts.  The most common being the Spider Web block.  Well, I have a tremendous fear of spiders so just the name Spider Web was a "no way" for me.  But I saw other patterns and thought I might give them a try.  I'm using fabric softner sheets (previously used) as my base for the strips and then trimming these units to 6 X 9".  So we'll see what I end up -eventually :-)

On the creative front > I received a set of embroidered little cowboy blocks that I've put into a quilt - pictures later.  I embroidered (machine done!) a set of birds that will go into a red,black & white quilt for a women's shelter.  I have designed the quilt in EQ:

I have some other sets of embroidery to stitch out, so while I've got the machine working, I'll be cutting the units to piece these blocks.  Unfortunately, the Babylock is not playing nice (again) so will have to stitch smaller designs using the very dependable Kenmore.  I think the Babylock is a case of timing - wish I knew how to time it without taking it to the dealer - probably something easy to do, but will have to pay an exorbitant amount for someone's knowledge!
And.....My granddaughter spent an evening with me learning to sew.  She's 16 and has decided she wants to learn to sew/quilt.  She picked out a simple pattern to learn to quilt and she made her first block (a 16").  I've told her I'd cut out some strips and make her up some 'kits' so next time she came she could just sew.  I demonstrated the use of a rotary cutter/ mat and went over safety cautions, went over the machine and the different parts of it.  But because she is truly 'green', I think just getting comfortable with the actual sewing will be priority #1.  Right now she's planning a quilt.  We'll see  - it might end up a table topper :-)
I'm hoping everyone has a great weekend.  Here in AZ we have a cold front moving through with rain and temps in the 50's, but today is my grandson's first Little League game and rain or not, Grandma will be there!

Katie