Twinkle, Twinkle Little Stars

Having the opportunity

to look up into a nighttime sky

away from city lights

is a beautiful experience.

Seeing all the stars in the Milky Way

puts things into perspective.

( photo from the internet)

You get lost in the beauty.

Stars have a univer-sal appeal,
even fabric stars.
 Pieced star blocks come in lots of
different styles and sizes.
There's a galaxy to choose from.

****

Twinkle, twinkle, little stars.
 I wonder how many I've made so far.

One a day had been the goal.
But that has taken quite the toll.

A few stars here,
a few stars there,

the pile is small
but I don't care.

60 stars are twinkling bright
double that number

will make it just right.

 My star goal now has been reset,
the night time sky won't twinkle less.

 So rather than filling a big black hole
I've set some boundaries to keep control.

Twinkle, Twinkle little star
The end is really not so far.

Until Next Time-

Kyle

Summer Time

 Summer days have a way of quickly slipping away and

I remind myself that

it's a time to relax and enjoy the simple things.

The last couple of weeks have been filled

with small pleasures.

Like spending time with these two little guys

while tent camping last weekend in the mountains outside of Denver,

 something I hadn't done in decades,

but despite my aging body, ended up being great fun.

Then there are these two
little pleasures.

 

 Being a Nana is the best job I've ever had.
I know many of you totally agree.

The sewing has taken a backseat,
but I did manage to make a few hst's

for the my BOM designed by Sue Garman
for the Quilt show.
I used the magic 8 method and trimmed
up the pieces using the Bloc-Loc tool.
I had 160 identical hst's to make and this
combination of sewing and trimming
made the whole process very easy and accurate.

The other day I
discovered the robins were enjoying
all of the cherries from our little tree.

They're the sour kind.
I got them pitted and frozen.
There's a few recipes I'm hoping to try.
One being a sour cherry berry crisp.
 It sounds good.

Maybe in the next couple weeks
I'll have more sewing to share,
but until then
I think I'll just be sharing time

with those I love.
 

Until Next Time-

Kyle

Discovery!

Last week I shared with you

how silly my mind can work.

I like to take one of the strategies

from the game of Parcheesi

and compare it to working

 on multiple quilts simultaneously

and then being rewarded with 
multiple finishes!

What's not to love about that!

Well, this week my fourth man (quilt) 

made it Home.
Tah Dah!!!

First, let me clarify, that my
finish is a finished top,
which was one of my 17 UFO's in 2017!

Discovery
65" x 65"

 It is the 2016 mystery quilt
designed by Petra Prins
for Quiltmania magazine.

Yes, you've probably noticed that 2017
is already half over, but I'm so happy to
have this sewn together.
I "discovered" that it's rather
hard for me to keep up with mystery quilts.

*Besides I like to cheat
and be a few months behind.
That way I know where I'm headed.
(I wouldn't have made a very good explorer.)

The design included lots of appliquéing,
fussy cutting,
English Paper Piecing,
and playing with Petra's
wonderful Dutch Heritage Fabrics.

I also "discovered" that I love these fabrics!
The only place I was able to find

 them here in the states
was at Web Fabric. com


 I didn't work from a kit
but used other fabrics from my stash

 
for the background pieces and borders.
It changed it up a little.

The center of this quilt
is designed after a compass rose
found on nautical maps
showing the points of the compass

or a mariner's compass block.
The Dutch were part of the Age of Exploration
and Discovery.

The most challenging part for me
were the final stars in the final border.

The kite shape points created
a very narrow tip and getting the seam allowance
to tuck under after basting them around
a paper piece was difficult.
I would have done better with good ol' needle turning.
 That was another part
of my sewing "discovery"
with this quilt.

Now when I "discover" some time
I might work on getting this quilted.
****

Until Next Time-
Kyle