Homebody!!

This weekend I was half road warrior and half homebody.

I'll share the homebody today...which really means that I was in the Quilt Lab :)

Recently I've been trying to "clean" my quilt lab by making progress on the various WIPs sitting on my table tops.

The first project I decided to "clean" was Bonnie's Leader Ender project which has been in various bins next to my sewing machine to make it easier to stitch. A few weeks ago I had decided it was time to sew the scrappy rails to the B&W rails. These piles then sat on the ironing board.

That meant I could start the weekend by pressing them all according to Bonnie's diagram. Except, when I went to start sewing them together they wouldn't nest together so I was going to have to re-press them. As if ironing them all wasn't bad enough the first time, I had to do it a second time. Ugh.

I laid out my re-pressed blocks on the design wall to make sewing the rows easier. It did get to be quite a jumble with 3 projects on the wall being covered and revealed as I sewed the rows together.

Better paint those tootsies, huh?

Soon enough, all the blocks were together!! I figure this is about half the quilt. I left it on the floor to consider if it needed borders and at some point I thought it might be interesting to use a different fabric on each of the four sides. I'll make a final decision when I get all the blocks together. What I am fairly certain of is that I need to go back to the LQS I went to Saturday to get the B&W gingham for the binding. Why I couldn't have made that decision 24 hours earlier when I was at the store is beyond me...

The second project is a long term UFO that was started back when I lived in Miami. While I love the fabrics I think the knowledge I have gained in the meantime would have taught me to pick fabrics with more contrast. Oh well. Maybe the quilting will add some pizzaz and contrast.

I started this Hunters Star based on a magazine pattern but then I found Deb Tucker's Rapid Fire Hunter's Star Ruler. The blocks went together much faster but I would stitch a few blocks and then let the pile sit waiting to press the center seam open. Then the pile sat to be trimmed down with the ruler. Finally this weekend I said I just need to trim them all and get that pile off my table. Once trimmed, the blocks fit together spectacularly and I was able to stitch up all the blocks in the pile. Now I just need to make 33 more blocks to have this baby done! In the meantime it's back in it's drawer and off my cutting table.

Peonies are one of my favorites - how could I resist?!

Last but not least, I've been sucked in to Bonnie's Diamond Tile block! I made the cardinal block according to the magazine directions but then wanted to make a quilt using the "Blushing Peonies" charm pack and matching fabrics I had assembled.

A little math got me to what you see here, where I needed to decide if I wanted the black/background smaller so the tile points would touch or if I wanted the tiles to "float". After consulting the owner of the LQS I was in Saturday, we went with float and that meant I could kit up some of the fabrics sitting around. Being in a sewing groove, tho, I couldn't just let those pieces sit there and stitched as far as I could before it was time to make dinner last night.

The black/green bits in the front were sewn together yesterday and you can kinda see in the back that I have 5 or 6 centers sewn together already.

I really need to get the lawn mowed tonight, if the heat isn't too bad, so I'll get back to the Lab when it rains again on Thursday...