Batik Stars – wish this one was mine

made by Ilsa Johnson

click on photo for a closer view

I told you I’d milk these Quilters Unlimited Show quilts! These batiks were first used as clothing. Note the blue thread with which Ilsa hand quilted this beauty.

I’m slowly making progress on my projects. The heat really slowed me down earlier in the week. Yes, we have AC, but spend a lot of time outside with our son’s swim team. Tomorrow is the last meet; followed by awards night. It hit 103 degrees this afternoon (same temp as last Friday) and tomorrow is forecasted to be in the cool lower 90’s. Seriously, we had 3-4 days of 100 or close to and when the temps dropped to 93 it felt pleasant.

Quilty wise, here is what I’ve been up to-

This is the last of the hexagon flowers. I have about a third of the 63 flowers appliquéd to their background, another third pinned to the background and a third are waiting for me to cut more background squares. I think I said in a previous post the end of this project is in sight – well… I’m not so sure about that, but I have made a lot of progress in the past couple of months. It helps having it sitting on the dining room table – all ready for me to stitch when I have a few minutes.

Here is the start of the backing for my Half Square Triangle (hst) quilt. The zigzag measures about 12” across. I swear I thought the background of those two light fabrics were the same color. I knew the vines were blue on one and green on the other. It wasn’t until I stitched them together and was pressing that I realized the blue has a lighter background than the green. Oh, well! It does feel good to use these two fabrics. I've had them for over 10 years and have been waiting for the right project. I used the pink version in this quilt. I love this delicate print, but there isn't a name on the selvage - must be really old! I typically don’t name my quilts, but I think this one will be “Concord, Cranston and Peter Pan” – named after the companies that produced much of the fabric in the quilt. Are those companies still in existence?

August is almost here. Where does the time go? Hope your weekend includes a little stitching!