Mountain Trail Quiltalong.

Getting a little closer to the finishing line with this sweet little quilt.
I've bitten the bullet and decided to handquilt it!
I've already spent several hours and might be about 1/8th finished! LOL.  This is why I don't handquilt very much.  I love the look.  I love the sewing, but Oh the time it takes.

Why was it that I forgot that pin basteing doesn't work for a quilting hoop??
An hour or so later, most of the pins removed and thread basteing in place.

My stitches are fairly uneven, but It's not too bad, and I'm really pleased about the prospect of having my very own handquilted quilt.
Thanks so much to  Lori of Humble Quilts for having this Quiltalong, I've really enjoyed stitching along with everyone.
Take a look at Lori's Blog and check out the others linked there.

Tiny little hexagons.

The Robin's Nest quilt is also still coming along.  I need to make 56 (yikes!) little flowers out of 1/2" hexagons for the next border.

 I've kitted up several hexie flowers as a take along project for any waiting times.  I seem to get most of these stitched during my tea break at work.  Excellent use of time I think!
Great use of a little sandwich lunchbox.

Netherfield.

Netherfield is growing little by little.  This is such a pleasure to work on.  The instructions by Katrina Hadjimichael are very well written and easy to follow.

My centre square is on point and I've appliqued the stars to the background triangles.

 I'm not sure about the blue border that follows, but I think it will be OK.

The next border was of 60 degree triangles.  I needed to buy a ruler for those.  I've never used 60 degree triangles before.  Very easy to cut and sew.

I'm achieving a lot of machine sewing at the moment.  Bonnie Hunter has been having several Quilt cam sessions this last 10 days or so.  I really love listening to her talk about her quilting travels, and what she's working on at the moment.  Whilst Bonnie is talking I get a lot of machine sewing done.
Next big thing for me is her Mystery Quilt that will start in November.  We get fabric requirements on 31st of October.  Can't wait.

The Quilt that very nearly wasn't!

I've been following Lori at Humble Quilts for quite some time.  Recently, she had a quilt-along to reproduce a full size antique quilt in miniature.  A lovely little doll sized version.
I collected the weekly parts and thought "one day".
Well, last week was that one day.  I set out to buy some nice plain red, I seem to have very little in the way of solids in my stash.  Must change that.
I spent a couple of hours choosing and cutting fabrics ready for a sewing spree.

All those lovely little 1 1/2" squares, and tiny little rectangles.  At this point, I realised that I'd misread the instructions, and didn't need the red rectangles!   I very nearly just threw the lot into the bin.   Oh dear, a good cup of tea and a fair bit of time feeling very stupid. 
Anyway, onwards with the little squares.  So cute sewn into little 9-patches.

 The pieces came together beautifully, I was really liking the way this little quilt was coming together.

When I went to cut the borders, I had to purchase additional red fabric.  Not enough left from all the miscutting!  I managed to get another piece of red that was a  very close match to the little squares.  Of course the shop had sold out of "my" red.
Finally, borders on and awaiting layering and basteing.  A very sweet 22" x 22 1/2".

So cute.  Well worth the effort of finishing this little beauty.  To think it very nearly wasn't!

Thanks Linda, next border is done!!!

Just the helpful prod I needed to get border 7 finished.

The next instalment in the Grandmother's Choice  Block of the Week has been put up.

Aunt Eliza's Star.

This week's block is dedicated to the battle our foremothers had over child custody.  Sadly, if the woman left the marriage, she left behind the children and any inheritence she may have been entitled to.
Barbara Brackman is giving us a beautiful block each week, and some of the history behind her choices.
Unlike many other projects I'm working on, I'm up to date on this one!

The last couple of days have been very productive.
In August of 2011, I began a Medallion quilt with Patchwork Pumpkin.  The only rules of the free pattern were that in order to obtain each step from Therese, a photo of the completed previous step must be sent in, and no fabric could be purchased for use in the quilt.  I worked slowly but surely through the first 5 rounds of the medallion.  The 6th step was 72 9 patches on point.  It was here that it all stopped.
A while ago, Linda  prodded me and asked how I was going.  Of course, Linda has finished hers!
So, I finally got moving on Step 6 last Friday.  I was travelling to my regular 6 hour sewing marathon with friends, it seemed like the perfect time to do some very boring sewing. 
From this...

I also sewed along  with Bonnie Hunter whilst she was having a Quilt cam evening(her time)  on Saturday morning (my time).  Every once in a while, Bonnie sews with a live camera hooked up to her website.  It's just like taking a class.  A very enjoyable way to fill in a couple of hours.
To this...

 And finally, these.
Finished up on a very lazy Sunday afternoon.

Next up are the setting triangles to turn them on point, and then to attach these borders onto the quilt.

I've been handsewing some more on my Medallion started last month with Katrina Hadjimichael.  The sewing is nice and easy, very relaxed.

The half square triangle border went together easily, but the corner squares caused me some trouble.
I wanted to use the fabric that I'd used in the very centre of the block, but I'm not very good at fussy cutting.  After staring at the fabric for ages, I remembered a technique from a class ages ago.  Make a window template that can be moved around until the perfect place is found.

Perfect!
So much easier than just trying to imagine.

Not bad at all!

Well, now I'm all caught up on my Grandmother's Choice blocks.
Last week was this Kansas Sunflower block.

 This block was quite tricky to piece.  This is my back view.  I twirled the petal intersections to get them to lie flat.  I tried very hard to piece the centre circle into the block, but it's been a long long time since I've done that and I just couldn't get it to sit.  So, plan B?  Applique.  Perfect.
The block wasn't sitting straight, so I sprayed a little water on it and blocked it to size. 

Turned out well in the end.
I felt like I was on a roll by this time, so moved on to machine piecing Saturday's block.
New Jersey Suffrage Pioneer.

Thankfully this block was nice and easy to piece.