Jana and Grandma's new projects.

"Stars" Jana said, "I want to do a quilt with stars". It only took a few minutes browsing through the Free Patterns at Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog to have the perfect new project for 12 year old Jana. It's Smokey Mountain Stars. Jana, being her own bright star will be doing a "very colorful, rainbow" version of this quilt. Below is the Bonnie Hunter's quilt Jana is making.

Bonnie Hunters Smokey Mountain Stars from Quiltville Blog

We have been sewing ourselves silly this weekend. Yesterday afternoon I helped Jana cut out the 4 and 1/2 " squares she needs for this quilt. I have a container full of 2 1/2 " squares. So she is set to sew. She used the grab and sew method. She selected her 4 1/2 inch squares fabric, but for the corners she just reached into the contained and used whatever she picked up.

Not sure if she is saving those corners or tossing them.

 Her goal this weekend is to finish the 42 colored (dark) blocks. They get 2 1/2 inch squares on two corners.She is enjoying watching the design come together.  She achieved her block goal. I was very proud of that she stuck with it. There where a few blocks that weren't perfect and she fixed them, not settling for  "bad" blocks. She took a few breaks and before it was dinner time she had all 42 blocks completed. Her sewing skills are really taking off. I was surprised that she figured out how to use the ruler to have a straight and  even 1/4 seam when she she cut away the corner fabric.

Mission accomplished.

These took a long time to sew together, but it was fun!

Jana's "rainbow" star blocks (center of the star)

 Jana will work on her neutral blocks on her next visit. In the mean time we want to share the completed top she helped make for her mom.

Ready for the long arm quilter. The backing  is a surprise.

While Jana sewed, I offered support and worked on my own project. I am making a retirement quilt for a co-worker who loves to travel and camp. I found this fun panel and decided to use various 2 1/2 inch squares to make borders of 9 patch blocks.

This is an audition for the outer border. Not so crazy for the green.

I'm still playing with an idea for the corners. I may add green leaves to each corner to carry the theme through  out the quilt. Finally I am considering a  thin dark brown tonal border to set the center of the quilt. I am thinking about finishing the quilt with a four inch outside border.

Possible border fabric. Seeing them here I don't think they go together.

We won't get together for another few weeks, but we are both looking forward to another productive (and fun) weekend. Thanks for checking in.  Hope you have a chance to quilt together with someone this week.

Fun with Bonnie Hunter's patterns

First things first! My Hidden Spools quilt top is finished and ready to go to Sandy, my long-arm quilter. This quilt began in the class Bonnie taught in Carrollton, KY. As you can imagine the class was lots of fun and I got a great start on the quilt.

During class Bonnie suggested I add a blue inner border. No surprise that her idea was right on and the blue really framed the quilt. This was such a simple pattern to make. I like it so much I plan to do a smaller baby quilt for a friend.

Hidden Spools.

While this was/is a scrappy quilt I used a very limited color palette, just orange and white. I'm not sure why, but I'm going through this monochromatic color thing. I'm calling it single color playtime.
I love going through my stash to see how many oranges and white, or greens and beige, or grays I can find. Then I like to play around with the fabrics to discover a pleasing arrangement of the various tones. I like seeing how the various shades play with each other, or not.

The quilt I am working on now is the newest Bonnie Hunter Leader/Ender challenge, Lozenges. Bonnie used various 3.5 x 6.5 fabrics, and two inch squares to make this beautiful quilt.

an upside down picture-but you get the idea.

I loved the colorful quilt, but I decided to go in a totally different direction.As Bonnie says, "It's your challenge".  I'm going gray. Hey to match my hair........

Color play with grey

Each of the lozenge, has a two inch square on each corner. I am using the center silver fabric for the two inch squares. The name for the quilt is  "Searching for the Silver Lining". The squares come together like a diamond in each corner.

"my silver lining"

I may regret using this fabric for the corner squares, rather than going scrappy. I feel like I have cut thousands of two inch squares. I am a little worried that I may not have enough "silver lining" fabric to do the quilt. I have a back up plan...For now I'll just keep making the blocks until I run out of two inch squares. I'll reassess at that point. I do have a border planned, but may need to get creative. Only time will tell.

Along with these two Bonnie Hunter patterns, I am planning two different Scrappy Mountain Majesties quilts. My eldest son wants a quilt that is mostly green. So I will be doing  a green Scrappy Mountain for him, and finally a Scrappy Mountain quilt with fall colors for my daughter.

Bonnie sure is keeping me busy. No complaints here. Just having fun.