{Post 1,492} Oldie But Goodie

If I have shared about starting to hand quilt this, I can't find it on my blog.  My eyes have evidently changed quite a bit since I last hand quilted anything.  I can't thread the needles of my usual betweens needles anymore.  It's rather depressing.

I finished piecing this in February 2008.  Its time has come to be finished.

Somewhere (of course, with old age comes forgetfulness) I read about "big eye" quilting needles.  I could not find them locally.

On my trip to take my kids to camp 90 minutes west of here, I scouted ahead and Googled a quilt shop one mile out of my way.  Yay!!  And they had the exact needles I was looking for.  Double yay!!  See second picture for needles.  I got the same size I used to use, and they are fabulous.

Here is part of the progress on my Mennonite Mosaic quilt.  I am hand-quilting this to use in my bedroom.  The one with the yellow walls.

I am marking a diagonal line with a disappearing ink through every color and hand-quilting with the same color thread as the fabric.  It's all about the texture.

There was a first for this quilt.  I basted it on my Handi-Quilter for hand quilting.  I had never thought of doing that before.  It sure saved my back.  I have always hand-basted them in the past.  This worked splendidly.

I have a large stencil for the border, which I think is 12" wide.  It's an outlined feather, with corner!!

{Post 1,491} Mysterious Quilt Story

I don't recall if I posted about this, but back in June, I organized a sewing bee for my friend, Colleen.  She was going to Ethiopia to visit her daughter and son, and wanted to take as many pillowcase dresses as she could.  We had a wonderful day with our church ladies and finished nearly 50 dresses as a group.

As the sewing time was starting, ladies were filing into our church to help.  One of the ladies in our church gave me a Ziploc bag and told me she and her sister had had the bag in their office for a few years and didn't know what to do with it, so they wondered if I wanted it.  I glanced at it briefly (it was a very busy day) and was very surprised to recognize some older Thimbleberries prints--ones I had sold, in fact.

After the busyness of the day, I got the baggie out and looked more closely at the fabrics.  They were MY units!!  In 2007, my daughter and her best friend made matching quilted throws.  I cut out one to show them how to piece the blocks and must have laid my pieces aside.  Well, here they were!  Mysteriously, they had migrated to my friend's home.  I don't remember selling them or giving them away, and she doesn't know how they got there.

The 4-patches and star block units were all pieced.  Here they are laid out on my design wall.  I have since sold the book the pattern was in.  If you recognize it, please pass the name on to me.  I remember it was in a book with only 6 or 8 patterns.  I liked many of them.

Each finished block (3 blocks were completely sewn already) measures 15-1/2" square.  I will probably make more blocks to make this a larger quilt.  Maybe even a queen-size for my guest bedroom.  Time will tell.