Starfall

 

It's about time to catch up on quilts that were completed in 2023. This is #251, Starfall.

Starfall, a pattern by Then Came June and actually called Star Adventure, began with this lovely stack of solid Art Gallery fabrics that had been sitting on a shelf for awhile, and my favorite Liberty of London print of all time--Capel in mustard. 

The pattern is basically the classic sawtooth star block.

I enjoyed making the different color combinations for the blocks--three colors in each block. Once they were all done and on the design wall, I hated this one and it got voted off. You can see why, right?

I sewed all the leftovers together in strips for the backing.

And then I sent it off to Darby for quilting.

 For some reason, when I photographed it in the backyard, I hung it up sideways, and then was too lazy to turn it around.

The best photos were taken across the street on my neighbor's awesome truck, affectionately named Mater by the grandkids.

A fun little addition: At the time of this writing, I will be showing some quilts at the local Art Hop in April 2024. The Fresno Arts Council posted this on social media, a fun advertisement (even with my name spelled incorrectly--haha).

Quilt Name: Starfall

Quilt Pattern: Star Adventure by Then Came June

Made by: Cindy Wiens

Quilted by: Darby Myers

Completed: December 2023

Size: 70" x 89"

Sewing Room Friday

 It's been awhile since there has been a sewing room update. But I actually have done some sewing lately.

When Aaron and I were in London, we had coffee at the Albert Cafe inside Liberty of London. I snapped a photo of the tile on their counter. I was to do a segment for the Quilt Show taping that involved "super solids," working with different substrates. So I came home and made two samples based on the tile--one using only Kona solids, and one that included things like shot cottons, bark cloth, dupioni silk, etc. I took it along to demonstrate how the addition of just a few  different fabrics could add some sparkle. And then in the midst of my nerves, I forgot all about it! It would have been a really good example and I think it would have filmed nicely. Oh well...

I made some more vinyl pouches for the silent auction for the Justice Coalition fundraising dinner.

I also made this bag for the London trip, thinking I could take it inside the stadium for the Tottenham game, as they often require see-through bags now.  However, Aaron thought it needed to be completely clear, so I just ordered one from Amazon. Not sure what I will do with this one. It's pretty cute.

This week I worked on these cute blocks, free patterns from Tilda Fabrics. They were so much fun to make.

Yesterday I cut up my fat eighth bundle of Liberty of London fabrics along with some Oakshott. I think it will sew up pretty quickly. All of the fabrics, with the exception of the orange one, are London-related prints, with maps, sightseeing destinations, etc. The orange fabric is the one I actually purchased from Liberty of London so I had to include it, along with part of the selvage in one of the blocks. After I took this photo, I took out the yellow/turquoise block in the center--too distracting. 

It's been nice to just sew for fun.

Haha.

I'll end with this. And my question is ...why??

Really Random Thursday, 3/21/24

It's been awhile since I wrote a Really Random post! So there's some catching up to do.

Let's start with books I read in January. I never get tired of the William Kent Krueger books, and sadly I'm coming to the end of his Cork O'Connor series. 

and February. The Lost Flowers of Alice Heart was the best book I've read in a long time.

March Madness starts today. I haven't filled out my brackets--yet--but my friend, Jane, sent me this cool reading bracket that will be fun to fill throughout the year. 

These trees are so beautiful when they bloom around town.

This would have been appropriate yesterday.

This would have been appropriate last month.

Charlotte just finished the final play of her high school career. It was Rodgers and Hammerstein's version of Cinderella, and she played Madame, aka the wicked stepmother. She was amazing, playing someone very against "type" as she is the sweetest girl. So that made it even more fun to watch her. We went the first weekend.

There were a few more things I wanted to add about our adventure to Livermore for the filming of The Quilt Show. 

On the way out of Livermore, we made a detour to Alden Lane Nursery, an absolutely gorgeous nursery. They used to host a yearly quilt show, Quilting in the Garden, where quilts were hung from 100+-year-old oak trees. That came to an end due to the pandemic, and I heard the trees started having problems. Age, maybe? Mark and I had a booth with his fused glass at the show a couple of years, so stopping there brought back a lot of good memories.

Then we decided to stop at a Bass Pro Shop, as neither of us had ever been to one. Wow. Very impressive. I did chuckle at the sign at the entrance that said "please check firearms and knives at the front desk."

Before we even made it through the front door, I fell in love with this old pickup. It could have had to do with the fact that it said "redhead" on the door. Redhead happens to be a clothing brand sold at the store. I couldn't miss an opportunity to drape a quilt over the back. And since we were returning from The Quilt Show, we had three suitcases full of quilts. Ha!

Here is a photo of me when I was a natural redhead. I miss it so much.

It looks quite a bit different these days.

We wanted to see Charlotte's very final performance so we saw her play again on Sunday afternoon. We are so proud of her and look forward to what is next in her life.

And believe it or not, I think we are caught up.