The one below is their raffle quilt, and I bought a ticket. They won't draw until September - but at least I have a chance to win!

This is a Sandy Selk design - from her Southwestern Icons series.










Work is cutting into my stitching time! Check out my favorite freebies at Cyndi's Favorite Cross Stitch Freebies











(yes, I know the picture is backwards, but that's how the slide was scanned about 10 years ago)
We're on a 6-week trip in our trailer, and one of our stops was Devil's Postpile National Monument in the Sierras west of Mammoth Lakes. The postpile is made of cooled lava, which formed into hexagon-shaped columns. This picture is taken at the top - where glaciers sheared off the tops and smoothed them into perfect pavestones.
Since we didn't have electricity the first week of our trip, I was able to get a lot done on my first quilt made from hexagons. The first section, which will be out to the white edges, is almost done. From there I'll continue outward in yellows and a color yet to be decided.
This was the second quilt we worked on in our class. It's called "America the Beautiful," and was inspired by the song of the same name. It was originally published as a series quilt in Quiltmaker magazine back in 2002 and 2003. The designer of the paper-pieced eagles is Theresa Eisinger, and the designer of the whole quilt is Caroline Reardon. We learned a variety of techniques doing this one - string piecing for the mountain skies and plains, Flying Geese, stitch-and-flip, paper piecing, and a jillion half-square triangles. (Actually, 144.)
One night during out quilt class, one of the members (Sheri) showed us how to do English paper piecing. At first, I was interested in learning the technique, but was not too excited about doing lots of flowers. So I put it away, and didn't think about it for a couple of months. A few weeks ago I saw some hexagon sites, and began to get interested again - because I realized I don't have to do flowers! I can do diamonds, and stars, and all sorts of patterns, and even do little pieces with no pattern! I've been making lots of hexagons, as you can see, and I enjoy the fact that this is so portable.

Once in a while I'll spend a day making string squares. I used Bonnie Hunter's String Quilting Primer to get started, and so far have made almost 100 squares. They're 5 1/2 inches, and I think I'll need almost 300 to make a full/queen sized quilt. Or is it almost 400? I don't know right now. I just crank 'em out. About 5 hours of sewing produces anywhere from 25 to 35 squares.








I also stitched a little flower (English paper piecing) and will make it into another mini-quilt, and finished a little wedding gift for my sister (who got married on Saturday). I'll post a pic of it once I've finished into a wall hanging.
This is one of Marcia Hohn's designs from her website Quilter's Cache. Every once in a while I'll make a block and eventually I'll have enough for his quilt. These are 12" blocks, and I told Don I'd do his quilt in "manly" colors.


Bride's Bouquet was a little more difficult, since there were 12 Y seams to stitch - but once I got the hang of it I was all right.

These two pieces made it home just before Spring Break. Both were for round robins on CSRR. I had to finish stitching on the piece to the right, so I took it with me and finished it up while we were in Bishop. It's called Measure of a Year and it's by Prairie Schooler. It was stitched on by Vicki, Isabel, Georgena, Cassandra, Lisa, Doreen, Melissa, Tina, and m.
I picked up this set of fat quarters at a booth at Road to California - just because I liked them. I have no idea what I'll do with them!
During a visit to a quilt shop in Las Vegas (The Christmas Goose), I fell in love with a huge pack of brown, tan, and grey fat quarters. I've been wondering what I would do with them, and now I've made up my mind. On a couple of quilting sites I've found a large number of free 12" block patterns - and will use those nice browns to make a "manly" sampler quilt to put on my husband's bed some day. This is the first block - it's called Rocky Mountain Puzzle. One version I saw had it only two colors; another had 4 - which I decided to do. I've been making 6" blocks for so long that it was pretty strange making one that was 12".
I'll admit I hated doing this one, but I'm glad I stuck with it and got it finished. It has 12 "Y" seams - the first 8, which were in the stripes, came out well. The next four, attaching the gold triangles, were a pain in the rear. You can see a little puckering in the one on the far right , but I've already re-stitched it FOUR times! No more. It's good enough for me. : )

