Family Tree Quilt and Another Finish

I finally freed the picture of my finished birthday gift from my daughter's camera.

I'm glad it's done and that my mother-in-law likes it.

I have named the blue quilt "Nothing But Time" because everything came from my stash.  This is one of Charlotte Hawkes' (of Scrapitude Quilts) mystery quilts, Scrap in a Box, from last year.  I grabbed a lot of blues to see if they would work together.  I'm very happy on the results of the piecing and colors.  I used the quilt to try out and practice some quilting fill patterns.  

 What I learned is that 18 is too many different fill patterns for me.  There area a few patterns I like and will use again.  There are a few that are my go-to fill patterns that I will continue to use.  But, I liked the more open floral pattern that I used on the half-triangle edge blocks better.  I like less dense quilting - it makes a softer quilt.

I'm taking a little break from my applique work that I typically do in the evening to knit a pair of socks. I am also continuing the hand quilting on my Iris quilt. I'm never at a loss for things to do.

Settling In

After a few months of travel (I think we were home for 20 days total in August and September) we are home and settling back in.  We've spent the last few weeks doing some stuff around the house - those mundane things that make being a responsible adult so much fun.  I haven't gotten a lot of stitching done, but I have to keep my hands busy in the evenings, so I've done some.

I finished my second block of Ladies of the Sea.  They are challenging blocks, but I am enjoying the process.  Once I had finished the first block, I decided to do the rest in order. This was an interesting choice since the first block was the Bluenose and we had seen her in our travels.  I still haven't decided if I will put the names of the ships on each of the blocks.  I think I probably will, but I don't know if I will ink or embroider them.  That decision can be made later.

I have a few tops that are awaiting their turn to be quilted.  I started on my Quilt-In-A-Box.  This will be a heavy quilt.  I am being frugal here and used a batting that I found in my stash.  I don't remember where it came from or when I got it.  It is very dense.  I am also using a damask on the back.  This fabric was given to me recently by a friend who bought too much for the drapes she made for her house.  This is also a heavy fabric.  I'm machine quilting each block with a different random fill pattern for practice.  I'm about half done with this.

My guild is running a star block exchange this season and this is my sample block.  It't a Carol Doak paper pieced star that I really like.  I haven't done paper piecing in quite some time because I really don't enjoy it.  I still don't.  I would much rather hand piece a complicated block than paper piece.  But, I still like the block.