Last week I finally finished my Fallen Leaves wallhanging. 
It is a tissue foundation pattern from Cindi Edgerton that was fun to do. I bought mine as a kit at Cottonwood in Charlottesville, VA - primarily because I couldn't resist the fabric that was in the kit for the border and backing. I searched online until I found more of it to save for another project. This is a project that I started last September when I bought the kit, then it languished while I worked on and completed other more pressing projects, mostlly for other people. I had even finished most of the quilting on it - just had to finish up some of the borders and bind it. Now I am looking for a special spot in our house for it to hang. I am pleased with the way the quilting turned out. I just used a regular foot and left the feed dogs up - I'm not ready to cut loose with free motion yet - and found that I was able to move the quilt around enough to to make the wavy lines thru the leaves. There was a lot of starting, stopping, and turning in the border but it is a good example of where I am now in my quilting odyssey.The Senior Center group that I quilt with has finished the top of the Turning Twenty quilt 
that we have been working on. We are planning to make the backing by using a lighthouse fabric in the center and a light taupe fabric surrounding it, since the recipient really likes lighthouses. I should have that pieced by our meeting next Wednesday, then we can begin sewing together the blocks we have for a 2nd one. These will be gifts for the director and assistant director at the Center - one of them knows who this one is for, but neither of them yet know about the other one, which is a pretty neat trick when both of them are usually there when we are meeting and working on them. Both of them are being made from fabric donated to the Senior Center, either by us or by other quilters in our area.I am also continuing to work on my Grandmother's Flower Garden. This picture shows the progress to date - 4 rows of the 9 I expect to do will be done when I finish attaching the last flower on the left in the bottom row. 
I have laid out some of the fabrics I think I will use for the next row - the pink and green one is finished and the pink and blue one is partially finished. We went to the Atlanta area again last weekend for a family wedding, a Braves game and to check in on some of the grandkids. I had time to make a quick stop at Tiny Stitches in Marietta where I met Melinda in person. I will definitely go back to that shop!
, BargelloBowl 
, Simplified Log Cabin 
and Say it With Flowers 
. Much to my surprise I got an Honorable Mention ribbon for the Say it With Flowers. I entered it in the handquilted category - I made it for my mom in '06-'07. I think it was the second handquilted one that I have finished. The comments from the judge were interesting. She thought my triangle points need improvement, and that my handquilting needed to be more consistent in size and space between - I thought the points were pretty darn good, and it was only my 2nd handquilted piece so I thought it was pretty good. She did like the theme fabric and felt the colors were well coordinated - I should give all credit to the fabric designer -- this was a kit that I bought so all the fabrics were in one collection from Northcott I think. She did like the checkerboard border - I was pleased with the way it turned out, and it was easier than I thought it would be. She also said "Excellent handling of difficult binding fabric choice - very good binding corners." That was satisfying because it was hard to do - the binding is a strip of the fabric that has a rope design that I used as the top of the binding and right beside that are some strips that show up on the binding on the back - so it was nice that she noticed that. It is instructive to get the judge's comments, but you need a bit of a thick skin. The important thing for me remains to be that I make quilts that I like, in fabrics that I like, that suit the person I am making them for if that is the purpose. My mom says she likes this quilt - and it will shortly be back in her living room - although this morning I was wrapped up in it a bit while working on this blog entry. It was a cool and foggy morning in central VA - a typical August morning that reminds us that summer is fading.
