Wonky Stars and a Stormy Night...

Yesterday, we went off to see my friend L. and her family at her beautiful lake house. It was very pleasant to sit and watch the lake, look at her beautiful flowers and get in a good visit. We had a delicious potluck supper of spareribs with blackberry sauce, potato salad, corn and a spinach salad with feta, almonds, and black berries. There were chocolate chip muffins, apple or strawberry rhubarb pie and fruit for dessert.

The day was hot and sunny but the evening turned stormy and the sky put on its own pyrotechnic show with sheet lightning. It was the most serious storm of the summer and, when we returned to our home in the city, many trees had been damaged and some significant damage was created to buildings and roadways around the city.( We were lucky and had no damage to our property.) The power outage caused enough trouble that our local newspaper, The Edmonton Journal, was not able to print today.

Bonnie's Maverick Stars linked here is very similar to my current quilt project.(f you have not checked out Bonnie's website then I urge you to do so- especially if you are looking for a scrap quilt pattern. She generously offers a number of her patterns at no cost and has excellent instructions with each of those patterns.

The Quilt pattern that I am working from is called" Autumn Evening" from an Old Quilter's World magazine. My quilt is a variation of both of these patterns- I chose to make my stars all from different star fabrics(the original pattern's stars are all orange and yellow done on black background fabric) and my background is a dark blue with a black thread running through it.

Presently, I have stopped to do my weekly post and ponder whether I want to do the border on the star quilt, the way the pattern says, or whether to do something different. My dilemma is that I have run into fabric problems - if I do the border the size that they recommend, then I am going to have to play with the fabric to make sure that there is enough fabric left to make more stars.( I started with 7 and a half yards that I had bought for a backing for a queen sized quilt) There is barely enough fabric to make the required number of stars. My problem is that I like to audition my blocks and take out the ones that don't work. This is an unorthodox way of of quilting, I realize but it generally works for me-

Often my finished quilts come in pairs or even trios because I have cut and created so many extra blocks VBG.(Unfortunately, that really is not an option for me this time, because of the pattern requirements for background fabric.) I had just enough fabric to create the pattern as it was originally laid out- What to do? Making a varied background doesn't work for me this time either... Hmmmmmm

By the way, I have collected a number of orphan blocks that perhaps I will use them some day to create an Orphan quilt - I will have to name it my Little Orphan Anna quilt....LOL



We really enjoyed going to see The Lion King. It was a spectacular visual show - I loved the animals - the giraffes, elephant and the warthog were particularly noteworthy. It was great fun to go to Live theatre and see this show. My son, K. had a huge collection of lions when he was a young boy( over 25 were in his pride) and his favorite lion was one that we called DandyLion. Dandy Lion had a voice that was deep- akin to Louis Armstrong- One of his songs was " The Lion Sleeps Tonight... I thought of those days often listening to the music and seeing the jungle come alive on the stage....

This week I will hopefully get my own computer repaired and have some of my own photos to show you.
Recently, There have been a number of interesting blogs about The Sisters Outdoor show in Oregon last week. Check out Tonya's blog on July 16 th for some good links to photos and stories about this wonderful quilt show. I enjoyed reading the stories and am a big fan of Freddy Moran,Gwen Marston and The Gee Bend Quilters. I am awestruck thinking about 1300 quilts hanging outside being admired by many many people in one weekend.
Jean and her daughter Valori Wells have hosted this show for a number of years. You can check out Valori's blog here. Their store " The Stitching Post" must be a fascinating place.

This week, I will do more work on the star quilt and a little bit of rearranging,and perhaps a quick trip down to visit my parents at the end of the week -
One of last week's accomplishments was that I got my summer things put up around our living spaces so summer has truly arrived in our house - How about yours?

I love seeing all the various fruit and vegetables in the grocery store and spend my cooking time making salads and enjoying barbecues. For those of you in the southern hemisphere, perhaps you are enjoying time around the fireplace and foods that warm you- stews and such.
Where ever you are I hope that you are enjoying life with family and friends.
Warmest regards,
Anna