This weekend I worked on a sample block for our guild’s 2011 raffle quilt.  The pattern is Granny Stars, designed by Nancy Mahoney and was featured in the July 2009 issue of Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting.

I’ve separated the sections of the block so that members can either choose from the easier corner square unit or the intermediate star piecing units.  Each member working on the quilt will made 2 sections.  In addition, the quilt borders will be hand appliqued.  All in all it should give everyone in the group the opportunity to use the quilt technique they enjoy the most.

I decided to make a sample block and am really pleased with the pattern.  I cut the squares used for the star points a 1/4-inch larger than called for in the pattern.  I’m hoping that when the oversize triangles  are trimmed to size,  the result will be perfectly sharp star points.

There's always time to quilt!

Yes there really are angels around us every day.  Sometimes we don’t realize that they are friends that we already know.

Last year I was part of an online swap.  Over a 7-week period the group had the opportunity to choose 3 or more projects out of 7 to make for a fellow stitcher.

The theme of the swap was roses and it was fun to embroider the small projects.  I completed a needle case, small bag that could be used for threads or jewelry when traveling and a journal with cover.  The fun, quick projects were easy and I shipped them to a stitcher from Canada in October.

Unfortunately my ‘secret angel’ was not able to send me any projects.  I guess that there were a number of us whose ‘secret angel’ fell down on the job.  Our names were published on Hugs from Helen website.  The hand made gifts certainly would have been nice, but my reason for participating was to meet someone with similar interests from another country.

My friend and fellow quilt guild member, Diane was also a member of the Angel Swap.  She new that I was disappointed.  So she took it upon herself to become my ‘Secret Angel’.  Tonight at our guild’s board meeting she presented me with this collection of quilting must haves:  a ruler tote for a 6″x24″ ruler and small tote with pocket:

and

Of course my cat Dusty had to check everything out.  It looks like she approves.

Thank you Diane.  You are a special friend!

There's always time to quilt!