Getting Ready for California !!

I'm busy getting things ready for our trip to California . . . we'll be visiting my son and his family . . . and I will NOT have a sewing machine for almost 2 weeks . . . so I am taking my English Paper Piecing with me . . . I will be able to work on them on the flights . . . and they have a lovely back yard with comfy furniture on the patio . . . the perfect place to do hand sewing . . . when I'm not doing wonderful fun things with my granddaughters . . . !!

I have had these 2 quilts in the works for a long while . . . so decided these are the ones I'm taking with me . . . over the weekend I cut and basted over 600 pieces . . . so I wouldn't have to deal with that part . . . here are some of the pieces all bagged up . . . ready to go . . . doesn't look like 600 pieces . . . but it is !!

I'm planning to use 60 blocks in this quilt . . . I have 35 finished . . . only 25 to go . . . and then I will be sewing it together . . . I'm hoping to get it finished while I'm away . . . then off to the quilters when I get back . . . it will make a nice quilt to have out for Fall . . .

this is the layout with the brown star points . . . the blocks are just laid out on the brown fabric here . . . when I sew it together I will be putting the brown triangles in . . .

now here is the red and white quilt . . . same block but a different layout . . . no triangle star points in this one . . . the way it's put together it makes a secondary design of tumbling blocks . . . I have all the blocks made for this one . . . and have started to put it together . . . so I should be able to finish it while I'm away . . .

I'm not sure it will be the size I want it to be . . . if it isn't I'm planning to use this as a center medallion . . . I found a beautiful red fabric that has a white scallop design going through it . . . I can use this to border the center medallion . . . then I will do a row of star blocks as another border . . . and finish it off with a nice border print . . . we'll see how it goes . . .  

I can't wait to have these both finished . . . I really like them . . . and I have the quilter booked for the beginning of June !! . . . guess I have to finish them !! . . .

I'm Liking Sashiko . . .

so . . . I tried the Sashiko on my own . . . and I was doing pretty well . . . but then I found a video online and the instructions were so good . . . so I changed how I was holding the needle and feeding the fabric . . . and wow . . . what a difference . . .

I'm sure if I took a class I would learn a lot of new tricks . . . and that's my plan . . . just as soon as I have some free time . . . LOL . . .

here is the 1st one finished . . . well the Sashiko is finished . . . now I have to decide what to do with the piece . . .

I went back to the shop and bought a few more pieces to work on . . . we'll be going to California soon and I will need things to work on during the flights etc . . . here is the one I'm working on now . . . I fell in love with the lime green thread . . . unfortunately it doesn't show in this photo . . .