Quilts for Bulgaria

September means summer has ended, in a way.  We still have warm days--Indian Summer if you will--and it still feels like summer but there's a chill in the air in the early morning and there's a dryness in the air that comes with Autumn, unlike the extreme humidity we have in the summer.  I love Autumn!  I suffer through the hot and humid days of summer, and daily give thanks for the swimming pool that feels soooo refreshing at the end of a hot day of doing house and garden chores.  When the air changes to the cool and dry air of Autumn, I know that, once again, I've survived another summer. To celebrate September, I even baked today--fresh peach crisp. Yummy!

Autumn means I get more excited about quilting again. I have been working on quilts all summer, but not as much as I do in the rest of the year. Somehow, it's hard to sit under a quilt sewing on binding when it's 95 degrees out and the humidity is nearly that high as well.  Know what I mean?  

Last Fall, my guild began a block exchange. The first block was Friendship Star done in Autumn colors.  I love making that star block and I must have made about 20 or so to enter in the exchange.  The way it works is that you get 1 chance to win for each block you contribute. Well,one of my 20 or so chances won the whole kit and caboodle! About 60 blocks all together!  And in my favorite Fall colors.  Jo had asked if I could make a couple of quilts to bring as gifts for people she works with in Bulgaria and I decided to use the Friendship Stars to make 2 quilted throws and here they are:  

This one has light stars on dark backgrounds so I used light fabric for sashing and borders and the other quilt has dark stars on light backgrounds and I used dark fabric for the sashings and borders.

I machine quilted them in similar freehand designs that look pretty good close up but I couldn't get a good picture of them with my camera, so just take my word for it.  :)

This table quilt is one I made to coordinate with a set of place mats. I used fabric that was printed with a variety of fruits--oranges, blueberries, grapes, cherries, and so forth--with a white on white contrast.  I just did a meander over the entire quilt  and I like how it turned out. EXCEPT. . . When I looked at the picture in my camera, I found my "humility block!"  Way too late to correct it!   I don't know how I missed it--must have been that the heat and humidity addled my brain and eyesight as well.

If you don't know about the humility block, it comes from the Amish, I believe, who deliberately make an error in their projects, so it's not perfect. Only God, they believe, is perfect. In my quilting, I never have to deliberately add a mistake--I make enough of them accidentally to keep me very humble!

Don and I will be leaving for Bulgaria and Germany in 9 days and the Friendship Star quilts will be going with us, along with all sorts of other things Jo wants us to bring.  I'm getting really excited to go on this trip!  I haven't seen Jo for 17 months except on Skype, and before that she was in Texas for nearly a year. She's my youngest child and I'd like to think that she's my baby, but she's the most independent of the 3 children.  After a week in Bulgaria, which Jo is arranging, the 3 of us will spend a week in Germany, traveling between Munich (Oktoberfest!!!!) and Frankfurt.  I can't wait! I'll try to take pictures but being in Germany during Oktoberfest may mean some more-than-usual out of focus pix!  But we'll be having a good time!