Catching up on quilting projects

My daughter Amy is inspiring me to get back to quilting. I've been unable to do much for some time, for various reasons that I won't go into.  I've kept up with quilting with applique, but piecing has fallen by the wayside. So, I am trying to finish a few projects that have been in limbo.

 I have finished all of the Christmas shopping, almost all of the mailing, except to mom & Susan. So, I'm having some fun.

The first project I'm trying to complete started out with learning to paper piece stars from one of Carol Doak's paper piecing books.  It was quite a few years ago. I was just learning, and you can see that I pieced it with white thread, that clearly shows up, in spite of trying to color the thread with a marker.  Also, some of the center points are not matched well.

I originally put these stars together to make a table runner. And then it just sat, sat  & sat.  I finally realized I am not a table runner person.  I took them apart, and laid them out as a wall hanging.  Fortunately I was able to find the berry fabric and had enough to use for setting triangles. I was going to use a green, but then I didn't like the way it looked. When I laid it out,   I managed to put the worst pieced star right in the center.  But, what the heck?  I like it, and am going to pin it tonight so I can quilt it tomorrow. Maybe have it up by Christmas.

Not the best star, but I can live with it.

I think I've improved in fabric selection since then.

I think it will be nice, and I'll bind it in green. I will try to quilt it in gold metallic.  That may be crazy.

The next project is a scrap quilt.  I made quite a few blocks several years ago, taking them with me when we had to stay in Houston for weeks at a time.  I put the blocks together, then it just sat.  I measured it last week, and decided that it was one row too long, and one row not wide enough. I took off the bottom row, and added it to the side. Fortunately I had 4 extra blocks that I needed for that other row.  So, I've cut the border out of the same dotty fabric that I used as a center strip on all of the blocks.  I'll try to pin one side of the borders tonight.

Dotty border

Scrappy quilt--I used the dotty fabric as a constant center stripe on each block. then randomly used strips of fabric. I pieced it on paper I cut into 6 1/2 squares.  Next time I will piece it on muslin and leave it in.

I do love bright colors. Isn't it fun?