Quilting Time

I'm spending some time today to decompress in my quilting studio.  You know I realized today that even cleaning up in your studio can be very relaxing.  After all you are touching fabric, deciding what to do with it, pressing fabric, cutting fabric, sewing some stitches.  What could be better?  Have you ever wondered what people who have no hobbies at all do to decompress?  I believe part of the drug additction issues in our country could be solved with a great hobby.  We have to keep our minds and hands busy to keep from tumbling down into a pit of despair.  I am so blessed to have a hobby that I can share with friends and family.  The time I get to spend with my mother, grand daughter and friends quilting is priceless. 

The first thing I am working on today is cutting some scraps and kitting up some blocks to use as a leader-ender project.  I'm using Bonnie Hunter's spool blocks this time.  You can find the pattern here.  http://quiltville.blogspot.com 
I love Bonnie's blog and books.  These will be great to have as an easy project. 
I'm going to kit them 10 to a bag so it will be easy to keep up with how many I've made.  Great use of scraps as you only need a 1.5 inch x 7 inch piece of background fabric and 1.5 inch x 9.5 inch piece of spool fabric.  Great for using up those scraps in your bag.

Here is the practice block I made.  This is the 7 pieces you need for the block.  4 squares 1.5 x 1.5 inches of spool fabric, 2 rectangles 1.5 x 3.5 inches background fabric and 1 rectangle 1.5  3.5 inches of spool fabric.

 Sew the squares diagonal to the background fabric, watching carefully the direction of the angle.

 Trim off the extra leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

 I finger pressed the seams.

 Then sew the two spool edge pieces to the middle spool piece and magic, a pieced spool block.

 These blocks are 3.5 inches square and will finish as 3 inch blocks!  Aren't they precious.

Sewing.......my heart sings!

Now to cut and kit up as many blocks as I can this morning. 
Quilting and happy,
Shelia