Selvages, Octagons & Books

Look what someone gifted me at guild this past week!

The selvage tub is getting full again so it will soon be time for another quilt but I don't know yet what it will be. I'd prefer a wallhanging as I'd probably use it more than a bedsize quilt and most importantly, it wouldn't need as many selvages! It takes a really l-o-n-g time to save enough selvages and I certainly couldn't do it without help from friends.
Quilting is my stress reliever and this past week, I started two new quilting projects. Does that give you an idea what kind of week it was for me?

Here's part of the first project, which will be a wallhanging, not sewn together yet just cut and up on a design wall. Its my version of a quilt I saw on Quiltsalott's blog. Warning: Try not to spend too much time looking at the pictures of delicious cakes on her post. Scroll down to the last photo. For some reason, I think about the cakes often and wonder what they taste like! I will probably never know because Quiltsalott lives in Australia.

I'd like to include a sunflower in this wallhanging but I need one that looks a little more modern than what I'm finding in the quilt shops. How can I live in Kansas and not have a sunflower in it? Any suggestions where I could find a sunflower that will work with the fabrics you see?

I'm still gathering fabric for the second project which is a bedsize quilt. For me, searching and hunting for just the right fabric is just as much fun as seeing the quilt finished!

Last week, I received these two books as birthday presents. In fact, my second project is from Kathy Doughty's book, "Making Quilts ..." I think I'm drawn to these kinds of quilts because they use vintage designs as their inspiration and, of course, the bright colors.

The month of July is already almost half over and lately it seems my posts are getting fewer and farther between. I hope to do a little better than my only one post in June this month.

Till next time, Mayleen