The leftovers from the recycled wool Fireside Star quilt were sitting there staring at me, so I needed to do something with them.   I saw some similar pillows in a quilt shop, and thought they would be a good way to use up some of the scraps.  I had to use flannel for the green, as there wasn't any green wool.  The stitching is NOT hand buttonhole stitch.  I don't DO handwork if I can help it!  My machine has a very nice double buttonhole stitch, so I use it.

By the time I got done with the pillows, there were no large pieces of wool left, but it was still sitting there staring at me.  So--let's use it all up.  I can't bear to see scraps of non-traditional fabrics sitting around.  Quilting fabric scraps abound, but the others I seldom use, so don't really want to give them space.  So after  a 1 1/2 hour search, I finally unearthed the nearly 30 year old bear pattern.  Patchwork bears--so cute.  They're ready to spruce up the space for Christmas.  My 5 year old great-granddaughter Bella was here when I was making one of them, and when it came to the stuffing, she was eager to help.  She's not ready for the sewing machine yet, but the stuffing was a way she could be involved.  When she can sit still for 5 minutes, and reach the foot control, I'll teach her to sew.

I promised that I would post pictures of the finished Fireside Star quilt.  It is already on my bed, and ready for me to try it out tonight.  Can't wait to snuggle up under that wool and flannel!.

Here's the whole thing.  As I said, because I was using recycled wool clothing, no pieces were big enough to do large areas, so several different backgrounds were used, as well as two fabrics for the large star points, and the border was the leftovers.  Obviously it is not going to be making the rounds of the shows, but know what?  I took it to my quilt guild for Show and Tell today, and they loved it.  At least they said they did!

A little closer in toward the center.  The quilting is a bit more visible.

Really zeroing in on the center.  I love that quilting design and will most likely do it again.

Same design in the corner.  The tan piece was maybe coat fabric, as it was heavier than some of the others.  Really makes the pinwheels pop.

The quilting is much more visible on the back.  As I said in the previous blog, this is purely a practice piece, and has bumps,bobbles, and birdnests.  But it was a great learning experience!.  Anyway, done is better than perfect, as they say.

I've been very lax about posting to my blog.  I'm starting a new one associated with my website and will try to be more diligent about keeping up with it.  Things have been crazy busy for me lately.  Someone once told me that when you get older, it takes longer to even turn around.  Maybe I'm turning around too much!
Recently my daughter gave me a box of old wool clothes that she had been saving to make a braided rug, which didn't look like happening any time soon.  I deconstructed them and washed them in hot water, then dried on high in the dryer.  Not exactly felted, but dense and clean!.  After staring at them for a few days, and being in the midst of another project (Fireside Star) from the book Flannel Gatherings, I laid that project aside for a while and proceeded to make a wool quilt for my bed.  Needles to say, it is full of interesting things (some call them mistakes).  First of all, there wasn't enough of any one fabric to follow the pattern, so I substituted where necessary. Next, I should have pressed the seams open to reduce bulk.  I quilted it on my Tin Lizzie, and had some problems with the thickness of the 3 layers of wool quilt top, batting, and flannel backing (I wanted it to be WARM).  So there are lots of bobbles and bumps, but overall, I am satisfied with it, and I will be the one sleeping under it, so that is ok.  My main reason for making this quilt, since I rarely use patterns, was to bring my longarm quilting to a new level.  I pretty much do meanders and feathers, and this one looked like a challenge.  I found the designs not as difficult as they looked at first, once I got a good look at them.
I'm posting the picture of the unquilted top here and will post the finished product when I get the binding completed.