I Love a Good Star(t)

I know, I know, nothing new gets started until something old gets finished. But I just love a good start. This has been rolling around in my brain for months now. I knew I wanted something string pieced as a center for my medallion class I'm taking with Gwen Marston in June. Something with cheddar or red with cream strings.  Red won out and here is my star(t). Center 4 patch is 8" finished and this block will finish at 24"

I had a few minutes while a backing got washed and dried. I'm finally in the mood to long arm quilt so I loaded up a liberated star quilt I am donating to a hospital foundation.  They are raising monies for a digital mammography machine, they only needed $2 mil, but my g.f. has less than $100,000 to go! Now the quilt has been loaded and I can get started on it tomorrow night after my massage therapy!

 I haven't been energized or motivated to machine quilt for the past few weeks, but I've been a piecing fool. I guess we can't do it all, all the time. Now that I've got my secret sewing ready for auditioning backgrounds,  I took the few minutes to play with strings tonight.

And just so you don't think I've abandoned my Girlfriends quilt, I've been diligent in using the strips for leaders/enders and I've got a few sewn together. I'm loving this quilt so much more than I imagined.

I'm poking along with my hand quilting and applique, a few stitches here and there, but each thread takes me that much closer to finished.
I hope your week has been good to you and you've got to stitch a bit!
Sharon