February Finishes

I have a friend I email back and forth with nearly every day, even though she just lives down the street and round the corner. She's busy, I'm busy, so we email. I went to an operetta with her Sunday, and she complained that she'd been doing most of the writing lately. She said she won't hear from me for several days, then I write her a five-page email.

I've been like that since I was a kid, hating to sit down and write, procrastinating, then spending an hour writing a really long letter. My husband deployed often during our 30+ years of married life, and it drove him crazy too. Now here I am, doing the same thing with blogging. I guess it's feast or famine with me, and it's a habit I'd sure like to break. I am not, however, going to write a lengthy blog post today. I'll spread it out over a few days. Maybe, lol.

I have been off in ten different directions in the sewing room over the last month or so and having a ball. I did finish three quilts in the month of February. Two were ufo's, and that's always a good feeling.

The first Quilt of Valor for the year has been finished, and I started the next one right on time on March 1. Credit where credit is due: "Tree Farm Throw" from a Thimbleberries booklet called Triple Treat. It is perhaps just shy of the required size for a QOV, but I think it will do. I named it "Let Freedom Ring".

The Candystripes quilt is finished too, and I am SO glad to have this one out of my hair. The top of the next charity baby quilt, with the 36-patch blocks, is finished and waiting to be quilted.

Lastly, my Lazy Sunday is finished at long last. Other than the fact that I wished I had mixed up my background fabrics, I like it a lot. I quilted it with a feather pantograph--I love feathers. Another project I am very happy to have done and on a bed. Yay! February was a good month!

Credit where credit is due: designed by Bonnie Hunter, published in Quiltmaker magazine.

I finished a couple of knitting projects too. I'm not a hat person but decided I might be a headband person. Sometimes my ears get numb when the winter wind is blowing, so I knitted this up in just a day with some chunky Malabrigo I'd forgotten about in one of my bins.

I also finished this Honey Bee sweater from a pattern on Ravelry. I knit it with Berroco Remix, a favorite yarn of mine. The knitting and seaming has been done since November, just needed to set in one sleeve. Occasionally procrastination does pay off; not so in this case, I could have been wearing it all winter. We just had 4 or 5 inches of snow yesterday though, so still some winter left up here.

Progress with the kitchen redo is glacier-like. The new drywall on the ceiling is up, but there is nothing of interest to see yet. We're considering laying cork flooring, which we have no experience with. Glue-down seems to be the way to go; multiple bad reviews for the click together tiles, especially if it gets wet.

August Finish

I haven't sewn a thing this week except a handful of border units for the Lazy Sunday mystery. I'm still not finished with Part 3, but all I have left to do is the border units, and I have nearly 60 left to make. I've done all the cutting for Part 4 though, so once I finish the border units, I'll be able to start sewing the top together.

This is not the final layout. There's a row missing across the bottom (because it wouldn't all fit on the design wall), and there's sashing that goes in between the blocks.

I want to have the top completed by the end of the month.

The Curvy quilt is now quilted, bound, and labeled. My quilt chapter has decided to do it as a workshop, but not until next year, so I have some time before I have to start on the second one.

The Turning Twenty has been quilted as well but I'm still working on hand stitching the binding. One side done, three to go.

The fabric I used on the back was one of those what-was-I-thinking purchases, and I think I bought 10 yards of it. It actually worked out well for the back of this quilt, and I got rid of 6 yards. It was called Rainbow Jungle on the selvage, which I think is a pretty good name for the quilt.

This pantograph from Linda Taylor was the most jungle-y looking design I had, so I used it for the quilting.

I plan to have this one done by the end of the month too.

The Bugs in a Jar strippy was quilted with a dragonfly pantograph. Such a cute print for a kid's quilt, and I love the bright colors. The back is a lime green flannel. I've got another one of these made up, only with yellow strips where the orange is. I never get tired of these strippys, and they are all donated.

I doubt I'll get the binding on this one done by the end of the month.

Credit where credit is due: Curvy designed by Mark Lipinski, from Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting May/June 2013

Monday Sew Day

I finished all 23 green and purple blocks today, and I'm done with Part 2 of the Lazy Sunday mystery. Yay! My goal was to get that done by the end of the month. I got the latest issue of McCall's Quilting in the mail today, so that tells me Quiltmaker magazine will probably arrive within the week, and that issue will show the last part--and the reveal.

There are purple corner squares in two of these blocks that look like a white/purple plaid, which I didn't notice until I put the photo up. I find them a bit distracting and may have to take them out.

Barb and Sandy came over today, as they do every Monday. Barb did not work on her longarm today, but cut out pieces for a Turning Twenty instead. Sandy finished her little Halloween quilt today, and I thought she did a great job. Sandy has been quilting not quite a year and a half, and she is fearless when it comes to taking on a new challenge. She mentioned today that she is interested in paper piecing as a future project. I love paper piecing, so it will be fun teaching her how to do it, when she's ready.

Lazy Sunday

It wasn't really a lazy Sunday. I was busy all day cleaning my basement sewing room and doing more sewing. I am still working on Part 2 of Bonnie Hunter's Lazy Sunday mystery from Quiltmaker magazine, but not too much more to go. These units, hundreds of them, are all done for the first two parts of the mystery.

Now I have to make 24 purple and green blocks, and when I get to Part 3, 24 orange and pink blocks. I've made one of each to see how they'll look. I am so liking these colors!