Whirl to the end

 And another one bites the dust.  This quilt was from the Give it a Whirl blog hop in March of 2024. 

I enjoyed assembling the spring colors and based my design off a picture. I do enjoy a good math project to figure out blocks and sizes. 

I was only able to finish the top at that time of the blog hop and it has sat on my pile of tops to quilt. I have been on a roll to get projects finished. This one was next to do. 

I added some strips along the edges to frame it and then found another couple of green pieces for the back and binding. 

Using up some more scraps of batting, this time I used a wool one that is more puffy than the usual 80/20 cotton. 

I still didn't feel like tackling a challenging quilt design and utilized painter's tape for spacing, quilting in vertical rows. 

                   

And another quilt top finished!   Hooray!   ( About 40 inches square)

Getting things done! Patriotic picnic!

 Last year ( as well as this year) I have/am participating in Stash Bee. And my month was November. So I somewhat followed a Venetanas quilt pattern a free pattern from Timeless Treasures, adjusting the measurements to become 14 inch blocks. These were 3 different block patterns. I included directions and colors and each other bee member makes one and send it to me. 

My blocks were then made it into a picnic quilt.  It was fun getting blocks in the mail. 

I didn't want to sew anything that required too much thinking as I worried about Mom.  So this was an easy project to tackle.  Just some straight lines  and finish the last 2 blocks. 

Layering on the floor.

I got it easily put together, and found a backing from my stash. It is a little light for a picnic quilt, but I really need to start using my stash.  It is hard to tell but the print is a light plaid of blue and red lines.

So I decided the easiest way to quilt it was to just do straight lines.   I borrowed some 1 inch painter's tape from my husband and utilized it for my spacing.  After a couple days of quilting and a trip to the store for more thread, IT IS DONE!  

It is so nice to complete projects hanging around; this ended up 54 inches square. 

Bee done wall hanging!

 It has been a little crazy.  I made another trip to Indianapolis to see Mom as well as help make the decision to add palliative care to her nursing home. She is having more health issues such as a wound on her leg refusing to heal. It has led to swelling and an infection and after several months. 

Hopefully the care coming to her more frequently will aide her healing and give her some added attention. At 93 she is still able to read even captions on the tv.  She can carry on a conversation as long as she is remembering which is not consistent. Not too bad for her age! 

But then the infection spread up her leg.  And she got a cold.  And we struggled to understand how she was doing with the quick change in her. We will see if she gets better this week. 

And in between, I have managed to finish another UFO sitting around. 

This time it is a Bee themed wall hanging with Deb Strain fabrics. I know it is over 5 years old, but can't find it in my records. 

I took a panel and followed a pattern to frame the blocks, but only made 4 of them for the wall hanging. The quilting worked out much better this time; I didn't use my walking foot. 

Here is the back of the panel where I did some free motion around the motif. The rest is straight lines.

One section close up

 You can see the cute honeycomb fabric. 

Wedding presents

 A dear former student of mine has gotten married.  I knew her over several years of high school and have kept in touch getting together usually at Christmas. She is such a sweetheart . 

I like to make a tree skirt for wedding gifts. ( great idea from another amazing quilter) . So I pulled out my Christmas box and patterns and found just what I needed for the project. A couple of days later and ta da: Tree Skirt done;  about 42 inches round.  The pattern is from 30 years ago when I made mine.

( I also cleaned out my Christmas fabrics throwing scraps away and preparing a donation bag of leftovers.)

A pretty poinsettia print, a red fabric with white snowflakes, and a green print ( not black)

The second part of the present are 2 Christmas stockings, personalized and trimmed by me.