BIG FINISH!

           My Ocean Waves is completed.                                          TA DA!  ( Cymbal Crash!)

Here she is up close and personal on a dreary not sunny day.

You can notice the quilting down by my long armor, Judee Purdy. 

It was completed in triangle pieces. 

       

Beautiful border to coordinate with the quilting.

A better picture of the piecing, but not as much of the colors which are warm.

Most of the fabrics were Kim Diehl. Although the background was Katie's blouse by Betsy Chutchian.

The back was a wide back also by Kim Diehl.  I warm Mandala pattern.

The binding is scrappy and took a couple days to hand sew. Yeah for tv and streaming program!

And  huge thank you to my husband for assisting with the photographic hanging of the quilt outdoors. 

Finale!

TA DA!  (  2nd Cymbal Crash!)   

(I am married to a percussionist and have 2 children who followed in his footsteps.)

It's SPRING!

 The calendar and the vernal equinox say that it is spring today. And I am truly jealous of more southern states that are lucky enough to feel warmer breezes and see daffodils and such. Wisconsin is NOT ready ready for spring. I can say that I have seen several robins arrive. Where they get there food is a complete mystery to me as we are between snow storms here. No buds, no blooms, no green here. 

Here are some lovely shots of the surrounding roads outside the city showing the current status of our weather.

And I did make some St. Patrick's Day crème puffs with mint green filling and chocolate and sprinkles on the top. Delicious!

So my sewing is progressing. I have my ocean waves back from the quilter and have made a scrap binding for it. My goal is to finish the binding this week. 

I also added a 3rd row to my 9 patch scrap quilt. Each row requires 64  3 1/2 inch 9 patches. And many units are already made for the next one. 

I was all set to assemble a quilt where I have made 60  hourglass units with 4 squares ( 5 1/2 inches)   and 110 mini ones (2 1/2 inches)  I ordered a blue fabric that was to be more navy for the setting. But it turned out to be royal blue. So now what to do with 4 and 1/2 yards of it???? And I have to find another navy blue. 

My quilting goals for the week:

Attach and hand sew binding Ocean Waves

Finish quilting  Mini trees and maybe mini hourglass quilt

2 blocks for Snowmen.

A Flimsy!

 I didn't realize how long ago I had blogged. It has been a busy week sewing and sewing. Which is just perfect for this winter weather.  We are going from winter storm to winter storm. Last week we were to get blizzard conditions and snow.  Schools canceled in the late afternoon on the day before.  When I woke in the morning, there was not even a flake on the ground.  But it did arrive later that morning.  Last night, we had much the same expecting ice and sleet and such.  It looks bleary, and has tiny snow pellets coming down. So far not too slippery. And schools are out again today. 

Here is someone who likes the snow and enjoys all it can bring. I just need to add eyes and a mouth to donate to our Block of the Month for guild. 

And I did get the round on my Stay at Home Round Robin.

But I am behind 3 rounds. Ugh.  What to do?

But my Piece de Resistance!  

My Ocean Waves are together!  All 64 blocks!   I even attached a 6 inch border of the background to the sides and it is already at my most wonderful quilter.   Many hours into putting them together over a couple days. I am so relieved and almost feel anti-climatic about it. My plan it to enter it in the guild's show the first of April for the theme of Triangles.   There are 1664 of them in this quilt. I did utilize Triangles on a Roll.  And I have 4 leftover blocks!  How did THAT happen. 

Here is it draped over my couch. Not enough light or space to display it anywhere else. 

Off to the my longarm quilter!

Round robin and more

 So I did finish my first round before Monday even.   But then my colors were a little unbalanced for me and some of the spools were crooked, meaning facing the wrong way. so I took off 2 sides and resewed them.  Fun right?

I did plan my row for the star round.  And I decided to add star points to make the overall quilt look like a sawtooth star with extra points.

It is now evening and I probably won't finish it tonight. 

So here is the statis: 

I have done sewing all week like a mad hen.  The progress is to say that ALL of my ocean waves blocks are done and it makes me SO happy.   I started putting them together even.  Much easier than I had thought it would be.  Yes!  

Short goals finishing

 I did indeed finish the first round of my Round Robin completing all 20 of the little spool blocks. I will have to confess that I do not like flipped corners. They look great, are easy to make.  But matching up the diagonal seams is difficult no matter how precise I make them. The size is now at 21 inches square.

My favorite handwork finish is a little pillow made from some cross stitch I have been working on. Yeah for a Valentine project.  2 and a half inches by 8 inches. 

More 9 patch blocks  totally 7 blocks.

And more ocean wave blocks. 41 completed blocks.  18 without  the large corners.  and 7 more to assemble.   Lots of progress. But I need to get the top together in 2 weeks.

Startitis: the obsession of creating more quilting projects

 So my machine has been buzzing away.  I love having days home to sew.   Sometimes, I like to be a hermit. I have made 16 of my ocean waves blocks and am on schedule to finish for my guild's show. But I am getting worried at the prospect of matching all these blocks together.

And I am working on the 2nd blocks of my Merry Merry Christmas. 

I even started quilting my UFO for January: Ye Old Snowman.

I used a wool scrap batting giving it puffiness. 

Another block of the Sewcialites 2 completed.

So you think that would be enough?   Of course, not.  I started as a leader and ender 9 patches made of 1 inch squares.  Inspiration from Gretchen's Little Corner.  

And then I remembered the Stay at Home Round Robin. I loved making it last year. But got stuck after the 3rd round.   I pulled out the fabrics and have plenty.  First block made from the Grid Girls mystery.  I struggled  worked at the cat's cradle block and found I had a ruler to make it as well. Hooray. 2 versions: I can't decide. 

Busy sewing week

 New year!  New goals!   

1) Progress on Merry Merry Snowmen! 

I have not only pieced the blocks for area 1 and 2, I have appliqued the features and took 2 evenings to add the hand details:  Block is 14 by 22 inches

2) Working on my Ocean Waves

Several more blocks pieced.  They require meticulous seam allowances to meet at the corners. And that requires removing stitches to fix them.  Ahhh! the joys of unstitching. 

2)  Sewcialites 2  

New block completed. The video by Kimberly Jolly of Fat Quarter Shop is helpful and I like how she showed techniques for square in a square ( with a paper piece) as well as alternative colorings for variations of the block.