Spring Has Sprung

Happy Spring! (Today, my needlebook is the perfect accessory)

Where does the time go? And why do I never seem to have time to blog? (Or sew, or craft, or order lampshades, or call the appliance repair guy......)

While I did finish the Drunken Irishman St. Patrick's Day table quilt the day before St. Patrick's Day

I'm not thrilled with it. It was an experiment in 'made fabric', and in order to get it on the table before the 17th, the binding is machine sewn (oh, the horror!). No stellar quilting (shamrocks on the blocks and ditch-stitched), but it got finished, so that's one for the plus side.

And as soon as that puppy hit the washing machine, I began

DEAR JANE!!!!!!! Now, I'm especially pleased with those blocks because I dusted off my math skills and measured everything out of the book, down to the 1/8".

And, as usual, there was a red-headed stepchild among the bunch

HATE IT! Not sure if redoing the center applique square-edged circle will help it,  or if I shouldn't waste my time and sacrifice this one to the Gods of Lost Cause and start over with a different print (and a better job of appliqueing). I've got 2 years to figure it out, so it just got tossed into the box.

I was able to score a reasonably priced copy of this

off of the Sew Its For Sale Yahoo Group. The lovely lady who sold it to me also went to the trouble to transfer the registration to me with EQ. It's a little daunting (but you know how I have this fear of my EQ7 software), but I think I'll be able to quickly figure out how to print out paper piecing templates and the cutting instructions for the more complicated blocks. If not, there's a lesson plan in the book that I will just have to slog through (after I call to have the icemaker fixed, and order the shades for the kitchen pendant lights).

I also used that group (Sew Its For Sale) to put out a call for more Kaffe Fassett fabrics to supplement my dwindling stash

I was hoping I could get a lot done with that jelly roll of 40 different prints, but I've quickly learned that a lot of the cutting for these 4.5" blocks requires pieces that measure 2-3/4" wide (aarrggh!!!). In the meantime, I've won a couple of eBay auctions for FQs and we'll see what I turn up from my ISO ad.

And, as always, because of my short attention span, I've managed to work on a couple other 'rogue' projects since the weekend.

I caught up on Pat Sloan's Globetrotter BOMs. Pictured are February and March. This finished quilt will be my first Quilt of Valor, hence the patriotic theme. Not that I've got a lot of patriotic fabrics, but I'll muddle through (and my sister offered a raid on her red/white/blue stash since it's going to Quilts of Valor--thanks Sandy!)

And since I am ADDICTED to all things missing Malaysian 'Triple 7'--I watch CNN until 3 am, and have also been known to scan satellite images on Tomnod until the wee hours--I've picked up my Jingle Applique quilt (that did not make it to a finish for Christmas 2013). Hoping I have it done for this Christmas.

This is the last small applique block. I just need to do the bird heads. Then the huge center medallion applique and 4 pieced blocks and it's ready to put together. Another project for my spare time.

I'll be back working on some more 'Jane' this weekend, so check in on me to see how I'm doing.

Happy First Day of Spring!

It's Done! (Well, almost.)

Alrighty then. After much, much, much practice ripping out seams (at least 100 of those border rows got ripped and resewn), the top for the Kaffe Fassett scrappy quilt is done. It needs a name, and it needs to be sandwiched and quilted, but I think I have to do a little drawing for the quilting on the top before I sandwich it.

Not sure what I'm going to do, but I figure that, at the moment, there are 2 quilts ahead of this one in the quilting queue that also need to be sandwiched, so I've got plenty of time to mull this one over. I definitely want to enter it in the County Fair, which is mid-August, so that would mean I've got until the last week of July to figure it out (ha ha!)

As I was nearing the end of the massive undertaking of ripping out quarter inch seams to replace them with SCANT (tattoo reminder) seams, in order to match up those little squares with the larger squares of the inner border,  I did a little look-see through the stash to see if I had anything that would work for the #Aurifil Designer Block of the Month. I pulled these Shades of Black from Moda half yards from my gray stash and went through my 'red and white quilt of the future' stash and pulled out a few red with an orange cast half yards. For the background, I just happened to have 8 yards of Moda Bella Solid Bleached White (which is a light cream) that I was saving for the Esther Aliu BOM which I may opt out of (I haven't started it yet and it is some intense hand applique, not to mention I've got AT LEAST 5 other unfinished/in progress applique quilts to finish).

These are my first blocks for this quilt. Very modern, don't you think? I made two of the blocks because I really like spool blocks, and without knowing what the rest of the blocks look like, I can always duplicate blocks I like in the overall quilt instead of making blocks that don't appeal to me. And I wanted to use all 8 fabrics that I picked out on spools.

And since I'm hanging out on the Pat Sloan Facebook Page where this project is somewhat headquartered, I decided that I would also make Pat Sloan's BOM, Globetrotter. WTH! What's one more unfinished internet BOM project in the studio closet, I ask. :-)

I like working on a project with a hundred other quilters where you post photos and people comment, and ask questions, and make suggestions, and offer encouragement.  What really inspired me to join this project is that I have 'Make a Quilt of Valor' on my 2014 'Quilty Things I Want To Do' list, so if I used those random Patriotic FQs I had on this quilt's center medallion, I could kill two birds with one stone.

This will be my first Quilt of Valor. We'll have to see how it all comes together as not only do I have no idea what the next block will look like, but I'm fresh out of the fabrics I used in the block above. Should be interesting!

And finally, with Mardi Gras around the corner, I NEEDED a new pincushion. So in between ripping out seams on Sunday I whipped out this one. The crown is a metal votive holder. I thought the fabric (leftover from a Guild challenge from a few years ago) added a rather 'royal' touch.

Well, I've got a busy, busy day today. In addition to working both jobs, our houseguests are returning tomorrow afternoon (my motivator to wash floors and shampoo carpet today), so I'd better get to work.

Check back tomorrow evening. I need your help. I want to know what you think of my fabric choices for a workshop I'm attending on Sunday.

Enjoy your Thursday!