Via Airmail

I'm thinking of calling this one Via Airmail.  It is made of the leftover postage stamp blocks from projects of the past.  Postage stamp blocks are so versatile.  The binding was finished during the Superbowl on Sunday, but today is the first day I've been home during daylight.  It was an early release day, so Lacrosse practice was done by 4:30.  Robotics started at 5:30, but Kurt took Ryan down and is picking up Chinese food on the way home.  Yum!  The hard part will be making sure that someone stays awake long enough to pick him up again at 10.  Yikes!

 The back comes from some pink and green flannel leftovers.  I think the pink  was on clearance, and the green was part of a baby quilt perhaps?  I've grown really fond of the frame square backing.  It almost looks preplanned, but makes good use of relatively random amounts of two fabrics.

 Finally, here is a shot of the quilting.  It is a pantograph!  That is two in a row.  Such a departure from my usual freeform style.  Just two more days until Science Fair.  I'm trying to help Anna assemble her board in between typing this, so forgive me if the sentences seem fragmented.

Molasses Sunday

Some days I move faster than others,  Today I am moving like syrup on a cold day.  

I set up a little assembly line yesterday and got all of the pieces ready to go for patience corners.  We ended up having to run around most of the day, and a little fabric cutting was all I could manage.   

So Sydney now has some new Ikea drawers for her closet, and Kurt got his car back from the dealer in Orlando and I have some antibiotics that the doctor says should help me feel better any day now.  After all that running, hanging out on the couch last night was a top priority.  

 This morning though, I was able to sew together the February column along blocks. I decided to just put pink in two of the squares and use light brown for the corners.  I think it adds nice motion to the blocks.  I was surprised when I laid the blocks out next to the January blocks to find that they were not the same length!  I had to go and dig out a tape measure to find out that January was too long by 1.5 inches and February was too short by .5 inches.  I will work on making all the math add up later I suppose.  Ideally, all the rows should be 72.5 inches unfinished.

 While playing with the browns, I was happy to find this football fabric in honor of super bowl Sunday.  Maybe I will stitch it down during the game.  We are supposed to go to a party, but I am thinking of letting Kurt go without me.  I'm sure he wouldn't mind.

That would give me some extra time to finally finish the binding on my postage stamps.  I thought it would get finished up during Lacrosse on Monday, but not quite.  Then it was so cold on Friday that I went to a nearby mall and hid in a restaurant eating fries until practice was over.  Poor Sydney said she could hardly hold the stick because her hands were numb.

Check out this photo I got yesterday from Jill who does not have a blog.  She made it for last year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Isn't it fabulous?  I really love the look of the black and white prints with the rainbow brights.  It looks like she is also on the binding phase.  Hope she is enjoying some slow stitching too on this Superbowl Sunday.  Be sure to visit Kathy for more slow stitching and Cindy for Oh Scrap!  

Quick Finish

Did you know that a group of geese on land is a gaggle, but in flight they are called a skein, team or wedge?  These postage stamp stamp blocks are arranged into a V formation that reminds me of a group of geese in flight, and I was searching for names.  I'll have to ponder that while I work on the binding.
After training today I had a little burst of energy and finished off the quilting while the girls were at Lacrosse.  It is almost time to pick Ryan up from robotics, so the timing is just about perfect.

Hit a Wall

 All of my handwork time for the last few days has been spent on finishing up Jane.  So here is some handwork to keep me happy tonight while I am snuggled under a quilt sipping hot cocoa.  It is COLD here today.  It is 47 right now with a high for the day of 54.  I know that doesn't seem cold to normal people, but for Florida kids who don't own long pants, cold it is.  There is a snowman from some Christmas fabric for today's circle.

I was on a great roll yesterday, getting lots accomplished, when suddenly, I was just DONE.  So the Chevron postage stamps will wait patiently, probably for a weekend to get some more attention. Circles and binding should be plenty to keep me out of trouble until then.  

Frantic Finishing

 So I was having trouble with the quilt frame.  I had split the rails in order to set it up to a smaller size which would fit in the sewing studio/guest bedroom.  Splicing them back together to get the frame back to full width was a bit of a problem, so I ordered a set of replacement rails.  I thought that they would be here last week, but they won't arrive until Wednesday.  So instead, I went back to the list and worked again on getting some more flimsies ready to finish.
Broken Dishes Stars was first up this morning.  These were bonus HST triangles that got put together a while ago.  I never had just the right border fabric, so instead I pulled out two random greens and got it finished up.  This is a small quilt, meaning the backing fabric came from a single width of fabric -- no piecing involved!  It is layered and pin pasted.  I think this will be my next hand quilting project.

Next up were the Chevron Postage Stamps.  The blocks have been sewn together for a while now.  There was some hot pink flannel yardage on the hanger with the quilt, so I stretched that out with some extra green plaid flannel and it is ready to go.  Lizzie is my always patient helper in trying out anything on the floor.  

 Here is the finished flimsy with a small grey border, ready to go on to the frame whenever it is free again.

So obviously I wasn't the one who ended up taking Sydney down to West Palm for lacrosse today.  Kurt volunteered to drive her down.  They have more games tomorrow, so they are in a hotel overnight.  That means more sewing time for me!  Can't wait.