The Journey Begins....

....with a single step.
I always seem to to spring cleaning right around the beginning of February. Maybe something to do with my MIL coming in two weeks to stay with the kids for midwinter break? It is good to start crossing things off the list again, after all, not everything can wait for summer vacation. So, without further ado, here come the before and after pictures....Laundry room before, a popular dumping ground for everything as people enter in through the garage.
Laundry room after. Look a counter was under all that stuff! Coming soon to a blog near you, before and after of the study.
I pulled out my depression blocks today to see how far I had gotten with all the trimming of bonus half square triangles. I've taken them to ice skating for the last three weeks in a row and gotten quite a few done. All that remains is the border. I was trying to bring some sense of closure to the edges with the border, but the math is a little wonky because the unfinished squares are 1.75 inches. I wanted a background rectangle to take the place of two blocks, but cut them at 2.5 inches, when clearly they should have been 3 inches (1.75 + 1.75 -.5 for seams). I didn't quite get this one done for the January UFO challenge, but I went over to Nancy's blog today and found out that the February UFO is #7. I just finished that one! So yay, I'm ahead of the game for once (in my own mind at least). I also have 2.5 inch and 2 inch squares from various projects and a whole bunch more 1.75 inch squares. I've got ideas floating through my mind for those, so we'll see what they turn into.
Miss Sheila, my Girl Scout co-leader came over during Odyssey of the Mind today and helped me put together more Happy Block kits. We had gotten some more donated fabric, so she helped to iron and sort while I cut strips and squares. I saw that Amy has her BOM directions up for February, so I'll have to think about those as well. One of them is a Florida themed block, I had better make sure that one turns out well(templates are required :0). It is so fun to see what patterns she is coming up with. I'm sure the finished quilt will be fabulous.

Quilting 5K

Not so much a quilting marathon here today as a short sprint. I was so looking forward to a day of endless sewing, if not for that darned earthquake in Haiti. I'm back now, done with ice skating, done with rock climbing and ready to have some quality long run time with my machine. I took a baggie of all of my bonus half square triangles to ice skating this morning and worked on trimming them all up. I abhor waste, and so I like them to be as big as possible. I used to cut them to either 2 inches or 1.5 inches until I realized that most of them were 1.75. So that is my main focus now unless a square is unusually large or small. Most of what I cut today was left from the Sister's Choice Quilt I made for Mom, and the rest belong to the depression blocks that have been lingering for a while now. Kurt is home from work and sitting in the back yard watching 12 kids play on the swing set, we've gained 2 since yesterday but they are all having a good time.

Gifts in the Post

I went to the mailbox today and was so excited to find a package via Royal Mail. It was full of goodies from Amanda. I was the winner of her recent giveaway for her 200th post. Look at all the gun quilting goodies! There are some fat quarters, a lovely needlework bag, an appliqued towel, a fringed bookmark, a little bear pin and a tiny quilters charm with a spool of thread on it. Oh, I almost forgot the packages of shrinkles. Anna nabbed those as soon as the package was open and was ready to start crafting. Thank you so much Amanda for the goodies, I will enjoy them all. Congratulations of 200 posts.

I went online this week and ordered another panel of quilters sayings so that I can finish off my May UFO. I had one panel that I had ordered from Keepsake Quilting a little bit ago. I putzed around with it and ended up making some little 3.5 inch (3 inches finished!) squares to alternate with the printed blocks. I'm not sure how many came on the panel, but this is all that turned up when I pulled it out again. Getting something to fill out the quilt top seemed like a plan. I couldn't find anymore panels at KQ, but did a google search and found some at a place called Clotilde. I had never heard of it, but I thought it was worth a try. Each nine patch is a different pattern. I already had the Log Cabins, Flying Geese and Spikey Stars ready to go. Today I added the Nine Patches, the Amish Strings, the Jacobs Ladder and the Broken Dishes.

In searching for some squares to use, I stumbled across my baggie of bonus triangles. Does anyone else sew behind the corners on sew and flip patterns and save the little HSTs? I am a compulsive saver. Occasionally I'll get the bag out and iron or square up some little squares. I had started putting this batch together already, I think the pattern is called Depression Blocks. The little squares are 1.75 inches unfinished, so it is rather an odd size. I seem to have a lot of them though, so as long as they play nicely with each other It shouldn't matter if it is an even size. I had another bag that finished at 2 inches, and I started turning them into broken dishes blocks.
It was a nice day of putting around the house trying to put back together after the slumber party and finish off a few weekend chores. The kids were all fairly tired and were content to spend a big chunk of the day relaxing. Kurt is either getting sick or fighting off allergies, I'm not sure which. There are several more swine flu cases that have shown up, but the consensus seems to be that it is not any more dangerous than a regular flu.