Sunday Funday

 I finished quilting two tops yesterday.  That means today is for binding! I love binding.  I am going to sit on the balcony and look at the ocean and sew the day away.   

The sunrise was beautiful today.   Just a peek above the clouds.  

And then just minutes later it was showing its colors.   

Now back to quilts.  Frameshift got little contiguous half melon wedges on the nine patch area, and zig zags surrounded by ribbon candy for the sashing strips.  

Here is the back, a frame around orange and yellow.  

And her is the front.  I think that I have a nice yellow and green stripe for the binding.  I do enjoy striped bindings.  This was from the 2020 RSC.  All of this year's quilts were finished right on time thanks to all that extra time at home from March until July.  

Then the Row by Row Sampler quilt from 2016 got finished right after dinner. I loaded it on the frame sideways and then just quilted each row based on the block pattern.  It went quickly as it isn't a large quilt.  I can't believe that I am just now quilting the 2016 sampler quilt!   It feels good to be clearing up some of the quilting backlog.  No photo of the back of this one as it was quite dark already.  I'll get a final photo after the binding.  I have a dark purple that sort of resembles the hand dyes that will work for this one.  

I'm off for a grocery pickup, but then I will spend some time checking in with Oh Scrap! and Slow Stitching Sunday before the day gets away from me.   

Superbowl Sunday

 

We were lucky to get in our morning walk before the rain started this morning.  It is really pouring now!   I hope it has moved out of Tampa ahead of the big game tonight.  

I don't really follow sports all that much, but I have some hand quilting to enjoy during the game and we are having appetizers for dinner while enjoying the commercials as a family.  I finished the December block during some family TV time last night and decided on half circles for the border.  I'm still trying to decide whether the circles will be a single or double row.  Plenty of time for those decisions.  I think I still have three more months to finish before the border becomes top priority.  

Yesterday I worked on pieced backings.   This was the challenge quilt for RSC in 2016.  It has been done since then, but just sat waiting for its turn on  the quilting machine.  I added a thin grey border, more for ease of quilting than for aesthetics.  

Then I found some extra hand dyed fabric and used it to spice up the backing.   

Frameshift was next on the list.  It was from the RSC in 202, and I got some fabrics last week to put together a backing.  I just don't have any large quantities of fabric on hand these days, so backings is a good excuse for necessary shopping.  

The floral is heavy on pinks and limes, but I am trying to enhance my scrap stash in the areas of yellow and orange, so I got some of those instead.  So now I've got two more quilts ready to go the next time I set up the quilting frame.  I've got a quilt that I said I'd finish for a coworker of my husband, so I'd like to get several quilts finished while the frame is assembled.  

What are your plans for today?  I'm off to check out slow stitching Sunday with Kathy and Oh Scrap! with Cynthia before I see if there is enough yardage squirreled away somewhere for another backing. Then there is laundry, an online tutoring session and a grocery pickup.   

Sunday Gear Switching

Tomorrow it is time to head back to school again.  As much as I want to jump back in again, there are still plenty of people without power, water and internet access.  I'm sure that it is going to take some time to transition back.  

 I am lucky enough to have this nice stack of 5 quilts waiting to have the bindings hand sewn down.  It is amazing what can be accomplished with 7 unscheduled days off of school.

 I wasn't quite ready to settle down yet, so I put an outer border on Leap Year.  This one is next in line for hand quilting now that the Orange Peels are finished.  The original plan was to use pearle cotton to quilt inside of each circle, but now that I look at it all together, I am thinking that diagonal lines might be fun?  Giving the effect of crossing days off the calendar.....

 Lizzie gave her seal of approval.

 She is always quick to check out every finished quilt.

Still in sewing mode, I put together the rows for the RSC16 quilt.  It was my first attempt at a row by row quilt.  It might need one more row.  The proportions seemed fine when I laid it out, but it got a little skinnier with the seam allowances gone.  

Still not wanting to call it quits, I pulled out a stack of postage stamp star blocks which had been done for a while.  They were all sorted nicely by color and pinned together with cornerstones just waiting to be webbed into a top.  I had originally planned to use grey sashing strips throughout, but as I worked, I thought it might be nice to try out some random colored strips instead.  I think it gives a nice border effect.  I'm about halfway done webbing the top now, but my sewing machine got temperamental.  Maybe I tired her out?

I'm linking up today with Slow Stitching Sunday and Oh Scrap!  Be sure to take a few minutes to visit before you get carried away with your day.  

Sunday Switching Gears

It is hard to believe that there will be school again on Monday.  It was originally a teacher inservice day, but after 7 days missed for the hurricane, getting everyone back is more important right now.

 For handwork today, I have a stack of 5 quilts waiting for the binding to be hand sewn.  These were all finished during those 7 missed days of school.  I've got the machine stitching part done, it will be nice to have handwork for the foreseeable future.

 I also got a border on Leap Year.  I pulled out fabrics for the backing, but as I am out of batting, this one can wait for a bit.  It is meant to be hand quilted.  I was originally planning to quilt with pearl cotton on the inside of each circle, but I am now thinking about diagonal lines through each block.  I'll have to think about it some more.

 Lizzie came out to help with the quilt photography of course.

 She is always the first to give her approval to finished quilts.

With that flimsy finish, I pulled out the RSC16 Row by Row Sampler to finally finish it off!  October is still missing, but I might leave it this way.  It was fatter before I sewed the rows together, it might need one more row now that I look at the proportions.

Then, because I was in a finishing mode, I pulled out one of the sets of postage stamp stars which had been an ongoing RSC project for a while.  They were pinned into rows with cornerstones already picked out in handy Ziploc bags.  I found a grey star fabric to use for the inner sashing. It was going to continue to the outer border as well, but I changed gears a bit and decided to pull random 2.5 inch strips instead.  I think that it adds a nice border effect.  I'm about halfway done with sewing all the rows together.  Hopefully that will be done before the end of the day.  

I'm linking up today with Slow Stitching Sunday and Oh Scrap! today.  Be sure to go and visit before your day gets underway.  

Progress

 On the way home from school this morning I stopped by Boutique 4 Quilters and picked up two Row by Row kits and license plates, one for me and one for Deb.  I went in to try to finish off my sub plans but realized that I didn't have the right thumb drive.  I was planning on going back again tomorrow, hopefully that will be enough to get everything done.  We have a new schedule next year and lots of changes in staff and programs, so getting everything planned out has been interesting.

When I got home from that I finished putting the top together for Anna's T-shirt quilt.  She wanted these owls for the back.  

 Of course there wasn't nearly enough, so I will frame it with some pink flannel.  If I can just get this one ready to go I can relax for a bit and finish my packing.  Sounds like a plan.

Row by Row

 So Deb was going to be in town on vacation with her family.  Her plan was to visit a few quilt shops to participate in the Row by Row Experience.   She had everything planned out ahead of time, so I just popped up to meet her at the first shop.  They had a sailboat row which was super cute.  Mrs. Gates was there, she has never made a quilt but just likes to buy fabric.  She is going to be my sub while I am gone to Costa Rica.
The next shop was right around the corner and they had really adorable duckies, already laser cut and ready to fuse.  Next it was down to my neck of the woods.  They didn't have any license plates, but their block was really pretty with rows of batik waves and beading.  Finally, the last quilt shop had a somewhat odd thermometer with Olaf fabric, so I just got the pattern, I can change out the fabrics on that one I think.  Deb even brought me some scraps in indigo and brown.  So sweet!  Thanks Deb.  I really meant to get a picture of the two of us together.  Oops, maybe next time.

I promised Anna that I would not start on a new quilt until hers was done.  I did start sewing the rows together when we got home from and made good progress.  Maybe tomorrow?  The days are getting shorter.  Tomorrow I will meet Mrs. Gates at school to go over sub plans, then Sydney has a dentist appointment on Wednesday and a piano lesson on Thursday.