Little Bits of Lots of Things

If I had chosen a focus project for the weekend, I'm sure I could have made good progress, maybe even finished something off. As it was, I chipped away at lots of projects and puttered around the house. It was a nice and relaxing way to spend a rainy holiday. This morning I got out the GO cutter and turned the extras from yesterday's moon fabric into string blocks. I'll take the extras from that, sew them together again and make some crumb blocks next. Using the 6.5 inch die is a nifty way of making strings without all that messy paper and flipping and sewing. These are all yellow and will eventually turn into a monochromatic string quilt (Amy suggested String Cheese for a name -- isn't that cute?).
Working here and there I got the words for the moon quilt put together into two big blocks with a moon and a star. I'll let this one continue to simmer and figure out what comes next in the light of day. Anna doesn't want a lot of different fabrics, but if I had know the background was going to be consistent, I would have used different yellows in the letters. It's all going to be very uniform and even if she sticks to her guns. It is her quilt though, so if she wants to to be boring, so be it. I'm trying to subtly sneak some variety in there without her noticing.
Next up, with the design wall empty, I took a lint roller to it and then rotated one to put up another. Now I've got lots more room to play so I threw up my current L&E project (another 4 squared) along with the nine patches for Mom's shams and the leftovers from my last few projects. While pondering all of that, I sewed the brown and green pinwheels together. They were the bonus blocks for the Sage Blossom quilt that was a baby shower gift. I don't seem to have enough of any of the others to make a statement yet, so they may all go into the orphan bin for a bit. I'm sure eventually something will grow into a quilt. Sewing is funny that way, isn't it? Make enough quilts and eventually something will come from the leftovers, much like the volunteer tomatoes that thrive in the compost pile.

Housekeeping

Not of the house of course, but today was a quilt related housekeeping day of sorting, organizing and putting away. I spent my "free" time this morning ironing leaders and enders and then filing them away into their respective homes. Some of them are part of ongoing projects, but some of them are just random four patches or nine patches without a destination yet. I feel quite guilty now when I end a line of sewing and cut the threads off without sewing through a square of some sort.
This afternoon was the baby shower for which I made the quilt. It seemed well received and the colors matched well with the planned nursery scheme. Our two guidance counselors did most of the planning and everything was adorably cute. It was all color coordinated and in verse. I am just home from that now and we are watching a movie as a family. I might pull my ironing board out again and work through some more of my odds and ends while watching.
I'm still thinking about what to work on next weekend. I'd like to spend the evenings this week getting everything set up so that I can get lots done during the quilting marathon next weekend. Who else is in?

Brrr to the Finish

Just took the last stitch on Sage Blossom. I'm off now to see if I can find some cute baby clip art for the label. The pattern didn't turn out the way I expected it to. I've done this pattern with a light background in the past and the stars stand out. This time I used browns for the background and that is the part that stands out. I don't think that makes it bad though, and the colors are based the ones chosen by the mother to be who will have no idea that I wanted it to look starlike. Thankfully the workmanship is gift worthy. My last quilt was having issues with tension, but it must have been the thread I used, because this one worked out just fine.

I did a regular meander in the middle with sage thread and then made a geometric shape in the border using brown. I'm very happy with how it turned out if I do say so myself. Check out the artful folding. I'm trying to be more creative in my photography so all my quilts don't look like they are ready for a line-up.

The promised snow never did materialize, but we got definite precipitation in the cold range. Maybe hail or sleet, some of which was falling slow enough that it might have been called snow by some. The kids were pretty excited about it. This is Sydney going out to catch some ice in her umbrella. It melted pretty quick, but it was a definite solid before that.

Sage Blossom and Spoons

Ryan talked to his teacher today and she mentioned that she heard a crazy story about how to make it snow. We have a chance of snow in the morning that has everyone talking. Snow and palm trees just don't go together. So she said that if you put a spoon under your pillow and flush one ice cube down the toilet for each family member it will snow. So before bed tonight everyone grabbed a spoon and an ice cube. We'll see if anything happens in the morning. After they were nestled all snug in their beds I pulled out Sage Blossom and got it all quilted up. I still need to do the border and the binding, but it should be ready to go for the baby shower on Sunday. I should remember to do a label this time. I'm really bad about labels.
I'm so happy for it to be Friday. With a teacher workday to start the week, it was a nice way to ease back into the school year. Next week is a full five days, but then it is Martin Luther King day, so there will be another little break. Speaking of which, I had gotten it into my head that I should work on arranging a virtual quilt marathon on the three day weekend. I had little plans for giveaways and challenges spiraling through my head. Then I logged onto Judy Laguardia's site and saw that she already has one in the works. Who else wants to sew themselves silly starting on January 16? I'm already starting to make a list and check it twice, how about you?

Better with Borders?

I'm not sure if the borders help or not, but I went ahead and sewed the blocks together and used the rest of the brown around the edges. I'd better head to bed now though, because it is back to work bright and early tomorrow. I'll need to find something to use on the back tomorrow, but I think I still have enough green thread left from Sister's Choice, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Tried Something Different

After a little research into the registry for the baby shower I discovered that the nursery is to be sage and brown, not teal and brown as I had thought. Having already shopped for the fabric, I decided to pull from my stash for sage green to use with the brown. The last pineapple blossom I did had a consistent background, and I'm starting to see the value in that. I tried another version with green and brown on a cream background, but this green on a brown background won the votes around here. I am not fond of the contrast personally, but I'll sleep on it I think before I go back to the drawing board. There is too much variation in both greens and browns to be able to see the pattern clearly. I get so stressed about making gifts for people. Maybe I should have stuck with the nine patches instea? Still, despite the end result, it was lovely to spend a whole day sewing. Most of the morning was spent finishing up Sock Monkeys. It just needs binding to be done completely and then I'll get a picture for posterity.