Sunday Wrap up

There are just two more circles to applique down for the January block of my leap year quilt.  So handy that February will start on a Monday.  There is something nice about a new week and a new month at the same time.

The circle and the binding to this postage stamp quilt should be plenty to keep my hands busy during Downton Abbey tonight.  First though, Sydney is out of shorts that fit and I promised her we could go shopping today.  She is almost as tall as Ryan and her feet are already bigger than Anna's.  They do grow up so fast.
Be sure to keep scrolling down to the last post to enter the February fabric giveaway.

February Color Announcement and Fabric Giveaway

The color for February will be brown, and just to mix things up a bit, I am encouraging the addition of pink accents.  With the help of Vicki Welsh, I designed this palette called sheep which I am ready 

to use for my column along blocks for February.  I have a nice simple pattern planned for this month, which should create a great secondary design. Hopefully the tutorial will be ready soon.  

Thanks to Vicki, I also have a hand dyed bundle of fabric ready to give away to one lucky blog reader.  You will notice that it is not the same as the inspiration palette for the month.  A funny thing happened while Vicki was dying the Rainbow Scrap Challenge fabric for this year.  She had just finished dyeing all of the necessary fabrics, along with one for the giveaway and one for her to keep when she found two more orders hiding in the line.  So the giveaway fabric is inspired by the colors, but not the same.  This gradient is called Harvest Moon and has brown in it along with orange and black.  To enter the random drawing for this fabric bundle, just leave a comment on this post with the name of your favorite kind of chocolate.  I just love junior mints.  They are my favorite movie time treat.    

  

Sunday Funday

After the Dear Jane was finished last week, it was time to start a new hand quilting project.  These bonus HST squares made tiny little Broken Dishes Stars and they were ready to go next.  After reading Kathy's post about marking quilts earlier this week, I was ready to give my Frixion pens a try.  I like to wash my quilts anyway, and I'm not too worried about the temperatures getting below freezing here in Florida.  So I marked some simple diamonds in the lattice strips and orange peel shapes in the star points.  I even found a border stencil that was just the right size.  I think that will do it.  Simple and to the point.  

I also got the binding on the postage stamp quilt and then went to find the wonder clips.  Someone has been playing with them apparently. Maybe they didn't want any to get lost?

Backing Bonanza

The little blue extras quilt was hanging out on the dining room table patiently waiting.  

So I dug into the scrap bin and found a Noah's Ark panel which didn't have a home.  There was also a long strip of dark blue which must have been leftover from another backing.   I used that as a frame to make the panel large enough.  This one should be ready to go whenever I am in a quilting mood again.

Theres was a star quilt also waiting to have a backing prepared.  I found some teal fish.  Maybe this extra bit of teal and purple with stretch it out enough?

 I got the binding machine sewn onto the postage stamp quilt.  I'll save the handwork for tomorrow of course.

 Also, look at the blue scrap basket that I made to go with the green one from last year.  I am hoping to get the scrap stash down enough that each color will fit in its own basket.  I'm not quite there yet though.  Maybe if I make a light blue basket as well it will work out.
Now I have to decide if I am done for today or ready to press on.

Last Blue Saturday!

Blue is just one of those colors that doesn't end.  After a full month of making lots of great blocks, the drawer seems to still be full.  Somehow it is the magic of scraps that new blocks can keep coming out year after year. 

There are still some larger bits to use on a few more Dear Jane blocks, I think that will be the plan for today.  How about you?  Technically there are still two more days to try to finish up the last of the blues before a brand new color is announced.  I'll do the big reveal post tomorrow along with the fabric giveaway for February. Be sure to check back.  Today though, share the last of your blue blocks with us all.  

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.

Leap Year Progress

Oh what a week it has been.  Kurt was out of town, leaving me as a temporary single parent. So much time in the car driving around in circles!  Thankfully, he is home again safe and sound.  I was at tech training today, using the new chrome books, so that was much fun of course.  I'll be regretting it on Monday when I come back to school with a huge stack of waiting tests.  Such is the way of the world though.

I did take time in the evenings, to catch up on my Leap Year quilt.  Just 2 more days left in January!  I am looking forward to having a new color to play with.  I wonder what it will be?  OK, so I already know what it will be.  Silly me.  

Relax and Enjoy

I can't be sure when I started these blocks.  It was after we moved to this house 10 years ago, but well before I started this blog 5 years ago.  I remember taking blocks along to hand sew when Sydney was taking karate at age 3 and when Ryan was going to chess tournaments at age 6.  The last blocks were finished in August of 2010.  It was going to be a full quilt, but I got sidetracked with Midgets before starting a rainbow version of Jane.  The center blocks are all done for that one and I am actively working on the border blocks again after a break during the rainbow sampler quilts of 2014 and 2015. 

 Jane is hand quilted of course, with individual designs chosen to accent each block.

 It took a bit longer than I expected, and she was taken along on many long car trips and family outings.

After all that time, she needed a good wash, which I did in the bathtub this week.

 The border doesn't show up all that well, I guess the thread matched a little better than I thought.

 I spent yesterday working on the OMG Churn Dash quilt.  I had pinned all the blocks together in groups of 10.  The quilt top is all sketched out of graph paper and I did a count of how many of each color it will need.

So all the blue blocks are officially done! I needed 20 of the O blocks and 22 of the X blocks.  I worked on a few other colors as well in a marathon session of sewing that went into the wee hours this morning.  Much digging through the scrap bins occurred as I had to find more 1 inch strips to add to the nine patch pile along with 2 inch strips for the churn dash blocks.  Today will be a nice calm day of catching up on my circles and grading some essays for school.  I will link up with Kathy for Slow Stitching Sunday as well as Cynthia for Oh Scrap!.  

ScrapHappy Saturday - Still Singing the Blues

I made a quilt out of random leftovers.  There are three in line to quilt, but this one is in there somewhere.  There is still more than a week left in January though, which means one more blue Saturday after today.  It works out well to have a long blue month, hopefully that means you have more time to dig to the bottom of your blue scrap bin.  I think for most of us on the east coast of the United States, home in the sewing room will be a very good place to be this weekend.  I can see the palm trees swaying in the bridge and we have already seen our high temperature for the day.  Hot tea and scraps of fabric sounds like a great plan to me.  Misterlinky is below, please share your own scrappy blue progress with us all.

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.