This is going to be an interesting month for projects! I had hoped that I’d be able to spend the entire month quilting my hexagon diamonds quilt. Silly me, I talked with the head room parent in my son’s class and we are now making a quilt for teacher appreciation week! While I was at The Door Mouse Tuesday I picked out some purple fabrics and I found this really cute panel of teacher quotes that I can use in the border (far right side of the picture). So my OMG for April is making this quilt for the teacher – the main portion of the quilt is going to be the kids drawings bordered by the purple (and some greens that I need to buy still) and we will be working on that next Tuesday at school.
I also decided that I will be making sure that the label gets added to Cassie’s signature quilt this month. The quilt has been done for 2.5 years and so has the label, I just never got it sewn on. Now is the time to get it finished!
Linking up to Elm Street Quilts.
I’m hoping I can get binding finished today on 2 commission quilts that I’ve been working on for a friend. I got the labels, hanging sleeve and binding all machine stitched yesterday and started working on the hand work last night. I got a little tired and didn’t get as much done as I liked, but I think I will at least finish one of them tonight. If I get both of these done I can get back to working on Dear Jane EPP, I only have 4 more blocks finished on Row C. Row E just arrived yesterday, so I’m a bit behind!
I didn’t think I’d be able to do it, but I did manage to finish both of my OMG items this month. We did have a really busy month, so much going on! I was planning on basting my hexagon diamonds quilt during the day at our guild meeting location, however I spend the entire morning at the hospital having a pulmonary function test done – turns out I have asthema! *sigh* Anyway, this past weekend I decided to bite the bullet and get out my old hand quilting PVC frame and start basting. It took 3 episodes of The Quilt Show and a trip to Joann’s for another box of pins, but it is now basted and I can start quilting it.
While I was working on piecing 2 commission quilts, I worked on the border blocks for Good Night Irene. I’m happy to say that it is now 100% put together and ready for quilting! Not the best picture, but I can’t lay this out in the kitchen or the dog will be all over it! Linking up to 
*sigh* This is not my year. I’ve been sick since the beginning of the year and as soon as I think I’m starting to get better I get worse again. I’m almost at the end of another bout of bronchitis and after a pulmonary function test my doctor told me I have asthma. Most likely it was brought on by all the bronchitis episodes this year! Needless to say, since I’ve been sick the last week or 2 I haven’t worked on too much. PLUS we had a birthday to celebrate this last week. My little princess is now 3 years old and I can’t believe how quickly the last year has passed. My sister and I took her for her first hair cut and then took her 3-year-old pictures. This is one of my favorites, although there aren’t that many bad pictures of her (yeah I know I’m biased)! We had a wonderful party and she gets upset when I start to take the decorations down now that celebrations are over.
I’ve been doing hexie swaps for the last few months and I’ve finally decided what I am going to do with mine. Each swap will be made into a block, about 60 hexies makes a 12.5″ square block. Once I have enough blocks sewn together I’ll sash them and put them together. All of the swap information will be put on the label so I’ll remember where the hexies came from. I just finished the first block last night, these are from the #xoxohexieswap. There weren’t enough to do the whole block, as we only swapped 30, so I pulled from my Valentine’s bag of squares to get enough to finish it. I have the next block planned and ready to start, but I wanted to work on Dear Jane a little before I started putting the next one together. I’m waiting on more hexies to arrive, but some of the swaps aren’t finished yet – I got mine sent in right away and now I have to wait for everyone else to finish and send theirs in. I’m pretty sure I can make 2 blocks from the typography hexies, at least one with the St. Patrick’s Day hexies and I have a few signature hexie flowers that I think I’ll figure out how to put into a block. PLENTY of work to do around here!
I’ve been working diligently on various projects today. Some cutting for hexies, some cutting for bow tie blocks and getting them matched up and ready for sewing as leader/enders, commission quilt work (2 tops now ready for basting and quilting), and some work adding borders to 2 different quilts. I’m not showing one of them because it’s one of my OMGs, and I want to save it for the end of the month. I have FINALLY added the borders to my redesigned original Dear Jane quilt. The problem is I can’t decide if I should add another border to it or not. I’m planning on doing a simple meander on this since the fabrics didn’t excite me. I don’t want to spend a lot of time quilting this one. The EPP one that is in progress will most likely get some special quilting – once I figure out how to do it! 🙂 So tell me, what do I do with this? I know I’m going to use the muslin for the backing, but do I add another border or leave it as is? I just can’t decide!
I started working on the last 2 commission quilts for my friend. I got all of the blocks cut out and put together for both quilts, I just need to get them put together. These quilts go together so quickly that I don’t mind that I’ve made so many of them. My friend is coming to visit this weekend, so I’d like to have the tops done before she gets here.
While I work on the commission quilts, I’m working on the border blocks for Good Night Irene, which has been in progress since 2014. I slowly worked on the top during 2014, but it was hard with a newborn in the house. The border blocks are just simple 9 patches, and use 162 white squares and 162 colored squares. My 2.5″ square bin doesn’t even look any emptier! I finished half the blocks needed, I hope to finish the other half today.
Cassie is LOVING playing with fabrics. She asks at least once a day if she can play with them. Sometimes she wants the 2.5″ square bin, sometimes she wants “her fabrics”. I have a container full of fabrics I’ve collected for her, including 3-4 Minnie Mouse fabrics. At some point I’ll make something with them, haven’t decided yet what it will be. I might wait until she gets her big girl bed and make a large quilt like I did for Alex. Her birthday is in 2 weeks and she’ll be 3, I still can’t believe how fast the last 3 years has gone by! I bought her some Minnie Mouse sewing cards for her birthday, I’ll start her sewing with something easy for her little hands.
I did a good job on my February OMG, now it’s time to chose March’s goal(s). This is a busy month for us, every weekend is booked – out of town guest next weekend, Cassie’s birthday party the following weekend. I think I’ve decided that my goals this month are to finish the border on my Good Night Irene quilt (started in 2014, centered completed J
I’m not sure how, but I managed to finish the 2 items I wanted to for my One Monthly Goal!
2008. That’s when the pinwheel topper was pieced and set aside. I have another in red, white and blue that is in our half bathroom on a corner table, I think I found the pattern in a Fons and Porter magazine. It’s simply quilted, but again nothing straight line. lots of curves in the black areas. It’s hard to see in the picture since I used black thread. I have no clue what I’m going to do with it, but I’m sure I’ll find a place for it eventually.
