March Wound Down and April Sprang into Being

March was a slow month for me quilting wise as I was gone for a week and subbed about three full weeks so my quilting time was minimal.  I did make some progress though.

I completed the memory quilt top for my friend Theresa and sent it off to the quilter. It returned and trimmed it and cut the binding.  No pictures until I deliver it later this month.

I worked on binding Under Cover in Houston, an old Debbie Caffery Mystery, that is not quite done but will be done this month.

I also trimmed eight other quilts and cut binding for five of them.

I bound "No Such Thing as Too Much Fabric" and added a hanging sleeve to it.

I also pieced and pressed the binding for another quilt and started to attach the binding to it.

I made two infinity scarves using the leftover minke backing from trimming one quilt.

I have to pick the binding for the four other quilts that I trimmed and get to work on binding them as well as the rest of those I trimmed. Since I only completed on binding in March I have to complete three in April to stay on track as my goal is to get two bound a month so I can move the ones I have waiting into Donesville.

Progress over the Last Week

This week was very productive overall.  I did a ton of work on the house with regard to decluttering and getting stuff organized for our trip over spring break.

I finished the binding on  Barbara's Antiques, my second finish for the month, fourth for the year.  It is bright and colorful and was fun to quilt to make. It was an old UFO from, many years ago. I took the mystery class from Debbie Caffery in the 1990's

I also pieced several blocks for my Gypsy Wife quilt.

This is my second ColorWheel block. I really like this block so decided to incorporate a second one into my Gypsy Wife quilt.

This is my hatchet block. 

This is the Pershing block and it is a little oversized, but I think I can make it work. If not I can always make a second one and still incorporate this one into the quilt, even if it is on the back.

There are several square-in-a-square blocks in the Gypsy Wife and this is just one of many I will be making.

I also made several pinwheels 

 

 

  

I also completed two triangle blocks.

 

I made a few filler blocks as well. I am changing things up a little on the filler blocks, as I do not want 23 square-in-a-square blocks as I want some variety in them.

 

I ordered backing and borders for the Memory Quilt. I have the center of the quilt done. I used pajamas that belonged to a very dear friend's mother.  She has not seen the complete center of the quilt yet. I am debating sending her a picture or wait until I put on the borders or even better wait until I finish it and deliver it to her. I will post a picture of it later, as I don't know if she reads my blog or not.

I also ordered a couple of other Jen Kingwell patterns that I would like to try. 

I have had a nice quilty week. This week I am picking out two quilts that need a binding for the month of March, and planning to work on more blocks for the Gypsy Wife. 

The Last Two Weeks

I apologize for not posting last week but when I woke up on the 11th I was wiped out and felt like I had been run over by a truck. I ached from head to toe and had no energy, just climbing the stairs wiped me out. I had subbed all week doing testing and fighting the crud that was going around the school I was at. It hit me like a ton of bricks on Saturday morning and I was out for the count for about four days. All I did was lay on the couch and veg.  I did not have the energy to do more than about 10" of hand stitching on a binding. I spent a lot of time just laying on the couch and doing nothing.





Over the last two weeks between subbing every day for the one week, two days the next week, and a day of appointments and errands, and being sick, I did not accomplish much, but I did make some progress.

I picked the fabric for eight pinwheel blocks and actually cut out and pieced the 36 HST for the eight blocks. I pieced one heart block and worked on binding Barabara's Attic. I also cut out six other blocks and pieced a total of eight blocks for the Gypsy Wife quilt.

I should add that I am using scraps and small pieces of fabric less than a quarter or a half yard from my stash for this quilt. I did buy a couple of quarter yards to add in a little more color, but almost all of the fabric comes from my small pieces scrap box or my fat quarters.  To prove I am using up fabric this picture shows all that I had left after I made the block at the top of this post. This is all that remains of this fabric. Originally, I had bought a couple yards of it and used it in a couple of quilts in the past. I think I had maybe an 1/8th of a yard when I started on the Gypsy Wife if that. This is all that remains of the fabric. I think I can get a one-inch square out of that larger scrap.  It would work in the center of a block.  The other scraps are going in the trash.

I trimmed the blocks for the memory quilt.

I also had a few quilts come home to roost that are waiting on bindings.

March Winds

Winter Quilt

Christmas Star Swap

QMU Christmas Star Swap

Waters of Kauai

This next week I am not subbing except maybe a half day for one teacher so my plans are to work on putting the memory quilt top together, to finish the binding on Barbara's Antiques so I can have my second finish for February, and to piece some more blocks for the Gypsy Wife.  

Wishing you all a happy quilting week and good health.

Gypsy Wife and Twenties Treasures

This week I spent time cutting out more blocks for my Gypsy Wife quilt, including a few to substitute in for a block that does not speak to me, Nurse's Cross and a few to add to the quilt as I want to incorporate some additional blocks to increase the size.  I also pieced one 6" finished heart block to substitute or add to the quilt since I am modifying it some for me.

I also pulled out a quilt to work on hand stitching the binding down and have been making progress on it.  This morning I completed the binding, though my fingers were going numb today.  It is an old Debbie Caffery Mystery from the mid to late 1990s called Twenties Treasures.  I used Doreen Speckman's Provence Fabric line.  It is a little busy for me when I look at it now because I cannot find anywhere to rest my eyes, but I still like it.  The quilt was quilted but Shirley Jackson, my awesome quilter.

To quote myself from a blog post from April 25, 2013, "I made a mistake in this quilt but was consistent in every block.  I did so well that when we laid the quilt out at class, even Debbie did not notice that I put one set of points facing the wrong way on every single block.  I already had the rows sewn together when I noticed it. Debbie told me that I had made it my own.  I gave it my own unique twist. I may add one more border if I have enough of the blue fabric."


My Aunt and Uncle also received their quilts, which I could not post previously as they were surprise gifts. My cousin Janie sent me these pictures of them with their quilts.  They loved them.

Weekly Update - February 3

This week I cut out a couple of more of the blocks for the Gypsy Wife.    I am using my scraps and fat quarter or quarter yard pieces for the blocks. I am waiting to cut my strips when I am done with the blocks as I have not yet decided what fabric I want to use for the strips. I am thinking of using my black and white prints for the strips.  I have enough I could probably use one strip of each fabric and not have any two be identical.

Colour Wheel

Hope for Hartford

I have five of the larger blocks left to cut out for my Gypsy Wife quilt and then I will start cutting out the smaller filler blocks, though I do have some of the triangles cut out for them and one of them is done. I am having fun with the Gypsy Wife Quilt and look forward to seeing how it turns out. It is a long term project so will see how things go along the way and what it looks like when it is done.

I also worked on the heart blocks to finish the second ugly fabric challenge baby quilt. I completed the blocks and cut the sashing, cornerstones and borders on Wednesday afternoon and after dinner out with my hubby after I burned the onions for French onion soup because I was sidetracked I finished the top.  I can also share the first ugly fabric challenge quilt this week as the reveal was on Thursday.

I ordered a 16.5" ruler from Amazon that arrived earlier this week with a crack in it, so I had to return it. I am waiting on the replacement ruler so I can trim the memory quilt blocks as I hate trying to mesh two rulers together to trim larger blocks as they often slip and that causes worse problems. Hopefully, the replacement ruler will arrive later this week.

Wishing you a quilty week!

Wanda