It is still April......

Why has April seemed so long? I’ve been putting off blogging because there was always something to do instead. Except today I planned on doing some binding. So blogging is better than binding, I guess. 

I made these yesterday. I had a choice, try out some new to me blocks or bind. These won out. In my defense, I was able to reorganize a pile of scraps. Things ended up in three boxes. Chunky scraps, skinny strips and fatter strips. 

I started with 1 3/4 cut squares with all these. Adding two more 1 3/4 strips and three 1 1/4 strips OR two each of the 1 3/4 and 1 1/4 strips and two 1 1/2 strips. There was a method to the madness, while achieving a variety of looks. They will finish at 6 inch blocks. 

I babysit about 3 days a week. Right after they called off the schools, the daycare closed. That keeps me busy. 

For the record.... I did not put Zander in the dog kennel. He did this himself. He thought it was great fun. 

I’ve been doing jigsaw puzzles too. I bought a bunch in January, at first I thought I might have over done it, but it turned out to be a smart buy.

It started with this....

I love all of them. There were more, but you get the idea. 

Moonstruck is quilted and ready for binding. We went up to Minnesota to pick it up. I prepaid for it. So when we got there I had to call and tell them I was there. Without getting near each other, they came out with this quilt, and grabbed two more that were ready for quilting. Then off she went back inside. We packed a lunch that day. We didn’t even do any drive-thru eating. We also stopped at my cousin so we could trade puzzles. 

The mini houses were put together and quilted. Ready for binding. 

This is ready for binding...

All of them will get the same black and white stripe binding. The fabric is sitting right there. I have no reason NOT to start. 

It’s way too cold and windy to mow, or transplant some things, or clean some old pickets for a fence.

So it’s best to stay inside and work on the dreaded binding. 

Heavy sigh.

One more thing. This is June July and August. Only four more months and 2019 temperature quilt with be done!

Well at least the months will be done. It isn’t clear to me how I will actually turn it into a top. I can think about that later. 

New year start and finish....

There’s a box with cut up flannel shirts. Sleeves, fronts, and backs. It was time to cut further. I picked 6 1/2 inches because I have a ruler that wide and it was easy to be cutting the width of it. 

The back....I’m not sure where the flannel fabric came from. It was a nice little stack and since I had no plans for them, I started cutting them up. I used a bit of the leftover monkey flannel too. I started calling it the nap quilt for little boys. 

Before I knew it, I had enough blocks. 

Ready for binding. Because I couldn’t wait to start the clipping part, I actually got the binding on right away. There were enough narrow pieces of the backing to use up. That was exciting to have them gone. 

In three days I had a start and finish in 2020! These are mostly just the sleeves. A stack of shirt backs is still in the wings, ready to go when I am. 

A week ago the forecast was calling for 1 to 3 inches of snow. We ended up with 7 1/2 inches. There wasn’t much wind, so it just piled up on everything. 

I love the way it looks sitting on the branches of trees. 

A week later we are just cold. The heaviest snow was targeting southern Iowa. 

variety of stuff...

All through the fall, my cousin and I were making blocks. It was a free online pattern. I don’t remember the name or who sponsored it right now. We made two blocks. One for me, one for her. We picked a fall color scheme. We didn’t show each other our blocks until we got together to exchange. We were kinda nervous about them working together. 

We were pleased with the results. My blocks are in the 5 position on a dice. They are still a stack of blocks. Goal is to have it finished for the quilt show next August. 

Little turkeys made for Thanksgiving. 

Made this at a party type thing. You pick what glitter you want, paint on glue, sprinkle on the colors you want. Then pick the decal you want to use. Then leave it for a final coating to protect it. 

It’s expensive, but it does turn out pretty cool. 

I was seeing gnomes all over. Too cute not to try. No real pattern was used. Basic cone shaped hats, fake fur beards and wooden beads for the nose. The bigger one is a wine bottle topper and the smaller guys are the fur wrapped around a wine cork. 

There is a quilt ready for me to pick up. I’ll get that posted  when it’s finished. It’s for a wedding in February. 

Farmers market table runner...

My cousin gave me that row by row pattern from The Calico Hutch in Hayward, Minnesota. I liked the font on the pattern better than the font for the pattern. So I put the pattern underneath my paper and recreated it. Changing the lines just so, making it look like what wanted, but not really changing the size. The jelly roll is this years fabric challenge. All warm colors. At that point I was thinking I would use the picture as inspiration. I’ve since changed my mind. Going for something that doesn’t require any HSTs. 

Back to farmers market. So far so good. I used heat-n-bond for all the appliqué pieces. I didn’t sew around any of them. I used a narrow straight stitch for the quilting. I’m hoping that will be enough. 

The finished runner. 

More quilt show...

The first two and very bottom picture are from the fabric challenge pack last year. Shades of gray. There were 5 inch squares and a couple fat quarters. The very top one belongs to Karen. The middle one with penguins belongs to my cousin Max. The very bottom sailboats one is mine. 

The other two are older tops that were finally finished. The log cabin goes way back, but never took a completed picture. The other is a Bonnie Hunter pattern called Double Delight. 

Quilter couple

Bob and Jean are a couple that come up to Blue Earth, Mn. from Iowa to attend the BEVQ meetings. While setting up for the quilt show, Bob said that he saw I was blogging again! I took pictures of their quilts, but not all of them. I know I missed some. 

And one more...

Block Swappers

There are 12 of us in block swappers. We met up last winter to exchange blocks. We all got these blocks to work with. 

I found them rather addictive. I made more houses. I left off the chimneys so the exchange blocks were different. 

These were mine. I think the rule was happy colors. 

This is my finished quilt at the quilt show. One last picture. Me and my cousin Max. We both made quilts from the 2016 row by row experience. They are the same but different. It’s hard to get pictures in the hallways at the quilt show.