Ugly Baby Quilt

I have been working on a baby quilt made from a pattern called Shadow Stars by Tied With a Ribbon. 

sawtooth star blocks being sewn on white featherweight

My daughter made it clear that she does not like this quilt, and I have to admit that her expressed dislike of the result of my efforts did take a bit of the "wind out of my sails" when I was working on it. 

I made this quilt using fabrics given to me from my friend Helen's stash after she died. Helen would have been this new baby boy's Great Grandmother had she lived to see the day, so I do hope that it means something special to the family that this quilt is NOT made with the newest, most beautiful, colour coordinated modern fabrics. 

Not all quilts can be showstoppers, right?!? 
This will be a drag around, take to the beach, "use it up until it's thread bare" kind of quilt. 

Next I am trimming the 160 bonus HST blocks from the sawtooth star points and plan to use them in a border to make the quilt a little larger.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Every Sunday we roll out the welcome mat for like-minded hand stitchers to gather for a party. Thank you for joining us! We encourage you to get out your hand stitching project and put in a few stitches. Then make yourself a cup of your favourite beverage and visit other hand stitchers around the world to see what they are working on today.

I'm very excited to be working on a quilt binding today. It's my favourite relaxing, "no brainer" hand stitching activity. 
I have finished the quilting on my March UFO and hope to have it finished by the end of the week. I attached the binding to the back of the quilt so that the design on the red and white fabric could rest on the edge of the binding on the front. I'll be hand stitching it to the front of the quilt today while I watch a few episodes of "A Place to Call Home".

We hope you will share your hand stitching project with us below. What do you watch on TV or listen to on the radio while you are stitching? Do you have some recommendations for us?

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Quiltalong Temptations

It's the weekend! I can't wait to get into the sewing room and have so many ideas for things I want to sew that I might not come out again until summer...

or Monday, whichever comes first!
I am trying to get focused, but then... 
well you know how it goes!?
You see another wonderful pattern that you just have to try. 
I really want to make an owl block that Sally posted for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. You can see some versions of the owl posted here at the weekly RSC linkup. These are the green scraps that I am working with today and hope to have some owl blocks to post soon.

AND I'm really trying hard NOT to start another project *snort* 
I can hear you all laughing out there in blogland!

There is constant distraction from the multitudes of amazing projects going on in quilt universe and I'm so sad that there are only 24 hours in the day and that I have to work. 
Here are some of the treats that I have said "NO I can't possibly start another quilt" (see Janet, I do have a teeny tiny bit of self control sometimes LOL):

1) A fun mystery over at Alicia Quilts called "L1 Marvellous Mystery". Fabric requirements are here and she is making hers in plaids, which was so so tempting for me.

2) Alison at Little Bunny Quilts is posting steps for a mystery quilt called Daisy Chain. You can make your version in any size from baby quilt to queen size. 

3) AQS is offering a free pattern called "Paducah Sewalong" for a complex double wedding ring design with pieced blocks in the circles. If you're up for sewing a large king size quilt using a challenging design, they are posted a block per day. 

4) Also completely irresistible is the Sew Let's Quilt Along with a sewing theme! Block patterns are posted every 2 weeks and the first block is a sewing machine! 

Sewing on a project I love is the best strategy to avoid a bad case of Startitis...
I'm off to the sewing room and turning off the computer!

UFO of the Month Update

The month is more than half over and I am right on track to finish my March UFO. I am finishing the Temecula Secret Santa mystery quilt that we started last fall. 
At the beginning of the month I washed and pressed the backing, prepared a batting, and pin basted the quilt. 

Then I started machine quilting as I usually do, stitching a vertical and horizontal grid using a white thread. I stitched in the ditch on both sides of the sashing, and then straight down the centre of the sashing.

And then the fun part... stitching with red thread on the diagonal squares.
I'm not sure where to quilt next but I do hope to have the binding attached to start hand stitching for Slow Sunday Stitching.



In addition to finishing this quilt, I'm also looking forward to the arrival of Spring Equinox and seeing the Supermoon tonight ! 

New quilt

On Saturday I celebrated Worldwide Quilting Day by sewing all day with my quilt guild friends. You can read more about it here. 
I enjoyed using my 1964 white featherweight Singer 221K sewing machine that I call "Sweet Baby Jayne". So tiny, stitches perfectly and looks so adorable!
I'm using all Tula Pink Zuma fabrics for this project, with the light/background fabric being "glitter litter glowfish".

Here are the first 12 blocks on the design wall. I have 8 more blocks to sew. I'm not sure I like the big white spaces that appear with this layout. 



Let's try another one... I think I like this layout better. And I have some quilting ideas popping into my head already, so now I'm motivated to sew the rest of the blocks!
Linking up to Small Quilts design wall Monday part.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Happy St Patrick's Day! Since it falls on a Sunday this year, do you think we should probably do some hand stitching using some green thread or fabric or wool?!? 

This week I finished another little Gail Pan embroidery design, but can't find the photo on my computer so I will show you what I plan to be stitching today... a snowman. 

It won't be green!


Are you seeing any green where you live? Any signs of spring at all? Are you celebrating with the Irish today?
Link up your hand stitching project below and share what you are working on.

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Happy Worldwide Quilting Day!

How are you celebrating Worldwide Quilting Day today? I think the best way to celebrate is to be with lots of enthusiastic quilting friends, so I attended a mystery quilt class hosted by the past presidents of my local quilt guild. 

Nancy, Susan, Marj, Jackie, Joanne, and Barb

These lovely women organize a sewing day, pick a pattern for quiltmaking, serve us a delicious lunch, and treat us to a wonderful day at the "quilt spa". They also help out with unsewing and pressing blocks as needed. They are such wonderful women and I love each one. They have given so much of their time and energy to promote quilting in our community, providing leadership, inspiration, and friendship. They just make the world a better place to live!

It was very exciting to have our youngest future quilter ever (5 months old) attending this class. Is this not the most adorable photo of fabric petting that you have ever seen?!? And this was the sweetest, most well behaved baby with about 30 eager women willing to help out with baby care! So fun!

I brought strips of Tula Pink Zuma fabrics to sew today, and brought my Sweet Baby Jayne sewing machine to do all the hard work for me. Even though she is 55 years old, she still sews like a dream!

There was a bit of precutting to do for the class so that when we arrived, we could start sewing right away. These fabrics are a frenetic riot of bright and happy colours guaranteed to brighten up a dull, dreary, endless winter. 


Here is the block we sewed. I'm not sure what to call it... would you call it a pineapple variation block?
I'll share more blocks and some layout ideas on my Monday Design Wall post. For now, I need to rest after such an exhausting day of sewing, and visiting. 
How are you spending Worldwide Quilting Day?!?