Happy Valentine's Day

This is a photo of my Valentine's Day gift from my DH.  I came home from cutting fabric for baby quilts at the church and grocery shopping to find an empty house, except for the dog, and this on the counter.  DS called him 'sick' but instagramed a photo of it any way.

I volunteered to help out the church's quilt and baby layette sewing project and joined them this morning.  There were only four other women working on the project so it will be slow.  The ladies helping out do not have much quilting experience so I will most likely take on a lot of that.   They have cardboard forms that they trace squares with and cut out with scissors so it is going to be interesting.  I took some squares home and will make something up for next week.  I also have that Sesame Street fabric that I am going to make a quilt with.  I don't think it will get quilted because I have some customer work coming tomorrow.  We will see.  She doesn't need her quilt back until March so maybe I can work on the baby stuff next week.

A husband of a church member that passed away last year brought in a bunch of fabric and cut out baby items for the group to work with.  I am looking forward to seeing what treasures she had started and I am sure there is stuff there that I can help complete.

I finished cutting up strips for the Scrappy Trips project I want to work on with Kay's fabrics.  I made a good dent in the fabric which makes me happy.  I can get two tops done for the Victoria Quilts project with the stuff I have cut out so far.  I am sure there is yardage there that will work as borders.  They want flannel for backing so I will have to shop and I need batting anyway.  I should order some Quilter's Dream cotton because it is so light.

My baby's 30th birthday is Sunday.  I wish it was a happier time for him to celebrate.  This has been a hard time for us all and I will miss him regardless of the crap he has pulled over the last few months.  I wish him well on his adventure.  I hope we will see him again and that this experience will be what he needs and not a big mistake.

Well good night, tomorrow will be busy,
Happy stitching.

Photo of Gum Blossom background blocks

Here is a picture of the strata blocks I was working on for most of the weekend.  I have decided that I do not like one of the fabrics and I will not be happy until I have replaced it.  It stands out too much and the eye goes to that fabric every time.  It needs to be a bit more muted.  I will most likely shop for a fat quarter to use at the Quilt Market on the 16th as well as the fabrics for the leaves of the gum blossom.  It was fun to work on and I am looking forward to finishing it.

Back to the workshop for me.  I have to quilt the argyle quilt and am still kind of stumped as to how to quilt it.  The pantos that I see online are too dense so I think I will have to be careful and do a free hand swirl on my own.  I wish me luck.

Happy quilting

Lazy Sunday

      Just having a lazy Sunday sewing in the basement.  I should be working on the Argyle flannel quilt on the machine but I am stumped on how to quilt it so I am leaving it so I don't have to remove any more quilting stitches from it.  I will try to tackle it fresh on Monday.  I have been obsessed with sewing the blue stratas for the Gum Blossom wallhanging that Rita gave me her excess scraps and strips.  I have been able to make all the required 6 1/2" squares with everything she gave me.  It was great fun picking apart the off cuts to work up the blocks.  I have a few that I have to re-do corners because I will have seams meeting to closely and it will be lumpy so I will work on that this afternoon and put the blocks up on the design wall and start sewing the background together.  I need to shop for the greens for the large applique leaves.  I am still torn as to how I will do the applique.  Needle turn or raw edge?  I am thinking raw edge because I have so many other needle turn projects on the go that I would like to do something different.  We will see.

      Back to work, Happy stitching.