DONE!

My April UFO for Connie's Game is done! 

The front

The back, so you can see the quilting.

The white picket fence is around a formal garden we've been building.  Another bed was added last Fall and we transplanted some peonies to it.  I have some wine bottles to use as a border. I pinned it on my garden board on Pinterest.  Then we have a yellow rose bush to add and some mulch.  I'll take some pictures as it comes along.  Now I'm off to change into gardening clothes.  Have a great day!

Sunshine

The day started out foggy but the sun came out and oh how I love the sunshine!  I finished quilting my April UFO and am ready to start the binding.  I also figured out what to compare the yellow of this quilt to: Forsythia.

I'm loving this cute little baby quilt!

Can you see the hedge of forsythia above the picket fence, in the back?  I'm loving Spring and the Sunshine! 

Catching Up

I feel like I'm catching up. Finished sewing the main part of the graduation quilt; ready for the borders. The game plan for the weekend is to quilt my April UFO and maybe, just maybe, get the borders on the graduation quilt.  I hope to have some pictures tomorrow for you.  :-)

I have some "leaders and enders" ready to go.  It's my nickel quilt, the rest of the picket fences.

Plans

Last post I had my weekend planned out, finish sewing the flannel part of the graduation quilt and pin the April UFO and cleaning a closet.  Didn't happen.

Saturday afternoon my washing machine decided to act up.  After removing the same load of laundry from the machine in order for my husband to drain it, I just gave up.  So I spent some time Sunday morning at the laundry, washing  clothes.  While drying them at home, I spent time cleaning.  It needed to be done. (I did get to spend a little time Saturday morning working on the graduation quilt, but didn't make the progress I had hoped for.)

I did cut these "picket fence" pieces and pressed them.  I've been working on my "Four Patch Plaid" nickel quilt as a leader and ender to my April UFO and to the graduation quilt.  The bonus HST's are pressed, but will spend time later squaring them up.  

The new plan is to hit the machine tonight.  Hope to make more progress tonight, 15 minutes at a time!

Fun Week

It's been a fun week.  Tuesday night was Quilt Guild with  Piecemakers Quilt Guild Of Western Iowa.  Such an inspiration to see all the wonderful quilts members have complete.  And this year there seems to be even more because we are working on our PhD's.(Projects half Done)  I'm hoping once the school I work at is out, I will find some time to get my list done so I can "graduate".

Then, on the 3rd Thursday of the month, our local quilt shop Cut Up & Quilt has CUAQ (Quack) Therapy.  We come, have a snack, see what's new at the shop, have Show and Tell, and an all around great time.  There are a couple of classes coming up that I'd love to take.

On the home front, I found some flannel in the stash that I'm using for the backing of my April UFO.

I think this flannel is from the late 70's early 80's.  It's been in the stash aging long enough.  Time to become a quilt!  The game plan for the weekend is pinning this quilt to get it ready to quilt and piecing the graduation quilt.  Oh and also some cleaning.  It's still feels like winter as we had snow yesterday, but I want to get going on the Spring cleaning.  I have a couple of closets I want to clear out this Spring/Summer. Enjoy your weekend!

The Top Is Done!

I have my top done for April's UFO.  Now to figure out backing and how I want to quilt it. 

No sun today!

It's amazing how much better it looks in the sunshine.  We had some sleet and snow this morning and it is still overcast.  At least it's not snowing right now!  I hope the sun is shining when I take a picture of the completed quilt!

Oh No!

Oh no, I broke a needle by sewing on a pin.  I was sewing one of the scrapie borders on to the quilt.  I try really hard to pull the pins out of the way before I get to them, but I was a little too slow this time.  But I can't believe how it bent the pin.

Going to be extra careful from now on!

Just A Little Taste

Here just a little taste of my April UFO for Connie's Game.  

The sun is shining this morning and I thought it was the perfect time to get a picture.  I'm not going to wait until it's done.  It has been snowy, rainy, sleety and cloudy all week.  And who knows what it will be like when I get home this afternoon from Quilt Day.  I'm lovin' the yellow I struggled with last weekend.  I just left out the yellow squares and it works!

Satisfied

I'm satisfied with the progress I made this weekend on my two quilts.  The graduation quilt is all cut out and I have one row of blocks sewn and put together as a row.

Homespun plaids.

 The UFO for Connie's Game has all of the 30's reproduction fabrics cut out.  I finally decided to do away with the yellow reproduction fabrics and use just the other colors with the yellow fabric I bought on Saturday.  Sometimes it takes a while for the fabrics to really talk to you.  I decided I didn't want to go buy more fabric and really, I should have used the green I had in my stash.  One of my long term goals it to try to use as much of my fabric stash for projects as possible.  But sometimes the desire to have some new fabric just takes over.  What's a girl to do???

Fabric Stash

My sister posted this on Facebook and I got a kick out of it.  

The only piece missing on the pie is "Fabric I bought for a project and didn't like it so it went in my stash."  And that's exactly what I was thinking may happen to the yellow I bought yesterday.  

It's hard to tell, but the yellow is a bright yellow and I lose the yellow background blocks.  May have to use only blue, purple, pink and green with this or buy a new yellow.  

The one in the upper left hand corner and the one in the middle on the lower row have the yellow backgrounds.  I'm leaning towards losing the yellow background blocks  So...What do you think???

Slow And Steady

I feel like I use the saying "Slow and Steady" a lot!  It's kind of a mantra that helps me stay on task.  I'm cutting 20 fat quarters for my quilt that I have to have done the middle of May.  The pattern is called "Big and Bold" by Cozy Quilt Designs and the designer is by Daniela Stout. 

 Once I get it all cut out, it shouldn't take too long to sew.  But I have an idea for the backing that may take me a while since I've never done anything like it before.  But if it gets down to the wire, I may not have to time to do it. In that case, I'll be adding a regular label to the quilt.  

Game Plan

I have a game plan for working on my two quilts for April.  My goal for this weekend is to get both quilts cut out.  I did find the poison green I had thought about, but now I'm leaning more towards yellow.  I'm feeling yellow would make it a better baby quilt.  Then I can have a quilt on hand for the next baby gift I need.  Here's the picture again of the pattern.  

What do you think???

Busy Month Ahead

I have a busy month ahead of me.  The pick for Connie's Game this month is number 8.  For me that's Feedsack Patches.  And here's what it looks like:

A bunch of 2 inch strips.

Ten 4 inch squares and I need 48 squares.

Not very far along.  I don't even have all the fabric.  Not sure if I'm going to try and find some green in my stash or go with white.  I know I do have a chunk of poison green somewhere.   Good thing I have all month.  The only problem is, I have another twin size quilt I need to get done by the middle of May.  Not sure how I'm going to do it all, but it will get done!