Ladies in waiting

Well, friends, yesterday was really awful in terms of the weather, which has delayed today's post considerably.  It poured like you would not believe, just sheets of rain, and tons of wind.  Enough to make you almost slide off the road, so you pull over into a parking lot to wait it out and literally cannot see the road from where you're parked.  It was pretty scary!  Then you get home and listen to the wind howling away and hope that the trees bend and don't break.  All of ours are okay, but one came down in our subdivision and took out the power and the Internet and blocked a bridge.  It's mostly gone this morning, but what a nightmare.

So, where are we on the current projects?  Well, nothing happened yesterday!  I had planned to work a little more on this quilt, the Paper Dolls:

I had hoped to have all the sashing done before I took a picture yesterday, but it's hard to stitch in the dark.  Yes, this was my One Monthly Goal for March, but I didn't make it.  I just do not do well with deadlines when it comes to stitching!  I have enough deadlines in the rest of my life, I think.

I started putting this one together with a yellow sashing in a "dancing" layout, where there were no real rows.  It looked pretty bad.  I could have pushed on and had a finish, but instead I took heart from Julie's story about her barn quilt and just took it all apart.  Sometimes it's just not right and you know it. 

I have a good idea where it's going now, and I like the blue much better than the yellow.  I tried a black and white print, but I thought it was bad, too.  I thought it clashed too much with the beige backgrounds of the blocks. (And now I'm having doubts again!) 

See those big, blank blocks?  Those are for a (long) saying that fits this quilt so well.  That means letters.  I know!  There are a lot of ways to do letters, but I don't want fusible applique, so I'm trying free-pieced letters.  The challenge will be making them fit.

So, no finish today, but at least I know where I'm going!  And all the girls made it into the quilt, so that's a happy thing.

Last week I went to the Lancaster quilt show with Preeti from Sew Preeti Quilts.  We had a great time!  The show was okay (it's possible that Preeti sold an intricate sewing table to a customer), and we got to go shopping and pick up some real bargains, and we had some really good Indian food in Lancaster.  And I got to see Lynne Tyler's chicken quilt in person, which was awesome:

And Preeti brought me these:

These are I Spy cuts for a quilt for my tiny grandson!  Wasn't that nice of her?  Totally unexpected, but really nice.  Thanks Preeti!  I'm thinking maybe churn dash blocks.  What do you think?

Everybody have a great weekend!  I plan to stay dry and comfy, and maybe have a glass of wine or something.  But not before stitching these dolls, because that could lead to more troubles!

Sharing at Finished or not Friday and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.