In like a lion

Wow, it's March!  How did that happen?  It's raining like crazy and the wind is blowing hard, so I guess it's coming in like a lion.  That means good weather at the end of the month, right?  And we should have flowers by then, too!

So far this week, I've been working on blocks.  I am definitely ready for spring, because I've been working on these:

Don't those look fun and cheerful? These are the first four blocks for the Sewcial Bee Sampler by Maureen Cracknell and Sharon Holland Designs.  It's a free sampler quilt along with a new block every week.  So far the blocks have been fairly simple and fun, even though I remade a couple in different colors. You know I had to fuss with them, right? There's even a fun coloring page, so go on over and check it out.

For the template quilt blocks, I made this block:

Yes, those two coral side pieces are different template shapes.  Don't you think they should have been the same?

This block is called Dove in the Window--really, even though it doesn't look at all like other Dove in the Window blocks.  This is a Kansas City Star block from 1932.  I am pretty unhappy with this, as I am with the other template blocks.  I've been getting the patterns from books, and I think they've gotten away with a lot here, supplying really bad templates for blocks that very few people ever make.  The software I have is no better and may be worse, because that's where the templates for the Gardener's Pride block came from.  Does anyone test these?  I don't think so.

Or maybe I'm just cranky.

So, I think I'm going to redraft several of the blocks that are in the pipeline and make my own templates.  I can use the templates I have as a starting point, but there have to be better ways to do this.  I'll start by redrafting the templates for this block and then remaking it.  Stay tuned!

Finally, I have a goal for March's One Monthly Goal:

Yep, these are the Paper Dolls blocks that I made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. . . in 2015.  I know!  I have missed these girls a lot.  I love them all!  So I've finally put them up here and told them each to find a friend. (There are more in the box still, since they wouldn't all fit on the design wall.) My goal is to get this assembled into a top by the end of March.  I think that should be doable.  The hard part is going to be pairing them up and getting them arranged.  But that will be fun, too, right? 

Pretty sure these two are going to be good friends!

Hope you're all having a good and productive week and that any blocks you're making are coming together well. Remember, if it's raining and the wind is blowing, that means that April is going to be amazing!

Sharing at Let's Bee Social and One Monthly Goal.

Hearts and flowers

How has your week been?  Mine was busy, busy, busy, and also warm.  What is happening with the weather?  Not that I am complaining!  I'll take warm and rainy over cold and snowy any time.  But it's certainly weird to have the windows open in February.

This week in the sewing room, I quilted up the small hearts quilt that I chose for my One Monthly Goal!  Whoo-hoo!  Here it is:

If it looks a little wrinkled, that's because I forgot to take pictures before I washed it. Brain cramp, I guess! I made this little quilt in 2015, and I wanted to have it done for Valentine's Day this year, but that didn't happen.  Oh, well!  It's still February, and it's still finished!  It was free-motion quilted with a loop and heart meander, which I admit has more loops than hearts. 

I quilted this on my almost 50-year-old Pfaff 362 after thread basting it nice and secure, which was good because this got squished a lot when I was quilting it.  Somehow I can never avoid crossing over, doubling back, and generally having the quilting plan go off track.  It usually turns out okay, though, and I'm happy enough with this one.

Every time I talk about thread basting I get comments and emails about how it's done, so this time I used dark thread and took a picture:

It's just lines of big stitches put in by hand instead of safety pins or straight pins, and it doesn't take long, plus it holds everything very secure.  I pre-threaded four needles and basting this took less than 15 minutes.

I gave this quilt a zippy green binding, which I thought gave the quilt a little zing, and also. . .

. . .made the quilt reversible!  It's not just for Valentine's Day any more!  The flowers are a bit bright, but they'll be perfect for spring and make it feel fresh in the dining room. This is just singing right now, with the windows open and all.

So there's another little quilt out of the closet and in use.  Feels good!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.  It's going to be 70 degrees here, which is almost unbelievable.  I had planned to clean out my machines and change needles and things, but maybe I'll have to do something outside instead!  It's just a sin to waste a great day, isn't it?

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday, crazymomquilts, and One Monthly Goal.

Lemons to lemonade

Well, I don't know about you, but I could certainly use a nice glass of lemonade!  The hubs and I went away for the weekend, to a place that is generally not warm in February, and it was over 60 degrees!  Not saying it wasn't wonderful, but it was quite odd. 

If you recall, last week I started making some blocks that can only be made with templates.  One turned out well and the other was a failure, mostly because of the set-in seams.  I've worked on it some, and there's a picture later, but mainly it served as inspiration for a Dresden Plate quilt.  Take a look:

I love turquoise and yellow together, don't you?  Looks like I have to reposition the center circle here.  Oh, well.  One of my goals for this year is to make a Dresden Plate quilt, but I initially didn't know what type of Dresden quilt to make.  I think I've found it.  In fact, I'm so sure I made two of these lovelies:

Okay, I'll straighten that one up, too. Not sure what happened when I was appliqueing these down.  I wanted 12-inch blocks, but miscalculated a bit and ended up with 10-inch blocks.  I'm actually okay with that and I'm pretty sure that I can come up with a layout that incorporates a few different sizes.  Not sure if this is an RSC project or not, but the turquoise was a good place to start.

As for the Gardener's Prize block which started the whole thing, this is the mess it was last week:

And this is the block now:

The center still needs to be stitched down, obviously.  I ended up stitching the diamonds to the backgrounds and the sides of the yellow sections, then appliqueing the yellow peaks to the background pieces.  There just wasn't a better way to make it work.  I'm still pretty sure that no one ever used those templates.  It would make so much more sense to make it like a Dresden Plate and then applique it to a background.  I gotta learn to go with my instincts!

So there's my "lemons to lemonade" idea.  I think the Dresdens will work out, and the template block will be finished and I will not have to make another.  Hope you are having a lovely and productive week, and all the lemonade you want.

Sharing at Let's Bee Social, Oh Scrap! and soscrappy for RSC17.

Thrifty finish

Hi everyone!  Someone told me this week that I shouldn't start a blog post that way, but I can't help it, I just want to start by saying hello!  It just feels polite, you know?

This was a very, very busy week for me, but I did finish something I started a few weeks ago.  You may remember that I got some 12-inch blocks in a scrap bag shortly after Christmas.  This week I finished assembling those blocks into a top, ready to be quilted up and donated.  Here's how it ended up:

I think it's cute, especially for cobbling together some thrifted blocks and a piece of yardage from my stash.  This top is about 40 by 60 and will have some great space for quilty practice.  The center blocks look huge but they're the same size as the pieced blocks, 14 inches with the sashing included.  It was very windy when I was taking pictures, so if this reminds you of a sheet on a clothesline, that's why!

I didn't make these blocks, so I want to show you a problem I had with one of them.  I don't know if you can see the shadows behind the light colors in this block, but they are definitely there:

This is the back of the block, which shows why those shadows are there:

The block maker didn't trim off the connector corners after folding up the triangle pieces on the flying geese and some other pieces, which means that they showed through the lighter fabrics.  Keeping these pieces on also made the block very heavy, so I ended up snipping all of those connectors out with a very sharp small scissors.  It was tedious, but it made for a much better block. 

Soon to be a backing!

So, now that that's finished, I plan to quilt this one up for practice and donate it, most likely to the Hands to Help Challenge when that comes around.  Since it was so inexpensive and quick to make, I've been calling this the Thrifty quilt.  If only all thrift was this cute!

When I was outside to take pictures of this quilt, it was cold and windy, but look what's coming up in the front garden:

I think those are daffodil shoots!  And look--some sunshine!  It only lasted a few minutes, but it was very welcome!  Can spring be far behind?

Hope you all have a great weekend.  The hubs and I are off on a small adventure, so here's hoping we have some decent weather.  I feel like it's been gray for weeks, so some more sunshine would be awesome.

Sharing at Finished or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and crazymomquilts.