First finish for February 2026.............

Purple Rosy is finished and I am so happy with the binding and backing as well as the top.  It is 65" x 82" and has Hobbs 80/20 batting.  It was quilted by Robin Diaz.

All of the fabrics are from the Kaffe Fassett Collective, the trio of designers.

The photo above was taken with my Canon camera and this photo was taken with my cellphone.  I think this one is truer color, but something halfway between is probably the closest true color.

This backing fabric has a lavender background.

I cut batting for these two quilts, the next to be quilted.  The top one in flannel and was started last year.

I used these 3 fabrics for the back of this quilt.  They are all leftovers from previous backings.

I will work on the back of the flannel quilt today.

I wanted to try the barn raising layout with the double 4 patch blocks.  I can't say I think this is pretty, other than pretty bright.  It will be okay for a quilt to gift.

I am trying the 16 patches as a border.  I will be short 3 blocks if I use them like this.  Since the center is an even number of blocks both ways I could do the layout where 4 squares make a diamond design, like I did on the purple/green one.

 

Binding finished.................

The binding was finished last night, too late to take it's final photo.

I still can't believe there were so many purples in the Kaffe collective fabrics.  Seeing all of the fabrics on my shelves, stored by number, there didn't seem to be that many.  I sometimes think I should store them by color, but so many of the collective fabrics are multicolor without one clear color standing out.

I love the fabric on the back and I was lucky enough to find it on sale.  It is also from the Kaffe collective group.

While in the basement I decided to check the batik orphan block box for leftover double 4 patch blocks.  These 4 are possibilities to use with the new batch I have been making. The one with 3 different fabrics might stand out.

There were 3 blue and one green block that could possibly fit in too.  I could make a few more with brown and blue and brown and green if I wanted to cut some more strips.

Also in that box were 27 sixteen patch blocks in brown tones.

There are duplicates of some of them.

These blocks are the same size as the double 4 patches and maybe they could all be used together in a quilt top that would measure 64" x 72" or if I added a few more (from newly cut strips) it could be 64" x 80".

Monday night sewing.................

I had two sessions of hand stitching last night.  I'm approaching the 4th corner now and part of the next side (a short side) is already stitched.  One more night should do it.  I'm done with PT until the last Friday of the  month so I will have more time at home in the studio for a while.

This is what I worked on between those 2 sessions, 16 more double 4 patch blocks.

There are two blocks alike of each of these, 4 in each combination of fabrics.

And two of each of each block in these combinations too.

It got up to 39 yesterday and should be a few degrees warmer today.

I think I'll search for backings for a couple quilts today and cut some batting.  Then I can use that table for basting a baby quilt.

A little more.................

Not a lot of progress was made on hand stitching Purple Rosy's binding.  I have completed 3 corners so that makes me happy.

I spent many hours working on my computer, searching for photos, cleaning up files, and much more.

Here is another photo of the prettiness I'm looking at as I stitch away.

I'm looking forward to 40 degrees when I leave for PT today.

 

Binding progress........................

Now I have one and a half sides hand stitched on Purple Rosy.  The long side is 82" so I started with that one.  I'm really happy with this diagonal stripe for the binding.

These are the colors on the needles for this month's dishcloths.

Today will be 30 degrees and then we will be above freezing for a week..or more.  The little bit of snow that was on the grass melted on Friday.  There are still small piles at the side of my driveway.

 

Decision made......................

Either one of the fabrics I pulled to audition for the binding choice on Purple Rosy would have worked but I ended up choosing the diagonal stripe.  This is the original fabric, not the archive reprint.  I only got about 24" hand stitched last night.

I sewed 2 more combinations of fabrics into Double 4 patches.  There are 2 of each of these, so 8 blocks were sewn.

We got up to 37 degrees yesterday, the first time above freezing in almost 3 weeks.  Now we have 2 colder days over the weekend and then 30s and 40s next week.

Machine fixed, cutting and sewing...............

These are the blocks I was trying to sew when my machine had no tension.  When I worked at the sewing machine store, the boss showed all of the employees how to take the top off of our Pfaff machines so we could find errant threads.  I did that 2 nights ago and couldn't find any thread but cleaned out some lint.  I did some flossing of the tension discs with a folded strip of fabric and kept testing the sewing but nothing was working.

Yesterday morning I opened the top of the machine again and finally the thread that was causing the problem was visible.

I got the other combinations sewn last night too.

I got all of the rest of the strips ready to cut the final batch of 4.5" squares.  This is a total of 40 blocks, so not enough for a throw size quilt.

All of them are cut now so I have one more evening of mindless sewing ready.

Yesterday the weather people were saying we could have a wintry mix falling and making slippery roads so I did my grocery shopping in the afternoon.  Maybe today I'll get the binding cut for Purple Rosy too while I stay inside for the day.