While cleaning off tables in the basement I did a little cutting for the next project and also for the postage stamp quilt.
This is my one lonely cactus bloom. There aren't any buds on any of the other plants and only this one on this plant. I knew when they almost all bloomed at the same time earlier this winter that there would be a dry spell.
This noisy crow sat in the tree outside my kitchen window and let the neighborhood know he was here.
February is more than half over already. For the people with Leap Year Day birthdays it probably doesn't get to the end fast enough, after all they have waited 4 years for a birthday.
I finished basting the quilt I showed yesterday and then went back to machine quilting on my straight stitch machine. I am turning a corner every 1.5" for the ditch quilting on this quilt. Each row top to bottom takes almost 20 minutes and I did 6 of them yesterday. I now have 11 of the 20 rows quilted.
If you click and enlarge this photo you can see the pattern it makes on the back of the quilt. Ditch quilting between blocks was done before I started these long rows.
This quilting makes the plain color squares pop forward so the zipper effect should be more prominent.
The art quilters are coming Monday so I have to spend at least 5 hours cleaning off tables, delinting design walls and vacuuming today. Baking will happen tomorrow.
My grandma used to collect postcards and when she decided she was done with that she gave them to me, a little girl living on a farm in the middle of nowhere. This one was in the box.
It was sent to my great-uncle Oliver, a bachelor who lived with his mother, my great-grandmother in Bristol IL. This one is postmarked 1928 and is from Iowa from 2 of Oliver's brothers. Somebody pulled the stamp off of this at some point.
In my own mailbox I got the Valentine on the left this year and the one on the right 5 years ago from my friend Linda. Go here to see how she made this year's cards.
I finally sewed together the wonky heart baby quilt blocks into a quilt top.
Searching through my stash I found this border fabric and I think I will use the numbers fabric on the back. Binding will probably be the same green as the sashing.
A friend came over Wednesday and we basted her flannel quilt. I usually use the tape twice so I looked through my tops for another one to baste and I have it half done now.
Winter is back for a few days. It was 1 degree last night at 11:30.
My Sedum flowers are coneheads again. This is my driveway before it was plowed and before I shoveled the sidewalk. I think we got about 4" of snow.
Two Juncos came to visit and eat from this feeder. The squirrel baffle is a nice conehead too.
This is my Valentine quilt this year. It has 19 hearts hidden in the piecing, some more obvious than others. The fabrics are all Australian. It is 54" x 68" and designing was started in August 2017. I almost gave up on it after the 2nd day of playing at the design wall in 2017. The last hand stitches in the binding were done last night.
The back is pieced from one full width and 2 long leftover strips from other backings.
This is my 4th quilt made with Australian fabrics and I still have a stack a foot high of the fabrics.
This is the first quilt I made with the Australian fabric, the top made in 2014 and quilted in 2017.
This Hunter Star quilt top was finished at the beginning of Oct. 2017. I sold this top.
This triangle quilt made with Australian fabrics was pieced in 2017 and quilted in 2018. I added in a few fussy cut squares when I got tired of sewing triangles. I sold this finished quilt. This one is the only one that I used all of the colors in. I need to make another one with the full variety.
I decided I needed to get the binding done on this quilt instead of working on some other projects. I just have one short side left to hand stitch. Here you can see the 3 backing fabrics as well as a corner of the quilt top.
We still have some snow on the ground and another snow storm should be here this afternoon, really cold Friday and then into the 40s on Monday. I hope the snow will all melt next week.
I was surprised in the comments yesterday to hear there are fewer birds in many parts of the US. I can't believe the hawks have eaten all of them. I see an occasional Chickadee and a couple woodpeckers in addition to the crows. The squirrels are still here and trying their best to get to the birdseed.
I was feeling really lazy yesterday but I finally worked on a few things. I made 5 new strippy blocks for a future project.
I still had the last batch on the wall so I put the new ones up for a photo. Now they will join the other 54 blocks and wait for inspiration.
I have seen very few birds the last month or two. The crows are the only visitors lately and they clean up under the suet baskets.
I wanted a red fabric for the binding on the Australian triangle quilt but didn't have enough of any of them. I decided on this fabric which I have used in my Australian fabric quilts even though it really isn't one of them. I had enough of it for the binding so it is cut now.
While I had the iron on I pressed 11 more fabrics for the postage stamp quilt since I want to finish that top this month.
I hope I can get motivated earlier today and get the binding sewn on the Australian fabric quilt and ready for hand stitching. Maybe even start the hand stitching.
I'm slowly ditch quilting the zipper quilt but for a change of pace I decided to quilt my Australian fabric Valentine quilt on the longarm and have it done by Valentine's day.
Since so many of the fabrics have dots and circles on them I decided to do loops for the quilting.
My loops are organic, many different sizes and shapes - definitely done by a human being, not a computer. I'll choose binding fabric today.
