Surprise audition................

This is not what I had in mind for the 4 patches I have been making, but I had to try them as a border for this second busy little quilt top.  They definitely work and maybe I just need to use them and scrap my idea for starting another quilt top.  I could add another row of 4 patches on the top and bottom to make it more rectangular.

The early Peonies are coming up.  There is ne group slightly behind the birdbath and another group to the right of it.  There is a patch of jonquils or daffodils in front of the left tree trunk.  There is even a Forsythia bloom in the top right corner, out of focus because it is right outside of the window where I took this photo.

This is the strangest of all of the photos that came from my grandparents' photo collection.  Doing a little research, I think it is a Woodmen (or Foresters) group from around 1905 -1910.

In this closeup you can see they are all holding the handle of an axe.  Using a magnifying glass, I don't recognize my grandpa or his brothers in this photo.  I'm not sure why they had this photo.  Maybe my grandma's brother is in there.  I think he died at a young age so I didn't know him like I knew the 4 sisters (Grandma and 3 great-aunts).

 

Sorting, stitching................

I still had the bin of my parents' photos on the dining room table since the day my cousins visited.  I decided they weren't going to sort themselves so I spent 3 hours yesterday, making some progress.  Most are from my mother's side of the family.  I sorted into piles of 3 generations, my brothers and me, great aunts and uncles and their families, and one pile of "who is this?".  I will need to go back through some of the piles again but for now I can put them back into the bin with labels inserted into each bag.

I got 39 four patches sewn last night and have 13 cut and ready to sew.

I think the snow will stay north of us today but we will get rain and about 45 degrees, another good day to stay inside.

I can see some peonies growing in the back garden and the first sighting of pink in the Redbud trees.  I hope we don't get another freeze.

 

Mindless sewing..................

This is the view from my sewing chair at 9 p.m. last night.  I worked on the binding a little and earlier in the day cut some more batik pieces.  I needed a break from both projects so I gathered up all of the Kaffe collective 2.5" strips that weren't a full length and started sewing contrasting values together.  At this point I'm thinking 4 patches with one of two different ideas as their landing spot.

This is a better photo of all of the ones that are sewn so far.  I need to press them before I can crosscut them and make the 4 patches.

These are the pieces that are left, a lot of them needing a partner that isn't in the pile.

I'll get back to the binding today and maybe do some clean up on the table tops.

We didn't get any snow yesterday but Chicago got a little.  Last night went down to the mid 20s and maybe snow Wednesday and next Monday is supposed to be 70 for a daytime high.  From long sleeves to short sleeves we will go.

Cutting, sorting, binding.................

Yesterday morning I die cut 17 more fabric strips into rectangles and squares for Colorwash.  I had previously cut 43 fabrics and have 43 more fabric strips to go.  Since I usually use only one of each print in a colorwash this 100+ group of cut pieces are just a portion of what I will need.

While the washing machine was running I looked through some embroideries I have done in the past for these 2 pieces.  I want to do another quilt with this style block.  The one on the left was a sample block for a quilt I made for the store I was working at.  On the final quilt I used butterfly embroideries instead of flowers.  

Here is a portion of it at the fair booth for the store I used to work at.  The green checked fabric is a flannel and I want to do another one with flannel.

This is the store sample I made with the hummingbird embroideries (block on the right in 2nd photo above).  I think I mistakenly made the same block twice so it was a leftover.  This quilt is the same idea as the green one with 4 patches and embroidery.

Here are some of the embroideries I found while looking for those 2 blocks.

The only machine embroidery I have done in the last few years is the redwork blocks for 2 quilts and Christmas stockings for my great-grandchildren.

I did some more binding on the batik quilt last night.  I have about 17" left to do on a long side so I'm almost half way done.

Prediction for possible snow flurries around noon.  I think some areas in the south have had more snow than we had this past winter.

Cutting. hand sewing..................

I pulled out these 3 dies to start cutting a pile of batiks.  They are all pieces less than 1/4 yard wide, most between 3 and 6" wide

I pressed this pile of strips a couple weeks ago so it was time to do the cutting.  I'm doing 1 hour a day and have worked on it on 3 days so far.

There are 4 pieces of most of the fabrics and only 2 of a few.  These will be worked onto the trays of pieces that have been cut over several years.  As soon as the pile of fabric is all cut, I will start designing the next colorwash.

I worked on the binding's hand stitching for awhile last night.  I finished the short side I started the night before and got about 15" finished on one long side.  There is no hurry on this one, a little each night and eventually it will be done.

I ventured out yesterday and cut the flower stalks off one more Sedum plant.  One more left to clean up and raking of that flower bed is needed.  We are going to have a couple nights below freezing so I'll wait a few more days.

Quilting and binding...................

I had 2 sessions of ditch quilting around the light centers of some of the blocks in the Crooked Cobblestone quilt.  I have one more day on light centers and then can choose a different color to do.

I have 2 quilts to bind and this one was already trimmed so I started with it.  In this photo  have attached the binding by machine.

There are 3 fabric strips on the back of the quilt.  The one on the right was full width and the other 2 were cutaways from previous backs.  I have started the hand sewing on the binding and have part of a short side finished.

It was a chilly day yesterday so I was inside all day.  I need to go outside today and see what else is growing. 

Border......................

A little over a week ago I showed some pieced strips I found in a drawer in my studio.  This photo shows what is left after using some of them.

I also showed 2 possible small tops in progress that the strips could be used on.  This was the winner and I got all 4 borders sewn on Wednesday night.

To break down this design: I started with 4 star blocks and then added sashing made of Flying Geese.  After that I added Bow Tie blocks as a border and then it stayed in limbo for 4 1/2 years.  Now it measures 40" square and I think just a medium-dark binding will complete the quilt (after I quilt it).

I think I'm down to the last 2 blooms of my cacti plants.  This orange one makes me so happy.

The medium rose color bloom is so pretty too.  The color seems more intense on this plant this year.

I finished knitting a dishcloth last night, using up the ends of two balls of yarn.

A friend came over yesterday so I could help her with a computer problem and we spent hours talking about fabric and quilts.  She brought lunch from Subway and it was so good.  I hadn't had a Subway sandwich for almost a year.

Quarterly recap- First quarter 2025

There were 6 finished quilts in the first quarter of 2025.  The colorwash is a wallhanging and there is one baby quilt.  The rest are what I consider throw quilts, and they are mostly in the 50" x 70" size range with some a little smaller, some a little larger.  The baby quilt top was just finished in January.

There were also 6 quilt tops made in the first quarter.  That would mean I'm not gaining in the finished vs. started quilts except that I sold the Plaidish top, so I am ahead in finishes by one.  The two Tilda fabric quilt tops are at the longarmer's house so they will be finishes soon.  I plan on quilting the pastel baby quilt in April.  I counted 26 tops on the "to be finished" list.  The largest percentage of them is in the category of 66" or shorter on the longest edge.

There are 17 pieces in the "littles" category, mostly what I consider table mats of one kind or another: table runners, table centerpieces, placemats, mug rugs, and oversized coasters.

This post is mostly for me to look back to for reference, but I hope you enjoyed it too.  You can go back to monthly recap posts to see more descriptions and sizes by clicking on "monthly recap" on the label list on my right sidebar.  If you read the blog on your phone, you need to scroll to the bottom of the post and click on "view web version" to see the sidebar.

March 2025 monthly recap..................

 There were two finishes in March.  On the left Neutral Batik 16 Patch 3 is 54.5" x 72".  I have made a total of 4 quilts with these fabrics; the first one was sold as a top, the second a finished quilt (made with triangles) was sold, a family member has the third one.  I'm hoping a family member will want this one.

On the right, Kaffe Blue Pinwheels is 59" x 72".  It is the 4th quilt made with 6" triangles of Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics.  The others were pink/blue, pink/green and pink/gray. all finished last year.  Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, there are still more 6" triangles in a project box.

March was Tilda fabric month for new quilt tops.  I used her fabric from several lines.  I went to the Tilda website and found the pattern for Whimsy, on the left.  It is 57" x 75".  While I was cutting that quilt, I cut pieces for two more quilts.  The one on the right is a basic 16 patch quilt with the leftover ladies fabric cut into alternating blocks.  I will finish cutting the third quilt this week.

This year I want to finish a lot of small pieces so I will have finished pieces ready for gifting.  This was a good month for finishes in this category.  I gifted the purple/blue hand died small piece yesterday.

I'm going to put together some collages for the first quarter of the year.  I decided I need that to see my progress better.  It will be a separate post from the monthly recap. 

The last March finish.................

I finished hand sewing the binding on this neutral color batik 16 patch quilt around 9 p.m. last night but didn't want to go to the basement to take the photos so I hung it on my main floor studio design wall for these photos.  This one ended up at 54.5" x 71".

I was so happy to find a large enough piece of batik (that looks good with the top) in my backings box.  I only buy that large of yardage when it is deeply discounted.

This quilt has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it and was longarm quilted by Robin Diaz.

It was in the 40s yesterday so it was a good day to stay inside.  I had a wonderful visit with 2 cousins (daughters of 2 first cousins).  I want to be sure family members have my quilts so they went home with some.

I'll work on my monthly recap post today and I'm thinking about doing a quarterly recap post also.