I made three more butterflies while watching TV last night, the two with purple upper wings and the brown/aqua one in the bottom row. I have been alternating warm/cool colors so far. I'm not sure if that is the way it will end up when I get all 20 blocks made. Today I will cut the sashing strips and more background triangles for the remaining 6 blocks.
We are having 4 snowstorms this week, maybe a foot of snow by the time it is all over. Good sewing weather!
My granddaughter needed some large plastic storage bins and I knew I had a couple with very little in them. In the bottom of one I found this piece from July 17, 1996. That day was the beginning of the 24 hour rain of almost 17". (You can find info about it by searching "100 year rain in Aurora IL). I had taught a class 30 miles from home and pinned the pieces onto flannel after I showed the class how we were designing the Baker's Dozen Doubled from a Mary Ellen Hopkins book. I like the combination of fabrics and always intended to get it out and finish it. Luckily the yardage to match was in the box too. Now I need to unpin all of the pieces and press them and then start the design over on a double design wall.
My white cactus is on the stop shelf of a metal baker's rack by the west picture window. This is the second blooming. I didn't put my cacti outside the last 2 summers and they still are blooming fine. I guess it really isn't a necessary step. I don't have a back door on my house. I have a front door and a side garage door so I don't have a porch or deck on the back of the house for them.
I was finishing a butterfly block yesterday and looked up at my design wall and realized I was missing 2 light triangles on all of the butterflies. If you look at the blue one at the end of the center row, that is how they should all look.
Last night I took them down two at a time and added the triangles. I also finished 2 more blocks. I am trying to decide whether to stop at 12 (am I really having fun or not sewing all of the flipped triangles?) or go to 20 and add a border to make it a large throw quilt.
We made the decision to keep the pop up shop open today until noon EST. We realize a lot of people were focusing on the Super Bowl (and parties) instead of their computers yesterday.
I finished sewing the colorwash that I was working on 2 days ago but haven't given it a good press yet. I just had to put it up on the design wall and take a photo so I could view it on my computer.
Today is my son's 57th birthday so we will have a little party. I baked his requested treat last night.
I found a few sale fabrics recently and had to have some of them. I am mostly buying fill in for gaps in my stash at this point. I used a large variety of light prints on this quilt and it was pretty successful.
We're getting snow again so I cancelled the art quilters for Monday. No one needs to be walking on a slippery driveway when it is 10 degrees out. Warmer weather will be coming next month I hope.
I mentioned this project a while back and had the fabric stacked together on a shelf. While my friends were here I started doing the cutting for it. The light fabric will be cut in strips and is the background. I'm doing the version in the small photo but I am making it larger than pictured.
I have just one bloom on this cactus and it is huge. I think it had one bloom earlier this winter too.
The orange cactus has several buds and one bloom opened yesterday.
The other orange plant has several buds too. It had one bloom earlier this winter. I see that my white one that has already bloomed has buds again.
One more day for the pop-up shop. It closes tomorrow night at midnight Eastern time. All of the new close up photos will go away so you have one last chance to see the quilts up close if you haven't been there yet.
I'm sewing the latest colorwash while contemplating what quilt I want to make with the neutral color fabrics while they are still out.
I have found some more light ones which makes me think maybe a traditional block would be a good choice. Maybe I should try one block with my Bear Paw die to cut the pieces.
My 2 friends are going out to lunch with me and then coming back to my house to sew this afternoon. They will finally get to see my neutral brick quilt top.
Just 2 more days left for my current pop-up shop. It will close Sunday night at midnight Eastern time.
I finished two quilts in January, both wallhangings. I designed the one on the left in the first 3 days of January and then quilted it later in the month so it was started and finished the same month, something I don't do very often.
I made two quilt tops in January. I like the neutral batiks so well I think I will probably make another quilt with them.
I finished one small project, a table runner. I have several more table runner tops made so I will try to finish all of them this year.
I also knitted about 8 dishcloths, worked on a lot of crazy pieced blocks, and did lots of cutting for two projects. I'm happy with my start of this year and hope I will stay focused and continue to produce my works of art.
