Playing around.............

I got one section of 10 rows and another section of 5 rows sewn together yesterday.  I have 4 more rows to sew and then join all of the sections.  I could have finished it yesterday but I decided to bake shortbread cookies instead.

I'm still cutting up some leftovers from the setting triangles on the warm color Kaffe 16 patch quilt.  I made 2 test blocks cut with the LeMoyne star die.

Round 2 of cactus blooming is starting now.  This is a champagne color plant that I bought last year.

It has about a dozen buds.  I love it when there are 2 on the end of one section.

There are a few buds on the orange one too.  On the shelf below this one there is the pale pink which also has a few buds.

If you have asked me a question in the comments and you haven't gotten a reply from me, there is no email link in your profile or comment.  My email address is on the right sidebar if you want to contact me.
 

Trip Around the World progress........

During the days this week I have been working on cutting colorwash kits and at night I sew.  I have the left half of the TAW sewn now and after I took this photo I brought the next 5 rows upstairs to sew.  I need to do some unpicking today.                  

I had fun reading all of the comments yesterday about my fun find and it reminded me I have a lot more larger pieces done too in another place in my studio.  I think I need to get all of them out and photograph them too and then show the 2 photos in the same post.         

More snow predicted today.  We only got about an inch and a half Thursday night into Friday morning because we were on the southern edge of the storm again.  Today's storm looks like it might hit us more directly and has a 2.5" prediction.                                                                                                                                                                     

Finding fun stuff...............

I was looking through the drawers of one of my rolling carts and found all of these batik  scrappy pieced strips clipped together.  Each pile is the same width but different lengths.  I looked back through my old photos and see I was making these in 2015 and 2016.

I found this photo in 2016 when I had finished trimming them to even widths and had them all up on the design wall.

I have no plans for them currently but it was fun to find them and look through them.

 

Amaryllis joy..........

I put the wax coated Amaryllis by the west window so the last bloom could get some sunshine.

I was so busy watching the red bloom that I didn't notice until yesterday that a new bud stalk is peeking out of the bulb.  It took about a month from this stage to full bloom on the first stalk.

The second Amaryllis has 2 flowers fully opened.  I chose a striped one when I ordered the bulb with my gift certificate from a friend.

The buds on the second stalk are starting to open too and they are about the same height now.

I turned all of the Crossed Canoe blocks so that 4 light points meet and 4 dark points meet.  It creates big squares in the background and the canoes are floating over the top.  I haven't made any more blocks yet, just enjoying these blocks on the design wall.  (blocks are die cut, 9" finished blocks)

More snow predicted today...........
 

Trip Around the World and into the past...................

My unpicking the bottom half strips is just past the center now.   I sewed the bottom half of the left 10 rows to the top halves and then sewed the long seams from top to bottom.  By the end of the week I should have this all sewn together.

 It's February so it is time to get out my blast from the past for the month.  I used to do Swedish Weaving on huck toweling back in my teens through my 20s.  The huck toweling has a raised thread that you can run a tapestry needle under and doing this is kind of like counted cross stitch following a chart.

I still have 2 of the books that patterns are in but neither of them has the designs I used on my towels.  One of these is copyright 1936 and the other is 1940.

I used Coats and Clark embroidery floss to do the designs.

I used pale pink thread on this one, a Colonial girl holding a bouquet of flowers.  That is a pretty traditional quilt pattern too.

Just playing with blocks.............

I played with some different arrangements of the Crossed Canoe blocks trying to figure out how I will set them. These are set with 4 light points coming together and 4 dark points coming together.

 In this layout all blocks are rotated the same direction.

I put all 29 blocks up on the design wall in random color order but all rotated the same direction.

Then I grouped them loosely by color.  I need to make a lot more blocks so I'm trying to come up with ideas for color combinations in the next blocks.  I'm also considering another block to alternate them with.

This is the snow from 3 snowstorms in January.  My snow plow guy just pushes it all to this side of the driveway.  Just look at that sunshine and blue sky.  We were only around 32 degrees but it felt great outside.

Monthly recap for January 2021......

I had 3 finishes in January.  Table runners are 16.25" x 31.5" and 14" x 41".  The Jewel batik 16 patch quilt is 55" x 71".

I completed 3 quilt tops.  The pineapple log cabin was just waiting for its setting triangles and I'm glad I took my time finding the perfect fabric for them.  It is 45" x 58.5".  The cool color Kaffe collective 16 patch just needed the 2 long insert strips sewn into it. It is 60.5" x 80".  The warm color Kaffe collective 16 patch was started on January 6 and finished on January 28th.  It is 58" x 80" and is the first 16 patch that I have set on point.

The Amaryllis starting to open.  I can see 4 buds in there so far.

This is the new larger basket that I set the grapevine basket into, hoping that it can't tip over now.  Both stalks are almost the same height.

I measured the snow on the sidewalk yesterday and it was 5" and it was heavy and wet.  Some parts of Chicago got a foot of snow because of the lake effect snow off Lake Michigan.  I have a new neighbor a couple doors down and he came over and shoveled my sidewalk for me.