Blocks and a valentine............

I had 3 TV shows to watch last night so I cut lots of pieces for Crossed Canoe blocks.  I did the pairing of fabrics right before I sewed them instead of before I cut them.

I completed 8 blocks and have a pile of pieces left over.  I think I'll cut some red-orange fabrics to go with some of the left over yellows.

My first Valentine arrived in the mail yesterday.  It is from Linda who sends me one every year.  I know she sends out lots of them so I am honored to be on her list.

(Thanks Linda!)

The heart looks like foiling which I have never done.  The photo just can't pick up the true beauty of the shiny pink.
 

3 blocks.............

 I'm still working on the colorwash kits and beefing up my own selection of squares for designing my next piece.  I had some of the foam squares that lock together that I hadn't used yet so they are on the floor on all sides of the table now for a little cushioning as I work for hours down there.  Last night I cut 3 more Crossed Canoe blocks.  I need to make more green so you will see some of these fabrics repeated in more blocks.

Starting today we are predicted to be in single digits for high temperatures for 4 days.  The weatherman was kidding it is pretty bad when we are looking forward to a day that is 32 degrees for a high.  More snow too over the weekend.

Strips...............

Brown gets a bad rap most of the time.  Some people don't like it and have no brown fabric in their stash.  I think it is rich and warm.  I have shown my little drawer unit full of 2.5" batik strips before, click here if you want a refresher.  Last night I decided to pull out all of the brown related strips.  I can see I want to cut some more dark strips from my batik stash.  I'm thinking another 16 patch quilt but even a jelly roll race (which I call Random Plank  because I cut random lengths instead of using full length strips) would be nice with these fabrics.

 
One of my favorite famous quiltmakers and author passed away last week.  I taught many classes from her "An Amish Adventure" book in the early to mid 1980s.  I even bought the second edition of the book.  I always loved her fabric combinations in her quilts.  I took one of her workshops when she came to our guild and she autographed 3 of my books.  I'm happy I had the chance to meet her.   

It is so cute!........................

Once in a while I see a fabric line that is so cute I just have to have some of it.  It is called Fox Wood and is by Windham fabrics.  That fox is so cute but I couldn't leave the birds behind and why not get the nice confetti print too while I'm at it.

For a few years we had mallard ducks on the farm where I grew up.  Every afternoon half of them would go around the house to the west side and the rest of them were on the east side.  The group on the west side would then start calling to the others and wouldn't stop until they came around and joined them.  It seems like it happened every day but probably in reality wasn't that often.

We had geese, but all white ones when I was small and they used to chase me and nipped the backs of my legs.  When my mother heard me screaming she always knew what was happening.

We ate wild game often and I remember the buckshot in the pheasants.   We had to be careful when we ate it.  Dad would shoot rabbits and squirrels when there wasn't anything else available for our evening meal.

The cutest of all is the fox.  I don't remember seeing foxes when I was little but I would hear Dad talking about keeping the chickens inside at night so the foxes wouldn't get them.

 

Super stripes..........

My Amaryllis is showing off with 6 of the 8 blooms open.

It's hard to get a good picture of them.

The flower stalks are so tall but haven't started leaning over so far.  The metal loop should hold them if they do lean.

I'm still cutting colorwash kits and will be for the rest of this week.  It takes about 10 days to go through all of the fabrics and choose which to cut and press them to prepare for die cutting.  I can only work about 4 hours a day standing on the cement floor even with anti-fatigue mats.

 I also did laundry and baked another batch of cookies.  My grandson in CO is going to have a birthday soon and I need to have things ready to send in the family package.
 

Trip Around the World debut.............

The Kaffe collective Trip Around the World is debuting as a finished top.  I started sewing the stratas almost a year ago and they were pressed and ready to continue for many months.  I finally got tired of moving them around from place to place and started the designing process.   It is 58.5" x 77.5" right now.

Here is a close up of all of the fabrics in it.

 After I finished that I cut 6 more Crossed Canoe blocks and sewed them.  Some of the fabrics are repeats that I used in previous blocks and 5 are new ones.

It was -11 degrees when I got up yesterday and the last time I checked we were up to -2.  Now we will have some warmer days, all the way up to 17 by midweek.

Jack Frost made a visit so enjoy this photo and the next two.

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.

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