AUNTIE'S GARDEN QUILT

 I found this old (1996) quilt in storage, along with a few others.  I didn't make it, I think it was made by Terri Nussbaum as a class sample.  I'm not sure how I ended up with it.

It needed binding to be complete.  I used some Kona Solid to finish it off.  I washed it when it was done.  

It's a very sweet quilt made with Aunt Grace fabrics that replicate 1930's style fabrics, and quilted with a flower motif.

BINDING ON FLOATING SQUARES

 Made the binding and got it on the Floating Squares quilt today.

Two quilts binded today!  Woohoo!

BINDING ON DAISY

 I got the binding on the Improv Daisy quilt.  It's done!

About this above photo: I was using the leftover white thread that was still on the bobbin after quilting Opening Night on the longarm.  This is the piece of thread that was still on the bobbin after I finished sewing down the binding here.  Talk about bobbin chicken!  I won!

BINDING ON OPENING NIGHT

 I sewed the binding onto Opening Night while Eduard quilted on the Floating Squares quilt.

Got them both done!

I gotta say, putting binding on a 90" by 90" quilt is a pain!  I really don't want to do that anymore.  

OPENING NIGHT QUILTING DONE

I finished off the quilting on Opening Night today.    I was running out of white thread towards the end, so I figured I'd only need about another half of a bobbin's worth to finish everything.  But, I was wrong.  I refilled that half a bobbin three times!  There's still a bit of white thread on the bobbin, but that is it.

I had to rotate the quilt to fit the side triangles into the quilting area of the longarm.  Those last few setting triangles were quilted with black thread on top luckily.

I also finished sewing the last of the Shattered blocks together while I watched a webinar about embroidery software for the Bernina.  And I started making the binding for Opening Night which should get completed tomorrow.

BEST USE OF COLOR

I just watched the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival Awards Show online - Visuals 3, my little quilt Seasons won "Best Use of Color" tonight.  Yoohoo!

The award comes with a ribbon and $150 cash prize.  

DAY'S DUTIES

 I spent the morning making a great batch of Tiger Mountain Chili and cornbread muffins.  Then I went upstairs and inked the label for the back of Floating Squares.

After a great lunch of chili, I went upstairs and almost finished the quilting on Opening Night.  I ran out of bobbin and called it a night.  I should be able to finish it tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

SKETCHING PLAYLAB

 I finally got to join in the Sketching PlayLab live online at 7am.  Great fun!  I'm going to try to do these every month.

BRAVE PATCH MONDAY

 During our weekly Monday Sew-In on Brave Patch I got a few things done.

I sewed on the very last square on the top then I made a backing for my Floating Squares quilt. (I think it deserves a better name, don't you?)

I need to ink a label on there somewhere, too.

Then I got to work on those squares for the last blocks of Shattered.  I didn't quite finish though.  

Now that I take a look at them, I'm worried that I put them together wrong.  Or maybe I just need to turn those top rows around.  I hope so.

CHANGING CIRCLES

 I finally got around to changing the color of the circles on my Flowers quilt.

Now it's ready for quilting.  

ANOTHER SHATTERED BLOCK

 I got some work done on Opening Night before lunch.

After, I attended a Brave Patch zoom meeting and sewed some Shattered blocks together.

Then I trimmed up the last set of HSTs.  

TRIP TO OAK HARBOR

 Darrell is buying a tool for his shop so we're going to Oak Harbor to pick it up.  We left early and got some breakfast at PCC in Fremont.  We headed up I-5 all the way to Mount Vernon and then turned and headed to Whidbey Island.

We stopped to take pictures of the bridge at Deception Pass.

Then we headed down to the State Park to the beach.  It was very windy and very cold - but beautiful.

Next stop was at the cabinet shop where we picked up his new tool.

It's a panel mover cart so he won't have to wrestle with plywood sheets anymore.

Next stop was lunch at a nice little cafe in Coupeville.

After a short tour of Fort Casey we headed for the ferry home.

We were looking forward to having popcorn on the ferry, unfortunately the cafe was closed.  This is the Tokitae ferry, we've never been on it before.  It has some great photos of orcas.

THURSDAY STUFF

 I spent the morning quilting on the Opening Night quilt.  I'm getting closer to the middle.  Then I went inside to catch a lecture about What Judges Want given at Quiltcon  Together.  

After lunch, I got around to making the small version of the Nebula Two blocks.  I had to do some ciphering to figure this one out.  But, now I'll be ready to the next ones, too.

Then, I trimmed the triangles for a set of blocks for Shattered.  I have one more set to trim - and then I need to sew the blocks together.

I wrote in my journal that I want to cross off some of the projects from my to-do list this month.  If I put my nose to the grind stone and just did it, I could probably get some of them done.  Here's to perseverance. 

[Speaking  of perseverance, the Mars rover, Perseverance, landed safely today, too]

QUILTING CIRCLES

 Spent some time quilting on the Opening Night quilt.  I'm doing mostly ruler work, stitching in the ditch and outlining the stars and putting circles where I can.  I found a nice little design with circles to put in the middle of the big stars, too. (not shown here)

WILDFLOWER TWO

 Back in the studio after our morning walk (in the melting snow), I got to work on the second block for the Wildflower quilt.

Funny story - this set of blocks was strips of dark, light, dark, light, dark, light with a different color on the bottom.  The instructions, again, called for making them in a 'birthday cake' style and then trimming them down.  That is such a waste of fabric, so I thought I could do it by sewing all of the strips together, except for the bottom one, and then cutting triangles, alternating up and down from the strip set.  Then adding the last colored strip to the bottom.  While I was deciding on which fabrics to use, I thought 'wouldn't a gradation of colors look great?'.  So, I did it that way sewing all of the strips together.  Then it struck me that they'd be alternating when I cut them from the strip.  Oh well, I like it like this anyway.

Not sure which way I like it best.