I Like Thursday: Some Valentine's Love

A day off.  How nice!  I haven't had President's Day off in years.  (Unfortunately, I worked a chunk of the weekend... but we won't focus on that.)

The Richardson's chocolates I got last week were delicious!  Alas, by Tuesday they were all gone.  They tasted as good as they looked.

I was unable to see my mother and sister this weekend, but did spend some time playing Riven with my sister.  This has worked out really well, each of us playing the game on our computers, exploring and brainstorming solutions over the phone.  We squeeze in an hour here or there during the week.

Playing with Pieces

After losing a chunk of my weekend to being on-call (whoa - that was an adventure!), I was able to play on Monday.  I sewed. 

Last month I mucked about with the little kites and rather liked this layout.  This week I pulled out some black scrap (which oddly enough was used in another kite quilt) and decided there was just enough scrap to frame these little kites.  Oh, I love how this looks.  It's made from 12 blocks, each 3⅛" raw.  They had partial seams with that tiny ¾" middle square.  Right now it measures roughly 8x11".  I may trim it down, so the out blocks won't be full squares, to cut down on the black border.  We'll see what it looks like after I quilt it.

Lots of Little Scrappy Squares

I'm working on projects in between projects.  Here, on the left, is a pile of 2-inch squares; on the right, about 150 squares stitched together in pairs.  Since I took that photo I've stitched together over 600 squares and the bag they came from still has a lot left!  I can at least see I've put a dent in it.  

Digging through the squares has been fun.  There are a few scraps of fabric from my first quilts and all sorts of scraps in between. 

I Like Thursday: Winter Arrived

"Did you know your Thursday post hasn't appeared?" Rob commented this morning.

I thought:  of course it hasn't, I haven't written it.  Wait.  It's Thursday?!?

So let's see if I can write this in less than 15 minutes... 

Part of the reason I hadn't written it was because I payed Riven with my sister last night.  Each on the phone, our own copy of the game in front of us, and go exploring together.  It's worked better than I thought and we've been enjoying it.

Project Quilting 12.3: Mini Nauset Light

Project Quilting 12.3 is virtual vacations.  One of my favorite vacation spots is on Cape Cod, near Nauset Light.  I had squirreled away a tiny paper pieced lighthouse pattern designed by Quilt Art Designs that I had intended to make some day.  Today was the day!  (Well, technically four evenings...)

The pattern is for a 4-inch block.  I enlarged it to 6 inches and changed the number of stripes on the lighthouse to match Nauset Light.  The finished piece is 8¼ inches square.

I've had this sea urchin fabric for years.  I love it although it never seems to go with any projects.  This seemed the perfect place to use it.  I thought it might be washed out against the brighter colors of the block so I decided to add in a skinny border.  Somewhere in my thought process, I combined the borders into a very wide flange binding.  I cut that binding fabric three times to get a neat row of sea urchins in the correct width.  Sheesh.  Then it was so wide I couldn't join the binding ends at a 45° angle - the cut would have been as wide as the block!  I think the result was well worth the hassle.

I Like Thursday: Round and Around

Pattern designed by Quilt Art Designs - quiltartdesigns.blogspot.com

I like snow and we got 10 inches or so.  I snowshoed around on Tuesday (it was a workout!).  I found and followed a variety of tracks out in the woods.  Couldn't get out yesterday, but maybe tomorrow if it doesn't melt to much.  I have more exploring to do. 

The latest Project Quilting is Virtual Vacation.  There's a lot of beautiful quilts linked up already.  I had been wanting to make this paper pieced lighthouse for a while.  The pattern is tiny - only 4 inches square.  I expanded it to 6 inches for a mug rug and modified it to look more like Nauset Light.  

Mug Rugs All Around

I had a bunch of brown and cream strings that were the wrong colors to go in my string kites.  So I continued my wavy string kick wit new blocks, adding in my urge to try out the new curved rulers.  Result:  a set of round mug rugs.

All but one had wavy strings.  But even that one got the wavy treatment - I cut through the block to add in a color wave.  I tried to realign the straight strings, but it came out wonky.  The rusty stripe looked like a branch, so I quilted some bark and leaves and flowers growing from it.  So I may not like how it pieced together, but I really like the end result.

Another mug rug had mostly neutral wavy strings, so made a wide strip of blue bias tape and appliqued that across the top.  I would definitely do the bias strip approach to add a highlight before attempting to cut apart a block to insert a wavy piece.

February Goals

Okay - so my January OMG wasn't really just one.  February is shaping up the same way.  I may not qualify for the OMG post, but I figured I'd share my plans, just to keep me focused.   

I completed my January goals.  Yay!  I Frankensteined a bunch of batting, which is currently hanging from my design wall.   I used some of it for my fussy-cut spot table topper and a handful of mug rugs.  

I also wrapped up some more clothesline, finished a few selvedge blocks and worked on those string kites.  Plus I calculated yardage for my next big quilt(s).

My cutting table is all cleaned up.  Scraps are cut.  I'm ready for my next projects.