Stories from the Sewing Room

I've been busy trying to catch up and keep up with the Loves Me, Loves Me Not QAL. Last week was a catch up week, which I used to make the three remaining Wedding Ring blocks. This week we made two Milton Falls blocks. Here are all my blocks so far.

My OMG this month is to get all the blocks made for the top. 

I also need to finish up assembling my Melodic Mystery top. I have two rows made. I'd love to finish up this and my Board & Batten. Board & Batten is ready for quilting, but I still have not come up with a quilting design that feels right for it. Sometimes this is the reason why my quilt tops end up as UFOs. I just get quilter's block. That seems funny for someone who quilts for others as a living, but it happens. I make so many decisions on others' things that mine are just one decision too many.

I had plans to get lots of quilting done, but the universe had other plans for me this week. I watched eight hours of FTC state tourney live-stream (the boys finished in 15th place in the state, won a second place Think Award, and were chosen for a finals alliance), my family needed me for other things, we had high winds that kept blipping and eventually knocking out our power, and then yesterday our lift pump for the downstairs plumbing quit and it smelled too bad to work downstairs. Yesterday also happened to be my husband's birthday and he spent it changing out that pump. 

Anyway, I did get a few done, just not as many as I'd planned on. 

Here's Cindy's, quilted with Triangle Meander. The end result was pretty cool.

Margaret's is quilted with Persephone 3 and Glide Cool Mint thread. I was trying to capture a wave-like feeling.

I also quilted Linda's quilt. It doesn't show here, but there is a large panel with a tractor in the center. I suggested Diagonal Plaid for this and she agreed to let me use the design. I think the finished quilt looks amazing and I hope she likes it too. Diagonal Plaid is one of my all-time favorites. Thread is Glide Smoke.

Other things of note this week are that I have two quilts hanging at the IHQS this weekend. They are really not "show quilts" at all, especially when compared to the pros such as Margaret Solomon Gunn who send quilts in to the show, but they are there. Hopefully people will be kind. 

The larger guild I belong to had Sue Nickels speak the other night. She is an award winning quilter and for most of her career she quilted everything on a domestic machine. She now has a sit-down long arm. Random fact: the first time I ever went to the AQS show in Paducah (1998), Sue and her sister, Pat Holly, had their Beatles quilt there. It won best of show. I went digging and found the photos I took of it back in the day. 

It was nice out over the weekend, so my husband took Henry out of the coop and placed him in the run. We ran some errands, came back, and found an egg in the run. That's the first time that's ever happened. Can you see it? It's to the bottom left of the waterer.

Also, Smoky, the other rooster, is such a jerk to Henry. Every time he tried to get up to walk, Smoky would jump on top of him and crush him back down. 

Signs of spring are all around my neighborhood. My first daffodils of the season bloomed on February 26.