Things are moving along here, mostly slowly, but still forward motion. I completed my Melodic Mystery top over the weekend. In case you didn't see my OMG Link Up post Monday, here is my quilt top. I have a vague plan to custom quilt it at some point. I shared it on the Meadow Mist Facebook page and am feeling really flattered by all the positive attention/feedback it's getting. 🥹
I finished ripping out the stitching on my Loves Me, Loves Me Not top over the weekend and re-quilted it yesterday with my original pick, which I should have done in the first place. Here it is in progress. I quilted it with the African Foliage design.
I'm planning a flanged binding on this one and will hopefully complete it within the week and do the full reveal after.
I'm also working on a secret project. I'm slowly making progress on it, but it doesn't make for decent blog content. 😏
I will soon have most of my personal quilt commitments completed and I am pondering what I might like to work on next. I picked up a recent copy of Quiltmaker magazine over the weekend and I really want to make this quilt. I don't think I actually have enough of the correct colors in my stash to do it, but it is sooooo tempting!
I would like to reduce my UFO list, so I probably need to look there first. I'm okay with having a ton of things in the to-be-quilted pile since my longarm time is at a premium, but I'm not okay with my quantity of half-done quilt tops. I think I will start assembling my long-neglected Women's Voices blocks. I liked the idea of this project when I started it around 2000, but the fabrics are not to my taste and times change and this pattern was written in a way that I found somewhat incomprehensible and I'm ready to be done with it. {Side note: a good amount of people have contacted me over the years, asking me to provide copies of the pattern to them. This pattern is still available for purchase from the designer and I respect designers and their copyrights. Also--sketch out the block yourself; it will probably be easier to understand than what was provided.}
Unfortunately, past me didn't leave very good notes with the assembly instructions on what still needed to be done--maybe some sashing and definitely outer borders. Past me also didn't do the best job on piecing some of the blocks. We'll just say it adds to its historical charm.
I've quilted just a few things over the last week. I hope I don't sound like a constant advertisement when I share these. That isn't my ever my intention. It's just what I did in my sewing room during the week and hopefully you like seeing a bit of what other people are working on. Kind of like a show and tell.
This first one belongs to Sara. We decided on Grandmother's Bubbles for the pattern and she stepped out of her gray thread comfort zone to go with Glide Sprout. (I did use gray thread on the back though. 😄) It looks so good!
Next I worked on Amber's Confetti Star. I love that Amber loves color. I picked Toss Up for her design and she wanted neutral thread. She hasn't seen it yet. I hope she loves it!
I also quilted Amber's baby quilt. I decided on Stipple for this one since there are a lot of seams and baby quilts get washed a lot.
Keetah wanted the Play Baseball design on her quilt. This is one I don't offer (not listed on my website) unless someone asks for it specifically because I don't love how the lacing part of the design stitches out. I'd love to find a better baseball design that isn't too fussy and that doesn't snap the thread on the lacing.
Out in the garden, things are slow. The weird weather is not helping things. We did clear out all the flower beds over the weekend, minus the 🤬 spearmint. I pulled out some of that, but there is always more and more. My irises are very stubby, but they are budding. I noticed a few in the neighborhood that are already blooming. It's way early for irises. Then again, the daffodils started very early this year too. The redbuds are about halfway through and the dogwoods are full force, as are my allergies.
My upper front garden needs a big re-do, but I'm not in a rush because sooner than later we need to remove the front porch and columns (ugh!) to fix what an incompetent subcontractor did--didn't insert the provided rebar, so the porch is sinking and pulling away from the house. Super UGH! We have this evergreen standard out there and I had noticed cardinals and robins going in and out. I cannot believe it, but they both have nests in there, with eggs, about 6" apart.
We haven't seen any hummingbirds yet, but the orioles have returned. Edited to add: first hummingbird was spotted in the afternoon, after I posted this.
We are nearing the end of the school year. I volunteered for something in the community that I thought would be a quick thing. It's not. It requires a lot of time and effort and has a very quick, very firm completion date. So I'll be trying to meet my commitment while keeping up with everything else. No good deed goes unpunished, right? These next few weeks will be a bit stressful for me.
Let's leave with something more positive, shall we? You know how I've mentioned that people seem to drive into buildings a lot in this town? We went into town the other day and noticed this. Sure looks like someone drove into it. Okay, so maybe that's not really positive, but I find it amusing because I am just astounded at how many people drive into or through things here.
And I made this Mexican Rice recipe for dinner the other night. It was easy and quite tasty. This one is a positive. 🙂
Linking with My Quilt Infatuation, For the Love of Geese, Alycia Quilts, and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.