A Start and a Finish

Nancy's quilt is completed! I'll take it to guild Friday to share. Sorry for the cruddy indoor picture. It's raining again.

This is my first completed quilt of the year. I've also finished two knitting projects.

I've also been making some progress on my Linda J. Hahn quilt from last year's IHQS class. Please tell me this is relatable:

At least I didn't trim off the foundation bit as well. I'm also glad it's just plain white fabric. Anyway, they are all trimmed and the one needs to be repaired.

I've trimmed the history center quilt so that it's one step closer to binding. 

I also have a new start. I took a class with Heather Kojan at IHQS Thursday. She is a fun, laid-back teacher, which suits my taste just fine. I don't need a high-stress, quilt police environment. I was really happy to see a few younger people (<45) in class. I heard there were quite a few young people and kids in the fabric dyeing classes. Anyway, I had enough time to sew all of the Dresden ring together and create the background piece during the three-hour class. 

I opted to sew the center at home where there is better lighting and a sewing machine that I am more familiar with.  

I added an additional layer of interfacing between the center circle and the background to help mask that script fabric behind the light center. As you can see, everything is sewn down and ready for quilting. I think I'm going to trim the background down an inch or two on each side.
I had been planning to start a knitting project, but I've been reading a Patty Lyons book, which I recommend, and now I'm thinking that I need to do the practice exercises in the book before doing something (else) "wrong". 😐
I've quilted just a few things since last week. First is Marsali's quilt, quilted with Baptist Fan.
Next is a quilt Dawn's mom made at some point that she recently found in her things. I'm pretty certain the top fabrics are all poly blends. She picked Lacey Loops for this quilting. I will bind it and she'll have a great memento. 

I've also started working on Annie's t-shirt quilt. I can't totally remember, but I think she said these are her brother-in-law's shirts. Many of them were threadbare, but she patched them up and we are going for it. Also notable on this one is the Beavis and Butthead fabric they provided for the backing (not pictured because I didn't get far enough on it for it to show yet). 🤣 Oh, I'm doing my standard Diagonal Plaid Bias quilting. 

Switching over to the garden, my first daffodils bloomed on March 7 this year. 
They really popped Monday--most of them are blooming now. When we first started the gardens, they all bloomed at different times over the course of a month or so. Over time they seem to have just all started going at once. I love daffodils so here are some more pictures. 



I also keep track of the date the first bloom happens. Here's my data:
  • March 1, 2017
  • March 12, 2018
  • March 22, 2019
  • March 11, 2020
  • March 17, 2021
  • March 15, 2022
  • February 26, 2023
  • February 28, 2024
  • March 13, 2025
  • March 7, 2026
Beyond that, my thoughts are heavy and scattered and I'm out of time to write. Stay safe out there. 

Linking with Alycia Quilts.

8 comments

  1. Congrats on your quilt finish! And I love your bright, saturated rainbow colors in that Dresden Plate!

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  2. Thank you for your post. The daffodil pictures especially helped to lift my heavy and scattered thoughts.

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  3. I think every one of us can relate to a ahem, cutting error! I love your Dresden! I've been itching to do another one soon. That was always a block I never thought I'd do but once I made one, I really grew to love them. So what are you thinking for your next knitting project? I've been dying to knit my first garment (pretty much why I learned to knit many moons ago) but I keep trying to finish up my few UFOs. With no garden or yard work (due to the move), just maybe this is the year to begin a vest or sweater? Have a great week!

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  4. Congrats on the finish! I love dresden blocks. They are my favorite of the traditional blocks.

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  5. Ooh, that first one is a great finish! Later you spoke about the "Diagonal Plaid Bias" stitch pattern -- Is that the same one used on Nancy's quilt? That's a pretty Dresden block and sounds like it was a great class. Do you have a plan to make more or add it to a project or will it remain a class sample? Wow, flowers already?!? The daffodils in my little front plot have only popped up no flowers yet so glad to get to enjoy seeing yours! Spring is truly here!

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    1. Nancy's quilt is quilted with the design "Fizz". I made the Dresden into a mini quilt. It didn't go entirely smoothly, so I might try one more that would correct the mistakes I made. And I'm very sad because we had a major cold snap and most of my blooming daffodils flopped over and look terrible now. I can't remember this ever happening before.

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