Red & White Progress

Yet another cold, snowy weekend to get in some good sewing time, while I watch the winter Olympics. Did you know that there is an Olympic connection to quilting?  If you are interested, Michele over at With Heart and Hands has a great write-up of all those colourful patchwork backgrounds at the Sochi Olympics. Very interesting concept, see the link here. And you can see the official website here.

I've got all these 9 patches trimmed up now, and wanted to see what they would look like all laid out with white alternating patches.  I also set out these hearts in the border, which I've had left over from other projects.  I think I'd like to cut smaller hearts and add a skinny vine to connect them along the border. So far, I like how it's going.

Linking up this time with Anything Goes, here.

Weekend Sewing

I've been working long hours during the week, and don't have much left for sewing, so I try to spend a bunch of time on the weekends getting some sewing done.  It's been slow progress, but progress is progress.

This turquoise star quilt had its borders added on last weekend. I decided to go with the sawtooth right into the corners, instead of having a tiny star which I think looked too small for impact. I wrote about it here. Today I was able to make a backing for it. So I'm happy about that being two big steps towards its completion.  Can't say when it will get sandwiched and quilted, though. I haven't planned that far ahead.

And this stack of 9 patches has been slowly inching forward as well. They are 3 1/2", and I've been trimming them up. Aren't they just about the cutest things you've seen lately?!  I need 198 of them, and have to cut 200 white patches to put in between these. There is still a lot of work on this, but I can work on it in bits and pieces, without it being a big thinking project. I'm considering doing an applique border on white, instead of no border, but I'm still not sure how it will go.

Other than that, I've been just hanging on until spring. This is turning out to be a tough winter in which to work. My mom used to say "just keep putting one foot in front of the other" so that's what keeps me going.   I do love the winter Olympics, though, and Canada has gold, silver, and bronze on the first day. Very exciting.

HST's, and Assorted Other Bits

I have a number of irons in the fire, so to speak:

This star top was made some years ago, and has been waiting patiently to be finished up. I don't usually do borders like this, but I think this one needs it. So I spent some time this weekend making these 180 HST's and 4 corner stars. What a pain it is to make half square triangles! And those corner stars . . . an even bigger pain. All this is a bit fiddly for me, but the heart wants what it wants!  I still have to cut another inner and outer border, and make a backing, so there is still some work to do before I get to sandwiching and quilting this.

This red and white nine-patch is one I've been slowly chipping away at whenever I have a few minutes to just sit and sew. I like to keep something around for when I want to run my sewing machine, but don't want anything big to think about. I started with a few leftover strips from the Log Cabin, here, and it doesn't take much effort or time to keep enough 1 1/2" strips cut to make into these 9 patches.

And I made up a bunch of these sachets, with a bit of catmint inside. For the trouble maker! Because he only sleeps 5 minutes a day, and wanders around looking for trouble the other 23 hours 55 minutes! He had all of these messed up pretty quickly. He actually rips apart the fabric to get to the catmint inside. I'll have to put them away, and take them out one at a time for him.


I suppose there is no better time than during this cold and stormy January weekend to get a bunch of quilting done.