4×7 Sewing Challenge week 2

Week 2 went a little better than week one, but I still wasn’t able to accomplish as much as I hoped.

First, Sunday and Monday I spent sorting and sending back my fat 8 swap.

Then I needed to do my bee hive block for this month.

The queen chose the tic tac toe block. She wanted low volume text/architecture for the background and vibrant prints like Alison Glass or Anna Marie Horner for the x. I used some of my newly swapped Alison Glass fat 8ths and some fat 8ths from previous text and low volume swaps. I am finding my fat 8 swaps are great for using in stash bees! We are also making signature blocks.

Then I made more test blocks for my pattern test, which will be posted on Monday.

Then I finally buckled down to power through my curtains for the baby’s room.

I used the sailboats for the top of the curtain and the waves (which I have 8 yards of!) for the bottom. I was going to use the crabs for the ties, but I thought it was too much dark blue. I forgot that the sailboats were on a navy background instead of a lighter blue. So I chose the green anchors instead. I like it because it looks like the ships are dropping anchor. lol.

I measured the windows against the pattern a couple times, and I have 8 yards of the waves so plenty to make them long enough, but they came out too short! Of course, they get tied up anyway so they only cover half the window anyway. So I stalled on the second curtain because I am not sure if I should make them the same or try to remake them longer.

I also hate using patters/pattern tissue/etc. This is why I quilt and don’t do stuff like make clothes, I am reminded. I feel it is so inexact. You can get such perfect straight lines with a ruler and rotary cutter. But pattern templates shift and they are unruly and I get wobbly cutting lines and my fabric isn’t perfectly straight. My hems/seams aren’t either. Drives me nuts. But I am trying to just run with it and get it done already. I am probably the only one these things bother and it is not like I am making for sale. I am so nervous the two curtains won’t match up though, and as they sit right next to each other it will bother me.

Anyway, here is the first curtain!

I have the second curtain cut out but have not gotten to sew it yet. I also am making black out shades to go behind the blinds. As I’ve said, that room gets very bright and very hot and the curtains obviously aren’t going to block it all, nor do the blinds. I am not as uptight about how the blackout shades will look, just more a logistical get-it-done thing. Then I will move on to the bedskirt, which I have nerves about because it is gathered.

We have company coming this week so my focus right now is on getting the house presentable, then I don’t know how much sewing time I will get once they are here. Hopefully I can at least finish the curtains before then. I think I am done with all the other sewing I needed to do for now (til the next bee block) so I can spend my sewing time focused on this now.

ALYOF: March finish

For March my goal was to finish my top from my BOTM class last year. I got busy on it right away and had it completed pretty early in the month.

I was only able to get one picture of it before my son ran by and pulled it down. The clothesline isn’t working for my pictures for a number of reasons lately… I need to find a different solution.

Anyway, there it is. I wish I had placed a couple of blocks differently now – I was trying to balance both the colors and the surface area of the blocks. I played around with it quite a bit, but it is always different when you have it done and can step back from it and see the whole thing. Anyway, I am proud of myself for completing it. I signed up for the class again this weekend and it starts in a couple of weeks. I will be glad to show my teachers my progress.

You can see my March goal post here

You can see (most) all of my posts about this top here

I’ve been busy this month. I need to catch up my posts!

 

 

WIP Wednesday: BOTM

I have been diligently working on my BOTM. At the expense of my spring cleaning? Well, not entirely sewing’s fault. I am still not 100% from the flu. I’ve had a fussy tummy and am very low energy. The dreary weather and dwindling naps haven’t helped my motivation either. Oh well.

I completed the blocks pretty quickly. It goes a lot faster when I am not in class socializing. But, that’s the fun of going to the class. I’ve mentioned before I have no discipline to finish BOTMs if I am not in a class for them. They pile up in my email.

All the blocks

paper piecing

I know paper piecing is all the rage, but I really dislike it. I am sure I said this when I made my pineapple last year, but I find it incredibly wasteful. It wastes paper. It wastes fabric. It wastes thread. It wastes tons of time. And there’s so much getting up and down. Maybe it is different if you are doing many blocks at a time. I don’t know. Someday I will tackle Prism or a Pineapple but the time consumingness of the paper piecing has them low on my list. Look how long it takes me to do the simple ones.

I have the sashing between the blocks attached. Then my rotary cutter broke. I hope to finish the row sashing and the first border today.

Mystery Round Robin reveal

For the first half of the year, I participated in the Modern Mystery Round Robin swap. We had no prior notice of what the others were sending, or whose was coming, so it was fun to get the package each month! Some were easier than others…. Sometimes I knew immediately what I wanted to do, others required hunting for the right fabric or putting some real thought into it. Some were done in a few hours, others took a few weeks of dedicated work. Overall, I really enjoyed the experience and had a lot of fun seeing the transformation of each block just with my addition. I can’t wait to see how they each turned out!

I took before and after pictures for each block. I believe once the reveal begins, I can come back here and add the links to the others’ reveals if you want to see step-by-step.

February’s block:

This was my first block I got. I loved the color scheme and the fabrics were darling. It was the same print in 3 colors. I pulled some fabric possibilities and spent a little time thinking about what to do. I ended up going with a checkboard. It took some time, and overall I liked how it came out, though I did have some issue keeping things even on one end. I hope the next person added a lot of white to balance it out!

March block:

My next block threw me off at first. It isn’t so much my style and I haven’t done much in paper piecing or applique. I visited my LQS to pick up a better match for the baby blue, then set to work. I found a 9 patch tulip pattern and a paper piecing pattern for pots. I pretty much knew right away what I wanted to do then. I spent hours and hours on this one. It is one of the ones I am most proud of. I might wish now that I turned the tulips the other way (I tried it both, and liked this better at the time. Now I am not so sure. We’ll see how it looks with the rest of the additions). I also wish I had used more of a green for the leaves.

April block:

As I was embroiled in March’s block, April’s block showed up! I wasn’t ready for it yet, so I set it aside for quite a while. Then, once I did turn to it, I really wasn’t sure what to do with it. I don’t have a lot of browns or batiks in my stash. It was a very geometric pattern, but I didn’t want to add more HSTs (my first inclination), chevrons or squares. I wanted to give it some more interest. This is the only one where I only added to two sides. The rules allow for double the row width if you only add to two sides. So I picked up some of the animal prints in the previous rows and made diamonds. Once I finally settled on what to do, it went rather quickly.

May block:

I loved the colors of this block, but it was very Christmasy in nature. I don’t have any Christmas fabrics. 🙂 I had to go shopping. I was lucky to find some red with gold sparkles to echo the other red with gold in the block. I also had about a week to put this one together because I had been away the entire month of May and it didn’t come til after I left. This one, I had a good idea what I wanted to do, but it evolved as I worked on it. I liked all the HSTs I was seeing, and thought I should reiterate that in my row. At first I was leaning toward a chevron, but as I was browsing through my border book I decided a sawtooth would be a cool way to go. Then, as I was working on my blocks, I changed my mind again from a standard sawtooth to more of a starburst shape. I LOVE this one. I loved how it looked after I was done. I feel like it just works perfectly. I am so excited to see how it ended up.

June block:

This block was also waiting for me when I came home from vacation. Once I finished the Christmas block I looked this one over. I loved it, but was at a total loss what to do. I did some thinking and googling. I was also the last addition to this block. It was going back home after me. It is another one that evolved, and while I like it, there are things I wish had happened differently. First, I decided to make little flying geese to represent schools of fish swimming. That was my original plan and I started making them. I wanted something cute for the corners, though and eventually came across a fish block. First I was going to put a fish in each corner, but then decided to do kissing fishes instead. As I was working on that, I came across the PERFECT fat quarter pack. It had the exact colors and the prints were fish/water related. Oh, I kicked myself. I already had most of the rows made and didn’t want to waste all that and remake everything. I used the cute fish print on the corners, and brought in the fuscia in some of the fish and geese, which I was glad for. I am not so sure now, looking at the picture (with crappy lighting FWIW), that I like the light stripe next to the greenish batik but at the time it was the best option. It may be the lighting. Had I found those other fabrics earlier… I’ll be interested to see what the owner does with this, if she has yet. I still think it is cute.

My block:

And this is what I got back….

I love the design – especially the sort of starburst row. The border anchors it all together. It is really a neat design to look at and I like how it plays off my center block. Some of the elements really surprised me, though. First, I didn’t expect the pink. I followed the rules and did not specify that specific colors be used. I had hoped my center block would guide the colors.  Seeing it now, I do like it, it is a pink that plays well with the purple – it just wasn’t what I was planning or expecting. The other thing that really surprised me is that pretty much the entire thing is batik! Only the center piece in my original block was a batik print, and it was just a scrap that I found that had my colors in it. I wanted the center to have both colors since the points were monochromatic. I was surprised that so many people were inspired to use batik. Ultimately, I do really like it, it is very pretty, it just was a surprise and not what I expected. Which is the whole point of the swap. To see what others come up with. I don’t think it will work for what I had planned for it, so I will have to come up with something else to finish it. I appreciate everyone’s thoughtful and hard work. I know from working on all of theirs that it isn’t always easy to know what direction to take the piece.

Thank you also to Michelle for putting it together. I enjoyed this first experience with a round robin. It is fun to get a surprise in the mail and figure out how I am going to work with it. I can’t wait to see how they have all turned out. Want to see what everyone else did? Check here –

Back on the wagon.

So, I had my machine unpacked just long enough to get my (rather tardy) mystery border block put together (Another one I really like how it came out) and then had to pack it up again for my class day today!

It’s fun to get out of the house and spend the day sewing somewhere else without interruption or “help” or distraction.  Especially after how busy, upsetting and exhausting my short time back has been (no time for sewing either!).

So I was up bright and early today to head to my LQS for my BOTM class. I have missed the last two (shame!). April because I was at Stash Bash and May because I was in FL. So, out of 6 months, I have a stellar record of finishing three of my blocks. This month we were piecing curves.

I hate templates!

I don’t know why this was so stressful for me. I mean, I did a lot of clothing sewing long before I ever started quilting. I got spoiled with rotary cutting, strip piecing, HSTs from squares and the like. If I have to bother with a template or pattern or anything, really, that can’t be mass produced from rectangles or squares, I don’t want to mess with it anymore. I am really lazy I guess!

Here’s my finished block.

I love the yellow. A couple of my seams are off, but overall a pretty decent looking block.

Then I took a little lunch break over at the mall, where I completely disregarded my (slow going) diet and ate at Wendy’s. But I got some sort of roasted flatbread sandwich instead of the whole breaded and bunned chicken, and I resisted the frosty! Then I wandered around Ross, Marshall’s, and Macy’s (when did they get so expensive?!?) looking in vain for cheap, summery maxi dresses that short fat chicks with huge boobies can wear for our upcoming trip.

Then it was back for my second class, which I have so been looking forward to. Free Motion Quilting! Now, I haven’t gotten to mess with FMQ since Stash Bash where the likes of Elizabeth and Becky told me I did a great job! Wait til you see today’s efforts. LOL. I need a lot of practice. The teacher was an absolute riot. But, like, without trying to be. Just the way she would say things was hysterical.

First we started practicing some basic lines:

Ok. Here’s the deal with this. My thread kept jamming and breaking and stuff. So, after a stern lecture about the kind of thread I was using (oops!) I switched the pink for the brown. I was also messing with my tension a lot and stuff too. I still had problems, including running through two bobbins (!) but it went better. I couldn’t get straight lines to save my life. And those waves are supposed to be spirals.

After passing that by the skin of my teeth, I moved on to the second assignment. This is such a mess, but I do believe you can see progress from the top to the bottom. Oh, and that’s a big loose thread on the top there that I should have removed before I took the photo. Anyway, for this we traced patterns with markers then had to FMQ on top of it. The lessons here were 1. Following a path throughout the pattern without breaking or going over thread. 2. “I am making you do marking so you realize how much you hate it and never do it again.” LOL. It has its place, I think.

Here is the third assignment, which was really assignments 3-6. In the top two I failed miserably at doing it all in one pass. I had to go back and fill in parts I missed. Other than that, I don’t think the loop one is too bad. The bottom two I did better both in controlling, meeting at intersections, and doing it in one pass. The fourth, if you ignore the border, actually isn’t that bad.

And this was the last assignment. She wanted us to try doing stars, daisies, fireworks and suns in a meandering sort of thing. I got into a little improv toward the end there. She told me not to go so much in rows, but I was trying to maximize space. After that I started on a stippling project (which I was really sucking at) but my bobbin ran out, then it was time to go.

I did a little shopping (bad me!). While the clearance section was seriously reduced (I missed the hot Memorial Day sale 😦  ) there were a couple new things down there I needed to get. I was bummed I missed on some clearances I had wanted, so I snapped them up. Additionally, they had this darling Storybook Lane panel all assembled, and I decided I had to have them. But there are no directions. So I am not sure what to do. Boo.

 

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Packing for Stash Bash

I am very excited to be going to Stash Bash this weekend. This will be a sewing retreat in a beautiful area. We will all be sharing a “cabin”, which sleeps 40 with a kitchenette and common room. Then we will have a devoted sewing room to set up in for the weekend and work on projects. There are very few other things scheduled, so we can really devote a lot of time to our personal sewing projects. I am sure there will be lots of talking and visiting, we will be learning screen printing, having a pj party, and going to the largest quilt shop in the state as well. I am so excited to hopefully make many new friends, learn some new things, and get some stuff done unencumbered by my family and household obligations for a whole weekend!

I’ve started packing. So here is my task list for the weekend. LOL. I am being extremely optimistic.

In order of importance. Starred items will qualify for the City Craft Pinterest Challenge:

ribbon quilt top and fabrics

I must must must complete this top! I have to face head on my fears of this border and just do it! And hope I have enough fabric to do so. I am not certain I have enough fabric to do the same border all the way around, but maybe two sides and two sides. It takes more work and thought and not something I seem able to devote my energies to at home. I will probably throw in the backing fabric too in case  want to make that as well. I am debating doing a ribbon down the middle of the back, but will think more about that later. (This would qualify for the challenge, but I started it before the challenge started.)

Citrus bento box

*My strips are all cut and ready to go for my bento box. This is the project I am most excited about and should go fairly quickly, if everything goes well.

tumblers

These are my tumblers for my older nephew’s quilt. I have no idea if I have enough or too many. I figure I will just start plotting it out and putting it together and see where I end up.

April mystery border

These are the fabric possibilities for my April mystery border.

bloom bloom pow

These are the fabric possibilities for my bloom bloom pow a long. I am not committed to all of these yet, and I have some others I am considering, but this is the basic idea. I ended up going to Hobby Lobby and getting fabrics I really liked, and mixing in some from my own stash. I wanted to do something different, but just couldn’t do the expensive designer fabrics. Hobby Lobby was a quick and not-so-expensive solution. The fabrics still seem nice and they are certainly pretty.  I need to cut and then do whatever piecing is released in this week’s installment.

*I have a couple projects to finish for the nursery (for my two year old! LOL).

scraps

*I’ve packed up a lot of scraps. Now that I have a nice and large sewing table, I am suddenly acutely aware of a desperate need for mug rugs. I also believe I can get some good quilting practice in by making some. So I want to make at least one this weekend. I am also hoping maybe we will do a community scrap swap.

Here are my swap items. My zipper pouch and a bunch of fat quarters. They said to bring 6, but I have extra. I may still make one more pouch. We’ll see how the week goes.

And I packed a pile of neutrals.

*I also may pack some fabrics to make a clothespin holder, but I honestly don’t think I will get to it. It can’t hurt to throw it in, can it?

I should also work on some of my BOTM that I haven’t been doing, but again, not sure I will get to it. I am going to miss my BOTM class this weekend too.

My May will have almost no sewing time, so I am especially thankful to have the time to devote to getting things done.

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Hey hey it’s my birthday.

More and more my birthday, much like new year, depresses me. I am getting shockingly old, yet still look, act and feel like a teenager. How does this happen? And then I start lamenting all the things I was meant to accomplish by now, and….

Enough of that. I just did some retail therapy damage at Fabric.com. Oops. Happy birthday to me.

I stayed up quite late last night suddenly inspired to finish my last 3×6 block. I had left this one so late because the person wanted “rainbow”. The block is quite an easy block… when made with two colors and all you have to do is cut squares. But I had to use 8 different colors, which meant I had to determine the size of triangles to cut. And the basic color wheel is only 6. So I had to add two more colors. It was all too much for me to deal with. So, I finally buckled down to do it. I picked my colors, plus black and white, and through a little bit of trial and error, got it assembled. I did have to do some ripping and resewing because I was stupid tired. But actually once I got past that, it went together quickly and easily and is actually a perfect 12.5 inch square. I like it a lot and am quite proud of it. Now I can wrap it up and get all these sent out finally this week. What a load off.

I am also really pleased with my mystery border quilt. WHICH I CAN’T SHOW!! I did some paper piecing and some resizing and everything all on my own. I think it works with and balances the theme so nicely. And I am just impressed with myself that I pulled it off. It took a lot of time, but it was worth it. I really hope the person likes it.

The other night in a fit of frustration, I finally pulled down part of the baby gate around my fabric.

Excuse the mess!

I had fabric just piled everywhere all over the floor, because it is so difficult to get to my shelves. I also find that I am less likely to sew when it actually involves me visiting my stash because the gate is such a physical barrier (it is really tall). I pulled off a section of it (the baby was sleeping and I didn’t want to risk waking him trying to take down and fold up the whole thing) and spent some time putting fabric back away. It needs some neatening and my husband even suggested I need another cube, so it must be real obvious that I am overflowing.

Here’s the thing that I find so frustrating:

I always thought I had tons of fabric. I have hundreds of dollars of fabric there. I love almost all of it. It is over flowing. I need more shelving. I want to limit myself to using fabric I already have. But if I go to pull fabric for a project, suddenly I feel like I don’t have anything useable. Case in point: I want to do the bloom bloom pow a long. I want to use fabric in my stash. But I have nothing acceptable. A large portion of my fabric is multi color. A large portion is on a white background. And almost none is tonal. I’ve also become a designer fabric snob somewhere along the way (Ugh… I remember the days when $5/yard was expensive), I have fabric that is off limits, fabric I don’t have enough of to use for whatever project, fabric that is being saved for certain projects… suddenly, all that fabric seems useless. I don’t know how to handle this without just buying more fabric. I guess I need to do some stash searching and start finding some real staples to add instead of just buying fabric because I like it… then never use it. Is this a normal problem or am I just strange like that?

Regardless, I will be able to spend a lot more quality time with my fabric without the gate barring my way now. It opens the room up a lot too, and makes it a lot less dangerous for me. I am glad to see the gate go. Just gotta keep the baby out.

Wip Wednesday

I feel like nothing is getting accomplished. Between the cleaning, the pretty weather, the shop hopping, the mess in my sewing area…. I feel like I am doing a lot of moving around and not much doing. This weekend I finally buckled down and finished my card trick blocks: (these are bee blocks to be sent out to different people.)

Now I just have one more to finish for my pinwheel group, then these can all go out.

Yesterday, I spent the day cutting and sorting for my fat 8 swap:

We still have one person we are waiting on, then I can package these up and get them back out and take a picture of what was swapped. Then I have the polka-dot swap right on the heels of this one. We are signing up for Lizzy House Jewel print now.

My next most important project is my modern round robin block. I actually have two of them here to do, but one is due at the end of March. I have a plan for what I want to do with it (which is going to take a bit of pattern work on my part) but I have no fabrics to match one of the major colors. I wish I had realized that when I was going to 100 quilt shops last week. I thought I had some things that would work, but they are the wrong color. I can’t be more specific, sorry. 🙂  It’s a mystery! So I am going to go out to my shop this afternoon with the block and see what I can find so I can get to work on that.

Also on my to-do list is to finish my ribbon quilt top. I have picked out a rather ambitious border. I had a little fussy fit trying to figure out the directions in the book. It isn’t difficult, but it is a bit of math, and it doesn’t give actual measurements to cut so I am never sure whether it is finished measurements or actual in their diagrams. I find it very confusing. And I don’t want to waste fabric doing it wrong! I think I have it figured out though, and hopefully will get to that soon.

I have some fabric OTW to try out for my citrus theme. Yellow is impossible to find, and it is stressing me out a bit that I have a disproportionate amount of it. Once I am able to focus on it, we’ll see how it looks. I also had to buy full yards of these fabrics and won’t need anywhere near that much. 😦

My I-spy quilt is still waiting for me to attempt quilting it. I went to order a walking foot I have been considering for a while, and they are sold out now (due back in stock soon). I also want to make some smaller projects first to quilt before I attempt that giant quilt. I also want my sewing table complete for extra space and support – and comfort. Did I mention I sew standing up right now? A post for another day.

And once I get some of these things done, I will start cutting tumblers for my nephews. Hopefully those will go quickly!

I am ready to start seeing some progress!

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Spring cleaning

There’s not a lot of sewing going on around here these days. In fact, I packed up my machine for my sewing class Saturday, and still haven’t even unpacked it. Here is my block for this month, though:

I have also gotten some fabrics cut for some swaps. I am swamped in swaps right now. I need to cut back, seriously. I am going broke buying fabrics for swaps, and can’t buy the fabrics I want/need for my stash and projects. I have a very large cart sitting in one of the fabric shops, and I just can’t buy it. Plus, shop hop is coming up this week. I am not sure if I can participate too much. Lots of the stores are a good distance from me, and I can’t see schlepping the baby all over the city and being in the shops with him. I try not to take him places that don’t have shopping carts.

So, anyway, what I have been doing is cleaning. This weekend I tackled our refrigerator. Like, seriously. Had my husband pull it out and everything. It wasn’t quite as neglected as the oven, but it wasn’t good.

Not quite a “before”, but early on in the cleaning process

Ugh. look at the mess on the side. Got that all washed up too.

Gross. Behind the fridge. A mess for another day.

Yeah, look at the bottom of the fridge 😦  I took the shelves out, one by one, and washed them in the sink. They actually cleaned up pretty easily with dish soap and hot water. Then as they dried, I worked on the inside.

shelves drying

Pinterest has plenty of ideas for how to deal with future messes. I went with using clear vinyl adhesive that I got at Dollar tree. It took just over one roll to do all the shelves in my fridge, and I have a couple more rolls stashed for next time.

Adding the vinyl

It took me a good part of the day just to do what I did. My husband helped with the baby when he was up, and I worked through both naptimes. I still haven’t done the door section of the fridge, but it isn’t as bad. I don’t even know how to go about dealing with the freezer section.

All clean! (Mostly)

Since then, I have been systematically going room by room and quite literally washing it from ceiling to floor. I really only get naptime to work, so I aim to get 1-2 rooms done a day. At this pace, it is going to take about 3 more weeks just to get the downstairs done. Right now I am working from ceiling to floor, then I have to go back through and do windows, then floors. Then there are always the closets and pantries and stuff to work on, but for now I am just trying to tackle what can’t be closed behind a door. My husband has invited the entire family for dinner at the end of the month, so I have a hard and fast deadline for the downstairs. Then I will head upstairs, which will be harder in some ways, since there is a lot of organizing and decluttering that needs to take place up there. I have the downstairs mostly under control in that area.

I have a lot of moldings and chairrails and ornate baseboards and wainscoting downstairs, and I do have to say, the rooms I have finished are noticeably whiter and brighter. I am really pleased. They are far from perfect, but so much nicer than I can remember being in a long time. I remember reading somewhere (flylady?) that any cleaning is a blessing. Even if not perfect or spotless, it is certainly far more than I have done in a looong time and looks far better.  I have been using the vinegar solution, but thinking about switching to the castile soap for the baseboards to help with maybe a little extra scrubbing power. I have already destroyed three magic erasers in this process. They are amazing, though. They seriously get scuffs and marks and pencil and crayon and everything off of the walls and baseboards. I washed everything down and scrubbed with the vinegar, then went back over everything with the magic eraser, then wiped down with a dry cloth because the microfiber really does leave a lot of dust blobs around. This is what I see as my immediate future. I am hoping to get most of it done before the weather starts getting really nice, though we have had a couple pretty days lately. I gotta start finding some ways to fit some sewing in again, though. I have two Modern Round Robin quilts sitting here needing my attention, as well as I think I still have 4 more 3×6 blocks to make.

The remains of my magic eraser after today’s cleaning.

WIP Wednesday – 3×6 blocks

I’ve been working the past few days on one of my 3×6 bee groups. This is my pinwheel group. I have 7 in my group, including me. I have completed 3, but may pull them apart and resew them. They are slightly large (12.75 instead of 12.5) and a couple of the outer points do not have a 1/4 inch of background extending beyond them, so they will be clipped when sewn together. I haven’t quite worked out why that is happening, but I know that I was erring on the side of too large rather than too small. Maybe I need to aim for just right? I have three more cut and partially sewn together. If my sick baby had taken a nap today, they would be done.

I realized I only have another month to get these done, and I have a whole other group I haven’t thought about yet. I think I took on a little more than I maybe should have, doing two groups. I think I will just sign up for one again next quarter. The good thing is that these are going together rather quickly, if inexactly. The longest part has been picking out the fabrics. Once I settle on that, the rest goes quick with this pattern. The seventh participant designated rainbow as her color scheme, so I am saving that for last, trying to work out how to handle it. I am going to have to cut each triangle individually, I think, and that makes me nervous for accurate piecing. My machine doesn’t like triangle corners.

At the bottom, on my ironing board, you can sort of see my basketball fabric that I am about to cut for the ABC I Spy swap. I have three letters – B, T, and G. I am using these and the boy swap that just finished to make quilts for my nephew and soon-to-be nephew. I think I have til June to get those done.

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