Getting Back to Quilting

I am getting anxious for winter to end!

I had great success with these bare root plants from Costco when I put in my landscaping at our previous house. I should be able to manage getting a few perennials started for my huge landscaping plans for this summer.

Since I did some traveling earlier this month, I started a set of Americana Santa ornaments from my favorite cross stitch designer, Sandra Cozzolino. Patriotic Santa, Pioneer Santa, and Prairie Santa.

And my Hawaiian Applique quilt is finally loaded on the frame and getting stitched. I am using mono-filament thread. I think it is a Superior Threads product known as Monopoly. It is stitching perfectly so far. I am sew happy! 

I am working with two layers of Hobbs wool and it is working great too. I want a lot of puff in this design without a lot of weight as I expect to only use this quilt as a wall hanging. Previously I have used a layer of 80/20 cotton/poly with a layer of wool and it makes for a heavy quilt.

I'm so anxious to get off the computer and get back on my quilting machine.

March Happenings

We made a quick trip to Montgomery, Alabama, to see our son, Zack, get commissioned in the Air Force. He got to come back to Alaska for about 10 days before making his way to Texas where he will be at Sheppard Air Force Base for Undergraduate Pilot Training. He has a pilot slot with a California Air National Guard unit in Fresno where they fly F-15s. It will be some time before he gets through all training  programs.

I did look on the internet to see if there were any quilt shops in the Montgomery area but nothing looked like a place I would be interested in since I am strictly a batik quilter.

Breakfast Club is on Thursday so I have been a busy little sewer trying to use up the 480 HSTs I got from the Christmas themed quilt I made from the mystery quilt the group did in December.

I ordered more of the background fabric in December, anticipating some kind of design with these mini HSTs. I looked for months on Pinterest for an idea. I finally saw a star design that I enhanced by adding an outer ring of blocks to echo the star. I love it! It is 39-inches square so a nice little size for a wall hanging. 

I haven't gotten very far on my "Wring" cleaning. 

Hoping I get re-energized to finish it by the end of March.

"Wring" Cleaning

I've decided to create a new season for my part of the world, "Wring." 

A cross between Winter and Spring. Winter takes forever to leave and Spring is very brief. 

We awoke to a few inches of fresh snow this morning but it was nice and sunny today so it had a "Spring" feel in the air. I am tackling cleaning my studio which I expect to take all of March to finish with the rest of my activities.

I spent three days going through quilt magazines, store bought patterns and internet downloaded patterns and getting them organized into notebooks...which I will probably ignore just a much as my previous "basket" system. 

One can try!

And I went through all my finished tops that need quilting and paired them with backing fabrics. I to tend to stock up on wide backings when I catch a good sale. 

I have 27 quilt tops that need to be quilted! EEK!

The good news is only 8 tops are not officially paired with a backing but I do have some options if I don't find any on sale that I think would be a better match. Below is my stash of wide backing batiks. 

I spent all of yesterday organizing two baskets of 2 1/2 strips into these lovely boxes. Many were "sets" that I broke apart. It was very freeing for my artistic mind. I figured if I hadn't been compelled to create with them in the sets I bought them in...it was time to let go and make new sets for the future. All these strips are intact, width of the fabric. Haven't gone through my scraps of 2 1/2-inch strips. I need another big storage bin!

This is the 27th quilt top I finished last weekend. It was a kit but I did add some of my own strips for the braided sections. The kit was extremely heavy on black strips for the last third of each braid. They are supposed to mimic Fireweed which is a very pretty wild plant that is prevalent in Alaska. I took this photo at night...a bit on the bleak side. So much prettier in person.

As luck would have it...I just finished a new rayon batik top that is also the color of Fireweed! I love it when those little serendipitous events occur.

I went with my favorite quickie top pattern that I can make in two hours. No buttons or zippers. Very nice with jeans!

I had lots of bare walls in the house after all the Christmas decorations finally got taken down. Put my latest quilt to be finished in my entryway. Nice and bright!

Off to do more Wring cleaning...