Better late than never

My heart quilt is done - I finished the binding while sitting outside in the autumn sunshine this afternoon. 

Tomorrow, I goes to its new home with my dear friend to provide comfort in her final days.  So much love went into this quilt.  So many tears.  So many memories revisited.  So much love.

Par for the course

It seems I can't sew a quilt together without making a mistake these days.  On my last finish, it was sewing a border on upside down.  On my heart quilt, I forgot a whole row altogether!  Remember my sketch?

I was so excited to finish on Saturday, an August finish as planned.

Do you see how I forgot to piece the row that includes the bottom tip of the heart?  I pinned a spare neutral 9-patch on to see if it made much of a difference...

Yup, it makes a significant difference to me.  Back to piecing 9-patches.  Out with the seam ripper to take off those bottom 4 rows.  An easy fix, but I'm annoyed with myself. 

The goal is to machine quilt it and bind it by the middle of the month, doable, but the kids start coming back to school today, so my time is no longer my own to use as I wish.  Gonna make this a priority.

I'm linking with Oh Scrap and Monday Making.

My heart in pieces

My pixelated heart quilt is coming along, one scrappy nine-patch at a time.

My own heart is still struggling to come to terms with my friend's illness, but making this quilt gives me lots of time to reflect and process.

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap.

Switching gears

Yesterday, a good friend learned that she has inoperable pancreatic cancer.  I moved away two years ago, so I can't be there with her in person.  My mind and heart are reeling.  So, I'm doing what I always do when I need to re-center myself - I'm making her a quilt.

I'm starting with the little pixelated heart I made several years ago from 2" squares.

I wanted to echo that heart to make the quilt lap-sized.

It will be full speed ahead for the next couple of weeks as I rush to finish this and get it to her.  Everything else is on hold.  Including my breath.  I'm so scared for her that I am finding it hard to breathe.

Fuck cancer.

Fickle me

Sometimes I lament how long it takes me to finish a project.  I can't help but compare myself to the amazing quilters whose blogs I follow who seem to be able to crank out a new project every few weeks.  I have to remind myself that my process is different, and that we aren't here to compare ourselves to each other.  And when I take stock of everything I AM doing, it's actually quite a bit; it's just spread out across several projects.  What can I say - I'm fickle.  What I feel like working on today isn't necessarily what I'll feel like working on tomorrow.

The project that received most of my attention today is my Sister's Choice quilt.  It's simple and fun and since I already have so many precut scraps, the blocks go together quickly.

I've decided to keep the alternate blocks constant, as several of you suggested.

I also managed two more On Ringo Lake blocks, bringing my total up to 30, and three more Flutterby blocks, bringing that total up to 39 blocks.  My temperature quilt is also up to date.  It was a satisfying day at the sewing machine, which is good because I also took my kids bowling today, and my 7 year old nephew kicked my butt!

Yesterday was mostly spent hand quilting my new niece/nephew's quilt.  I bought a wide backing from my LQS rather than piece a backing,

In addition to the Judie Rothermel backing, I picked up a few WoW remnants - can never have enough of those.

and I've enjoyed watching Heartland while I work on it.  My niece calls the show "a TV version of a country song," and I guess she's right.  But I love country music, have always daydreamed about being a cowgirl, and the scenery is breathtaking, so it works for me!

Yesterday, there was actually SUN so I could quilt with natural light.  Spring, I am ready for you to arrive!

I've also been working on a new knitting project, loosely following a pattern, but modifying it to use up all of the yarn I've designated for the project.  I played yarn chicken, hoping to get to the end of the row before a color change, and I won!  Whew!  I made it with just inches to spare!

The pattern is Dourado on Ravelry, but I am modifying it to use up my mini skeins of Katia Ombre yarn

And look!  I've continued to unpack from our move in August, and came across this pixellated heart that I had forgotten I had pieced!  I think it needs some other hearts to keep it company so it can be made into a useable sized quilt, don't you think?  But I'll save that project for another day - I have plenty to keep me busy these days.

Made with 2" squares from my scrap bins

In the meantime, all my quilty adoption items were shipped out on Tuesday, and I've started to hear that they've made it to their new homes.  I hope to see what they become in someone else's hands.

Patchwork, sewn and glued

My "to-do" list yesterday was longer than my arm!  Of course, rather than tackle it, I hid away in my sewing room and sewed together a pixelated heart quilt for my shop window.

made from 2" squares - I hope to get it quilted before February

Then, because I have so many precut squares and because I had a plywood leaf made for my secondhand (leaf-less) shop table, I spent a couple hours Mod Podge-ing squares onto the leaf to make it more appealing.

Before the plywood leaf - this is a typical Thursday night at my shop and it is WAY too crowded around the table!

The new plywood leaf added LOTS of room (36" on each side), but it's kinda blah.  And rough to the touch.

I much prefer the color that the fabric adds to the leaf!

Don't tell, but I stood on the table to get this shot.  TSP stands for The Stitchin' Post, which is the name of my shop.

Lots and lots of squares used, and I didn't have to cut anything!  THIS is why I cut my scraps into precut sizes - when I just want to sew, I can just sew!

I'm linking up with Oh, Scrap and Monday Making.