Another Finished Doll Quilt

I finished hand quilting another doll quilt this week. The picture doesn’t really show it off well but it is done! I have been spending the past couple of days back at organizing my fabric baskets. I have been working on my neutrals basket and you can all breathe a sigh of relief that I have not been throwing anything away. My plan is to someday do some of Bonnie’s great scrap quilt patterns and I figure I will need all the neutrals I can get. I have been pressing, re-folding and organizing into tone on tone piles, piles that have floral or other geometric backgrounds with color in them and piles of larger cut pieces. I am surprised that I have numerous pieces that are 2 yards or more of larger florals on cream or off-white backgrounds. I have no clue as to why I purchased these as I very seldom use florals in my work. I must have been drawn to them when I made the purchases. I have bought all the Jean and Valorie Wells flower books. I think I will go through them and see if they have any pieced quilts that these would work well in. I have been amazed at all the great fabrics that were lost to the bottom of the basket.
We are going to get really cold weather here this weekend and in to next week. Our old farmhouse doesn’t do well with below zero temps and winds. We have done all the insulation, new furnace, etc. It is just the problem of an old house with up teen doors and windows sitting out in the open prairie. My husband is out of town for a state coaches meeting so it will be up to me to make sure no pipes freeze. I don’t look forward to it. I do get Monday off for the holiday so I hope to maybe accomplish something on the quilting front this weekend. My plan is to make some vegetable soup tonight so I will be all set for the long weekend and maybe some hand quilting!

Bee Quilt Done

We had another busy weekend. Saturday evening I was invited to a colleague’s home. He is originally from Pakistan and he fixed us a true Pakistan dinner. It was excellent! It was spicy and I love spicy food. Sunday found us at church and then a potluck dinner following it. A friend of ours is retiring from the church board after many years of service. They honored him yesterday. We then rushed home to watch our Indianapolis Colts get beat. In between all of this I was actually able to get a little sewing done. I couldn’t seem to keep my mind going on one project so I worked on many. I was able to get the binding sewed on my Bees quilt. My good friend Carol quilted this for me back in late November early December and I am just getting it finished. She did a fantastic job as usual. I designed this a few years back when my Tuesday group talked of having a Roosting Robin. This is like a round robin but instead of passing your quilt on each round you do it yourself following that rounds rules. During the football game I actually hand quilted on a primitive Baltimore Applique quilt that I have been working on forever. I am in the middle of my second border so I think I will keep this one out and get it finished. Last winter I had worked on string blocks in Gwen Marston’s liberated form. I was able to get them sashed and most of the rows sewed together. I hope to finish that one up in the mornings this week and get the borders on this coming weekend. My biggest project for this past weekend was to get the appliqués cut and pinned to my background for our guilds challenge quilt. I was able to get that done and will work on it during my lunch hours the next couple of weeks. I need to have the appliqué done before my annual “Miss Mary’s” retreat the end of this month. The quilt is going to consist of a lot of words that I will do using Tonya’s freestyle method. That will be my retreat project. The quilt challenge is that you have to have a representation of your idea of a house somewhere on the quilt. Mine will also be our 25th anniversary quilt. Saves me from worrying about getting 2 separate quilts finished. Well, I am off to work.

Whig Rose Variation

For quite a few years I have changed my monitor screen at work to feature a quilt each month. I choose a quilt that I think will inspire me for the month. Over the years I have had quilts from all mediums. This past year featured a lot of Tonya’s quilts that I saved a picture of for my inspiration book. This month I am featuring this gorgeous antique Whig Rose Variation. I think Dawn might have sent me the picture. I just love it and sometimes catch myself smiling when I look at it. Summertime months might feature something bright and whimsical. If I am working on a quilt that is from a published pattern I might scan a picture of it in and feature it for the month. It is always fun to choose each month.
This weekend won’t find me doing any quilting. My cousin Rose passed away on December 23rd. They chose not to have a funeral since it was so close to Christmas.
This Saturday they will have a memorial service in the city that she lived in and then on Sunday they are having a memorial service in the small town that she grew up in. We will attend both. She was only 48 and had battled cancer the past few years.