Summer Day in the Wind!
The weather was absolutely beautiful all weekend, but it was really cold. So although I spent quite a bit of time outside during the day yesterday and today, I did spend both Friday and Saturday night indoors, sitting at my sewing machine.
And I had an extremely productive weekend in the country! In my last post, I mentioned that I had cut the Prairie Paisley II charms and pieced a whole bunch of flying geese blocks for Summer Day - the April Schnibbles.
Saturday morning, I completed the Summer Day top and took it outside for a few shots in the sunshine, but it was so windy, it was really difficult to get a nice picture of it lying flat.
Close-up of some of the blocks. I really like the red, white and blue!
I made a pile of granny squares.
I chose these charm packs for the April Schnibbles - Summer Day.
And I cut and sewed the charm squares into flying geese blocks.
I also received, cut and mailed 112 orange charm squares for a rainbow swap I'm participating in.
This weekend, I plan on completing the Summer Day top. I also must now start working on a baby boy quilt because I became a great-aunt for the 4th time this week. My sister-in-law (grandma) will be in town in 2 weeks so I would like to give her the quilt to bring back to Alberta with her.
I've been back at work for a week now after a well deserved and much needed vacation, but it probably was the craziest, busiest, most stressful week in a long, long time so it's almost like I had no time off at all. I came home every night last week so tired that I was able to keep up with reading the blogs I follow, but I just couldn't gather the strength to post or even comment on most of the blog posts I read. So I apologize for being absent here over the last 10 days or so. I wish I could say that lots of quilty goodness came out of my absence, but no. I did make progress on some of my projects, but overall, it's been all about work lately... not good!
This weekend however, I did finish i.s.t.h. You'll remember that i.s.t.h. was the February Schnibbles for Another Year of Schnibbles (button on the right of my blog).
Fabrics used for i.s.t.h.: Northcote Range Charm Packs (2).
The pink and blue fabrics were purchased at JoAnn's a long time ago.
I quilted in the ditch along the pink setting triangles and around the stars.
I then added some stippling in the white background fabric.
I also added some diagonal lines across the pieced border at the top and bottom of the quilt.
With i.s.t.h. now quilted, I am officially on track with the Another Year of Schnibbles Quilt-Along!
﻿ I also spent part of this weekend cutting and piecing the April Schnibbles: Summer Day. I love the pattern and the look of Summer Day, but oh my, so many flying geese blocks!
And how was your weekend? I'm linking up at Sew Darn Crafty at Sew Many Ways this week!
We're back in the city for today - had to do some laundry (no dryer in the country and it's been raining for 3 days now!) - so I thought I could post about my progress and catch up on some blog reading.
So far, I've been able to stick to the plan of not starting a new project in April. During the last few days, I spent a bit of time cleaning up the sewing room and choosing backings and binding for two of the 2012 Schnibbles: Bibelot (March) and Full House (January). That's right - I managed to quilt both of these!
Full House - Quilted in the ditch around each house and along the inner and outer borders. Also quilted diagonal lines across the squares in the checkboard strips. Did not get a picture of the backing, but used a tone on tone brown fabric I had on hand so did not have to buy fabric for this one!
Bibelot - I used a high loft polyester batting for this one because I wanted lots of poofyness in the T blocks. I used cream thread and stippled in the cream background. The backing is a soft pink flannel so this quilt is really nice and cuddly... Would be perfect for a little girl whose name starts with a T!
When I get back to the country tomorrow, the plan is to quilt i.s.t.h. I already have the backing fabric picked out and I'm thinking I might have a plan in place for the quilting. I also want to get the Girly Square in a Square top quilted and start piecing the April Schnibble - Summer Day.
I'm really pleased with the projects I managed to work on this month.
Lots of firsts this month: my first tote bag, my first quilt completed without having to follow a pattern (I actually did math and figured out my measurements all by myself!) and my first zipper pouch.
With the exception of the April Schnibbles, I plan on starting ZERO new projects for April. I really want to get some of my WIPs completed!