Many Irons

In a complete contrast to last week's frustrations, many things have been going right. So much in fact that I had to make the decision to leave out pictures of the gardens' progress. Otherwise this post would take up lots of time and be saturated with photos. There are enough project pictures to choke bandwidth for anyone still using dial-up as it is...

Let's start off with miniatures! I have a few more quilt bolts for the shop. In this top picture, the dark brown bolt is a leftover from a project. The others were purchased to fill in the yellow, orange, and brown selections.

 In this photo, the bolt in the middle was bought specifically for the quilt shop. But it's from a line of fabrics that I purchased yardage of in other fabrics to make a quilt... so I don't feel very guilty about it. ;-) The other two are project leftovers.

Also the mini group project this week was hydrangeas. I made one of each color offered. The pink one still needs leaves though.

We "cheated" and used a punch for the flowers and the punch was 6-petaled and not 4-petaled. So we all have mutant hydrangeas. Made our lives easier for the two hour long meeting though!

Next up is me trying out my new prairie point guide with some extraneous fabric from my stash. I wanted to figure out the folds and cuts on fabric that wasn't purchased for the quilt I'm practicing the technique for. The results are pretty spiffy!

I did get the scrappy border on the other flag wall quilt this week. I'm very pleased with the results.

My healing shoulder got a bigger workout and I finally got this baby quilt quilted and halfway bound!

It's only been waiting since last fall... the baby in question is at the proto-crawling stage and loves to get hugs and kisses. He's a very happy boy. I can't wait to see his reaction to the different colors.

Now I'm working on a pair of quilts for twin boys born almost two weeks ago. The nursery is decorated in navy blue and white with chevrons.  I chose a larger quilt design and cut the squares half the size required. I'm getting two quilts for the same yardage this way. The blocks stored in the bag are actually in the order for the layout. The other stack is for the second quilt.

 And here's the layout for the first quilt. Not the best picture as it was taken last night when the light was bad. The second quilt's layout will be the same except I'm turning the blocks 180 degrees so the bottom becomes the top. I want the tops to be slightly different but these colors were difficult to get balanced. 

And that's it! Today I'll be piecing the chevron quilt tops and hopefully piecing the backs as well. I'm hoping I'll get to the quilting on at least one of them into the coming week. I also have that quilt to piece which require six width-of-fabric rows of prairie points! There are a few other UFO quilts waiting on their quilting too. Let's see how far I can get this week!

Cloth and Sandwiches

FH and I spent parts of this weekend trying to clear some of the natural detritus from the yard. After I tore up my shoulder and back, I obviously couldn't do yard work and he was too busy trying to keep up with the indoor chores and working full time. So now we're playing catch-up. One thing we wanted to do last fall was lay down landscape fabric in the beds that didn't have much growing in them to cut down on the weeds. We finally got to start that job today!

The lowest bed is waiting to see where the hostas are going to pop up. Then we'll work around them while they're small. There's a whole other set of tiered beds like this that needs work on the other side of the deck. Not to mention the giant bed of lilies that turns into a jungle come mid-summer. But it's a start!

Remember that air dry clay that wasn't Model Magic? I tried playing with it last night to see how well I could sculpt with it.

It's difficult to see, but there is a crack that goes clear around the tree trunk about halfway up. Methinks this clay's not meant for finer detail.

And then quilt sandwiches. I now have many sandwiches ready to be quilted: 2 large lap/full-sized quilts. 2 baby quilts, diaper bag panels, and 2 runners.

I actually missed the picture of one of the larger quilt sandwiches, but you get the idea, I'm sure.

That's it for this week. Hopefully I'll get finished with some minis in the coming week. I'll probably be inside working on them tomorrow since it's supposed to rain/snow/sleet tomorrow. Ugh. I think Mother Nature must be going through menopause or something. Anyways, ttfn!

Classes and Quilts

Last week I taught two miniature workshops on polymer clay foods. Thursday night was breads and Saturday morning/afternoon was candies and cookies.

Everyone had fun and they've hinted strongly at doing more food classes in the near future. For many of them this was their first experience making canes.

I've also recently finished a couple of baby quilts for some friends. The first had to be gender-neutral, contain earth tones, and be cutesy for a baby.

 The second's nursery colors are orange and grey, so I chose a recent fabric that fit the bill perfectly.

I goofed and forgot to get a picture of the back though.

That's all for this week. I have to get back to sewing samples for one of the local quilt shops. Take care!