Starting and finishing

This quilt started as a first attempt at a quilt tutorial.  It was my very first jelly roll I ever bought and my first precut quilt.   It also was planned to be a throw quilt for my mom.  (This picture is from February of last year at our old house in Wisconsin.)

Now we live in Maryland.  I made a much better tutorial for the Four Corners Quilt and it looked even better after it was quilted.  (Both posts have more photos in our old backyard.)  And, after discussing it with my mom, we both decided that this quilt was meant to go live with my aunt instead. 

I did simple diagonal lines quilting and marked the lines with my Hera marker (I love that tool). 

I used a thrifted sheet for the backing so it has a nice smooth hand.

And, I have another UFO from last year done!  Four finished projects since the beginning of the year is a pretty good start (but I did start with a goal of 19 old projects from the last two years...)

Not my strong point

Despite having a blog for a number of years and despite sharing lots of photos and quilt talk and Henry talk here frequently....I have a secret.  I'm actually very, very shy.  I manage to post because I picture one, single, super-supportive friend and I write my post to her.  Really, she was the only reader and commenter that I had for so long that it became a habit.  I could try to think of more of my lovely readers and commenters (I appreciate each and every one of you--really.) but then I get all tongue-twisted and awkward and silly.

So, now that I've spilled that secret, I think you can see how self-promotion is not a strength of mine.  But, here I am, in a new state and a new city and I'm trying to make some new habits and some new friends.  Today I'm not going to shrink back into my shell and I'm not going to write to just one person.  I'm writing to all that visit my little sewing and family bubble here and I'm going to be brave and say, "Here I am!"

Here I am on flickr.

Here I am on pinterest.

Here I am on bloglovin'.

And now, here I am on instagram.

(I'm also going to totally fess up and say that I'm not sure the links to bloglovin' or instagram work correctly.  I'm new to this and I'll take feedback and suggestions.)

I'll close with my first few attempts at instagram.  Both Ben and I were back to feeling quite sick on Sunday.  But the weather was so gorgeous and we didn't want to miss spring in DC.  So we sucked it up and drove into the city in the afternoon to catch some of the spring air.

I can't believe I live this close to the White House!

After hours and hours (and hours) of handstitching while watching episodes of the West Wing, I was quite pleased to identify the OEOB building by myself.

Henry was not the biggest fan of having his picture taken in DC.  He's a shy one, too :)

Thanks to all of you for letting me share my secret.  I'm trying to get a little bit better.

Pulling it back together

After Henry got better, then Ben got sick and then I got a lesser virus...but we are finally all well in the Granola household. Thank goodness!

Since I've been spending so much time on the couch, I've been making good progress on my Mommy Neighborhood quilt.  Here is part of the back.  The large print houses are an IKEA fabric.

And here is a peek at one house on the front.  I have to find more fabric to finish the binding and then decide if there is any more quilting that I want to put in or take out.  I definitely put in too much in some places so I'm walking a fine line. 

Tonight everyone was well enough that my husband and I went on a date! It is our first once since November. A new and already dear friend watched Henry. Henry was already having a rough, rough day, and she did not get to see his best side. As we left the house, Ben paid my friend the highest compliment: "Wow. She's pretty fearless." She got on Henry's good side by feeding him bunny cookies on a wagon ride and playing in the park sandbox for hours.   And Ben and I got to go walk by the lake and eat sushi.  It sure is nice to feel like myself again.

Thank you all for the cheerful comments and birthday wishes.  We hope to go in to DC to see the cherry blossoms blooming tomorrow.  I hope to post some cheery cherry flower pictures here.

Flitting like a butterfly

Henry has recently fallen in love with The Very Hungry Caterpillar all over again.  And now we play "cocoon" twenty times a day.  I ask him to "lay down like a caterpillar" on the couch, cover him completely in a quilt and then flip the quilt back as we declare the he is a "beautiful butterfly!!"  We are still working on the graceful sweep of the arms to mimic wings flapping.  I think (at nearly four years old) that this is his first pretend play and I am so proud.

Anyway, I was thinking about that as I flitted between sewing projects today.  I was trying to decide what I should work on next.  I could continue my progress on my rose star blocks.

Or I could finish Charise's Paris-themed bee block for the Ringo Pie Bee (those darned y-seams have me procrastinating).

Or I could decide what solid to use to put a border on this long-overdue quilt top.  (You'd think I could be bothered to iron this quilt top before taking a picture and sharing it here, but no.) 

Or I could work on piecing some blocks for my husband's quilt.  (It sure was fun to come up with the new fabric combinations.)

Well, this butterfly will settle on something soon. Maybe some more hand piecing tonight and continue to procrastinate on the bee block? Hmmm...

 How do you decide what to work on next?

Catching up to the curve

I was sick most of last week and then I was just behind the curve of life for a few days after that.  But I'm finally feeling better and ready to share a few photos here.

This is a block I made over a week ago for Cynthia in the Pastiche Bee.  She asked for old school graphic design art supplies.  I fear there isn't enough contrast between the prints for the background and the arms of the compass, but I think some targeted quilting could take care of that.  

I made this Farmer's Wife block over a week ago, too.  It is a remake of this block.  Just four more blocks to go!

I've been working on the quilting for my Mommy Neighborhood quilt for a few weeks now.  It will take a l-o-n-g time to put all of the quilting in that I want.

And, lastly, when I was feeling too crummy to sit at the machine or to wrestle with perle cotton, I've been working on expanding my green hexies.  I cut out another 100 hexies for this project.  I think I may have too many green fabrics....

So what's new with you? It has been too long since we chatted.  :)

Getting closer

I had a great time sewing with my guild this weekend.  And I finished some Farmers Wife blocks!  I've mentioned before that I'm redoing some that I have made already.  A few people have mentioned that I'm crazy, and I'm pretty comfortable with that.  I do have reasons behind my madness, so I thought I'd share a little bit of that here.

 

I made the log cabin block above and wanted to change it immediately.  It just doesn't shine.  I like the balance of the design and the colors in the aqua and cerise version of courthouse steps a lot better.

 

I like this checkerboard okay... but I don't love it.  The colors don't mix well and the background is boring.  I do, however, love the yellow, pink and gray version below.

 

The red, yellow and gray in the ribbon star above always looked too creamy together and didn't sparkle the way some of my other FW blocks did.  Then, I made the text and green version below, I am much happier.  Green has been my favorite color for a long, long time and more of my green stash was begging to be included in this quilt.

 

I made the red and yellow star of hope block to challenge myself to use a color combination that doesn't speak to me very much.  And...it still doesn't speak to me.  But the typewriter fabric below?  That just screams cute and it had to be in my finished quilt.

I don't think you can tell how bright the above version of hovering hawks is.  I had to turn the color saturation down so far just so the picture didn't vibrate off of the computer screen.  The shades of blue and orange in that block remind me of elementary school markers and I think the rest of my Farmers Wife quilt is a bit more subtle than that.

Plus, I found that stinkin' adorable bunny fabric below.  Maybe putting adorable bunnies on a "hovering hawks" block isn't wise, but it sure looks cute from here.

Thanks for letting me jabber on about my Farmers Wife blocks again.  I just have five blocks left!!!!