More Hexies

Slow and steady has been the approach on Anna Levens lately and it is paying off. A couple of days ago I finished off filling in the second corner of the centre panel with EPP hexies so now I'm working on the third.

Initially I thought that I was going to be working on the baby quilts that I showed you the last time but the weather has been so spectacular today that I just couldn't get myself to go downstairs. Instead, I'm hanging out with Anna and seeing if I can get another row or two added to the cause. Not a bad trade-off....M

Boy Oh Boy!

Shortly after the new year began I got a call from a dear friend from university days that her daughter was expecting her first child. Needless to say, the thought of them becoming grandparents was more than exciting, but when they found out it would be identical twin boys, well, it was hard for them to contain themselves.

So that's a perfect excuse to make a couple of baby quilts, isn't it? They aren't due til mid summer but knowing how pokey I can be at times I decided to get a jump on them. I found Amy Smart's tutorial for a darling Lone Star quilt and got to work picking fabrics. I'm going with shades of blue, green and aqua and a variety of whites and creams.

Not all of them made the final cut but I do like the mix. The quilts will be similar but not identical so I've split the blocks into two different piles. I'll likely bind them in different fabrics so that they are easy to tell apart.

All of the blocks are cut and the over-sized HSTs together so it was time to play on the design wall. This was my first layout but it was so so - you can see that there are two greens that are very similar and they just weren't working where they were.

So I switched things up and really prefer the second layout. I spent the day helping the gals at the church quilt so nothing more was done but I'm hoping that by the end of the weekend both flimsies will be together....M

A Carpenter's Daughter

It's a long weekend here in Ontario as we celebrate Family Day so yesterday I spent time with my sister Anne, yakking and stitching. She pulled out her Carpenter's Star that's been basted and ready to go for a few months now and we explored ideas on how to quilt it.

In no time at all she was off to the races. The palette is soft and dreamy and in my mind evokes beautiful large snowflakes. We both commented on how just a little quilting changes the look of a flimsy almost immediately.

She's having fun and apparently made lots of progress after I left. Our father was a talented carpenter in his day and it warms my heart that here she is working on a quilt pattern that speaks to his life and work.

I didn't stitch but was busy cutting more hexies for Anna Levens. I have lots of lighter prints ready to baste to the papers but need the occasional richer print to add to the mix. It was a lovely way to pass the afternoon. I hope that if you are celebrating Family Day that you find an opportunity to share it with someone close to you, too....M

I Outfoxed the Squirrels!

It turns out I really can focus when I need to. I kept my head down and the squirrels out of my sewing room and now all 80 of my Pineapple Tidbits blocks are together (no squirrels were killed in the making of these blocks!).

When they were all prepped I pulled out the biscuit tin that I'd been storing them in over the years and did a final count - there's actually 83. My sister Frances is making the same quilt (we took the course together) and just recently resurrected it, so I'll see if she can use the extras.

You can see from my sticky notes both just how far back this project dates and how I changed my mind about its size as time went on. Guess at one point I decided that it had a better chance of being finished as a lap quilt rather than a full sized quilt and I think that was a good decision.

It was fun to look through the earlier blocks and recognize fabrics that I no longer had in my baggies; I particularly love this red and white check. The zigzag around the edge of the block just helps keep the block and its flannelette foundation together and I think will be a big help when its time to assemble the top, particularly at the corners.

They all begin with a red square and at one point in the process I decided that maybe I should avoid having red elsewhere in the block, but recently changed my mind on that again. I'm glad that I did - it just adds a little more interest.

So once I finish patting myself on the back I will bask in the glow of knowing that I have finished my blocks, succumb to other stitching temptations for a bit and wait for the motivation to assemble this quilt to strike....M