Project Linus

Well, I sure haven't accomplished much this last week.  I did finally get the quilting done and the binding sewn on a quilt I pieced a couple months ago.  This quilt will go to Project Linus.  I saw a quilt recently that had obviously been done on a long arm quilting machine, and had circles going around and around on it.  I decided to try to do something similar with my home sewing machine, and this is the result.  It's not great, and the circles are not exactly circular, that's for sure, but overall, I'm pretty happy with it.

We watched one little granddaughter play basketball today.  There is sure a huge difference in the height of these third and fourth graders.  Unfortunately our DGD's team had all the short players, so they really got smoked, but at least at that level they don't keep score.

Our grandson with the broken leg in the ankle area is doing very well.  He almost runs with his cast, and plays outside and is very active.  Our 5 year old grandson is going to play T-ball this year.  That will be so cute - of course I think everything my grandkids do is cute!!  :-)

Retreat, quilt show

Oh, my, the retreat was just wonderful! It was so nice to go and have no interruptions and just sew and sew and sew. I worked on a rather intricate paper-pieced iris wallhanging. I got probably 3/4 or more of it pieced, and I'm really liking the way it looks.  My place for sewing was just this side of my friend there in the black shirt.  I think there were about 25 of us there, with several from our quilt guild.

The day before the retreat, I went to a quilt show.  It wasn't real large, and almost all the quilts were hand quilted, which further inspired me to try hand quilting again.  It's been many years since I have done that.
These pictures are from the show.

Quilting retreat, Farmer's Wife

Well, today is pretty exciting for me.  In about four hours I am off to a quilting retreat.  I have my stuff all packed, and probably am taking way, way too much stuff, but at least I will have some options!  My main project, I think, will be working on an intricate paper pieced iris wallhanging.

I got six more Farmer's Wife blocks done.  One of them I didn't do so great a job on, but I'm not going to point it out for you!!  :-)  I really like the way they are turning out.

Last Sunday we went and spent a day at the beach.  It was a beautiful  sunny day, and we got a long walk in along the ocean.  We had planned this day to watch our grandson Tanner play in a basketball tournament.  Alas, two days before he was to go, he was playing basketball outside, and slipped on wet pavement and turned his leg very badly.  When all was said and done, he had a fracture in the ankle area, and didn't play in the tournament.  He will be out of basketball for the rest of his season, and won't be able to play baseball until late April.  This will be tough on him since he's quite the little athlete, but thankfully it wasn't a worse injury.

Another completion!

I have mentioned before that one of our dear DDILs has breast cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy now, to be followed by radiation.  She has been incredible, and all of the family has been constant in our support of her in whatever way we can.  We have the pink plastic bracelets, the pink ribbon pins, pink t-shirts, etc., etc.  I thought I would like to make her an afghan that had pink in it.  I finished crocheting it last week, and she is very happy with it.

I finally completed something!

Well, completions are good, aren't they?  Perhaps at times they are overrated, but I feel like I sort of frittered away January, so I need to accomplish some things in February.  I have another completion that I'll show soon, but for now, back to this quilt.  A few years ago I was involved in a type of block of the month on the Block Central forum.  Several of us took turns choosing a block for the month, and then everyone would make it.  I made the blocks, and then finally did something with them, and this is the result.  I am pretty pleased with it.  I had thought about adding it to the charity group, but hubby wants us to keep it, so we are.

 

I also completed another Farmer's Wife block called Endless Day.  There are a few I'm not real crazy about, but this one I really like.  It is paper pieced.  I drafted it in EQ and printed it out.  I've done a few that way, and it saves me from having a brain cramp trying to figure out just how to make some of them without messing up too bad.  For me, templates for these are out of the question.