A Drowsy Blogger

The last week or so I feel like I have been asleep behind the blogging wheel. I am behind in my personal projects and have felt the stress from that more (despite having my bday block swap blocks done for the next 2 months, and my Miniature Booty quilt finished as well). I have 3 queen size bed quilts in the works, and none is ready for the LA quilter.

So rather than pull out what I really needed to work on (AKA those dreaded quilts), I pulled out my flannel scraps and whipped up a couple relatively simple flannel quilts for Project Linus. These make quilt numbers 9 and 10 for me to bring to a drop off in early October, for which I will receive 3 fat quarters for each quilt. That alone is a great motivator for me to finish another 3 or 4 before then! I'll get pictures up soon.

I staged 2 of my bed quilts this weekend on my bed. Until Sunday, they were still in too many pictures to put onto the bed and get a good visual of the quilt.

This is made mostly from charm squares of Moda Simplicity. I hate how the pastels wash out in the photograph. It does not help that the bedroom is dimly lit either. Sadly I just lost steam on this a few weeks ago. I am just on the fence over the rose borders. It seemed like the right color choice at the time, but in retrospect I wish it was a much softer color. Rather than take it all out (which is a project in a box forever if I go down that road), I am rethinking what to do with the remaining 8" of the border. It will have some of that rose on it, perhaps in swirling quarter inch applique (like stems or filligree). I am tempted to use it for the binding and do a scalloped edge to soften the look of the quilt too. That's the project for the week AFTER I return from here :-) (AKA vacation!!)

This past weekend I also sewed the 12 22" heart blocks together so I could get a good look at this quilt. I was very close to making these into 2 Linus quilts, but with my ambivalence with the Simplicity quilt, I have a reformed love for these blocks, and feel like the initial recipient of these would relate and appreciate this quilt more than the Simplicity. Further, I have another person in mind for Simplicity, who's style is really much more in line with those fabrics. So, with that ambiguity (grins!!) as they may be reading this before Christmas, I'll stop my blathering.

My plan for the hearts??... Add an 11" border. At first I designed up one, and fortunately (and much unlike myself), I made just one of the 14 blocks up last Saturday. I did NOT like it. I was much relieved there was not all 14 before I decided that too! The consensus was that it was not scrappy enough to blend nicely with the scrappy hearts. So I made a small modification and the borders are scrappy like the hearts. Pictures soon, promise. Unfortunately, I used all of my bolder Kaffe Fasset scraps (ones with turquoise), so border does not have those small "punches" of color. It will still look good. And, more importantly, this top will be completed before we depart this weekend. I have 2 of the 3 borders sewn and awaiting squaring and trimming before I attach them to the top. That's progress I can be proud of!

One last little show...Here's Nell's pet block for Kate's bday block swap.
It went into the mail today. Every house ought to have a fat orange cat. I already posted a picture of Anne's mariner's compass.

Oh and a glimpse of what I am sending to someone tomorrow...the center (part of the center) block for the Spring Fling Round Robin 2. In case you are reading and wondering...the fabric I sent with it is the red dotted batik! I call it "Lollalilou", because it reminds me of something out of Dr. Seuss and I think he had a creature named that!