Friday!!

It is Friday, and unlike most who long for Friday, I am feeling a little bittersweet. My boys have been at their Nana's the last 2 days, which has made my life shear bliss! They are returning tomorrow, and so is my chaos and noise. It should return to normal on Monday, as my older son's winter vacation is over, and he and I go back to school/work.

Here's a monthly update on the hand quilting of Sophie's quilt. At just about 5 weeks from starting, I am now working the quilt's borders. I am doing a somewhat wavy floral pattern in that green stripe. In retrospect, it might not have been the best choice, as because of the fabric's print, the quilting is not overly obvious. I have done 11 of the 15 sections with this quilt pattern. It takes about an hour, so I rarely do more than one section in an evening.
The corners have little flowers. I also tested a quilt pattern yesterday for which I made a few templates - for the inner area of these swags. It's overlapping 'leaves", intended to look somewhat like a half of a dahlia. And of course, both sides of that hot pink stripe are stitched as well.

Enough on that...

Here's my 9th Linus blanket for the year. I had a bunch of half pieced strips and squares leftover from a baby quilt I didn't actually make a few years ago. I pieced them into a number of blocks, and then added some other coordinating fabrics. It's kind of a piece-meal quilt. Has a couple rows of piano keys, a row of this, a row of that, etc.

The backing fabric was given to me a couple years ago, and I thought it coordinated nicely. I quilted diagonal rows of hearts and flowers into the solid squares, and stippled most everywhere else.

My sweetest little one really wanted it for her beloved naked baby (darndest girl just doesn't want that baby to be clothed!!). She did finally settle for holding the quilt for a picture.

I have a long awaited Valentine's date tomorrow. Can't remember when I last had a date. Romance is hard to come by when you live with my wild and time-demanding brewd. Hubby is taking me to a nice Italian restaurant in the Big City (AKA Portland), and if times coordinate we'll see a matinee movie beforehand (I can't stay awake for a movie after!!). Little does he know, since the movie is using some free passes he has, I plan to just have a nice 2-hour nap!!

I was busy the latter part of this week, despite having a cold. I have another Linus top quilted, learned a ton about needles (thanks, ya'll!), and thread breakage, learned a few new dirty words too that I like to use when this happens. I pieced the top for a spring table runner for myself. It's simple, and is a good example of when perception and reality don't entirely match up. More about this at another date. I made my label for my 4SQS5 piece, and hope to mail this in the near future. I also (phew, as if that's not enough for a sickly gal) cut out the upper part of an Easter dress for Sophie, and partly pieced it together. I didn't have the zipper until today so I couldn't get too far.

Have a great weekend-