My star magnolia is getting ready to bloom! In March!
I admit, I was a little afraid to look at my stats.
I enjoy seeing all you folks that have stopped by, where you are from, and the kind of pages you looked at. It’s not like I get a lot of visitors, but each of you are precious and interesting, and I want to know more – and the kinds of things that interest you.
But it has been a couple of weeks since I posted, and that previous post was a long while coming too – and no new stuff makes for a boring blog!
I can blame it on the adrenaline rush and resulting let-down after all the work it took to get my St. Lukes exhibit planned and prepared.
Or I can blame it on the unusually mild and lovely spring weather that we’ve had. (March magnolias? In Indiana? Are you kidding?)
Or it could be hormones (most everything is.) Or a weekend visit with one of my sisters. Or a million other excuses.
Suffice it to say that my accomplishments recently have been . . . not much.
Well, I did watch “The Voice.” Oh, and a few episodes of “Top Gear” (both the British and US versions, thank you very much.) (Oh, and sorry, I like the UK version better.) Ummm . . . and maybe I’ve eaten most of a Peanut Butter Pie. I did clean out my black and white scraps . . .and sorted out my sock drawer . . .
But not much sewing.
Worse yet, here is my sketchbook:
I haven’t even had the heart to do ANY sketching. No sketches = no fresh ideas. No fresh ideas = peanut butter pie.
Not all bad, but it doesn’t make for a updated blog.
(BTW, it was a SKINNY peanut butter pie. And it was heavenly. One of those pies that you want to make the second one immediately after the first one is gone because you just can’t bear NOT to have more.)
I guess I did put the block borders on the black and white optic squares quilt, but I admit I’m having problems getting motivated to get it finished.
So, lets take a look at that:
border and corner block
I’ve added the herringbone borders and have started quilting them – I’ve finished two sides of the border quilting and have only two more to go.
I think I can finish quilting in less than 3 hours (very easy wavy lines), then an hour to machine bind it and I’m DONE!
I have to say, I love using block borders. There’s really no measuring, no horsin’ around with getting things even and straight like I do when I use pieced borders or strip borders..
One comment about finishing up this quilt: I bought some bamboo/cotton batting because I started this quilt with the leftovers from another bamboo/cotton batt before I decided to add borders. The chemical smell from these new packages of batting is unbelievably bad. Considering that they advertise that bamboo/cotton is supposed to be good for baby quilts, etc., it’s pretty overwhelming.
There are now two compelling reasons that I won’t buy this type of batting anymore: it washes up VERY floppy (and not in a good way) and I’m not dealing with the stink. I’m sticking with cotton or wool from here out. (Wool only stinks when it’s wet – and it’s a little like a clean, wet sweater smell, not chemicals. When it’s dry, there’s no stink and lots of loft.)
This quilt will look really cool, but as I said, I’m so over working in black and white. If you look carefully, these are COLOR photos. They don’t look like it do they? Here it is on my machine:
Isn’t it strange how the red almost looks fake?
I think my next project will be for a new bed quilt for our room. I’m debating about trying an improvisational pieced top, but what if I hate it? Then its a queen-sized boondoggle.
I need to put together my inspiration board on this one – in COLOR!
(O00h – and I found a recipe for Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Bailey’s Irish Cream Cheese Frosting. Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day to go with our corned beef and cabbage! That sounds inspirational, doesn’t it? And I really need to control my looks at that blog.)
Until then, all the best!
Chris
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