February Love

Hello!  There has been slow but steady progress in February on my various quilting projects.

It is always fun to announce a finish. This is my first finish for 2019 - Irish Star Chain. It's also my first project quilted with my new midarm.  My hubby and I have already snuggled under it watching television one evening. I'm so pleased with how it looks - even my quilting!

April Showers (the 54 degree grey/yellow/teal quilt) is under the midarm needle and about halfway done.. I hope to finish that one next week.

This weekend I finished the Out of This World block and my yellow RSC blocks for February

Then I began working on Highland Fling, evapaigedesign's mystery quilt. After a quick Facebook consult on background color choices (most quilters preferred white for contrast against my brights), I finished all the cutting and began sewing. Now I feel like I have a million half-square triangles to trim. This will be a quick project. Just two more weekly clues and it's done.  I can't wait to see what all these pieces turn into. And this one is all from my stash, even the background!

If you try the accordian trick to make a wide variety of half-square triangles, be sure to have a leader-ender project at hand. I was able to make six Lady of the Lake blocks while making my first set of accordians for Highland Fling.

What's next?  According to my quilting plan spreadsheet, I need to add borders to Acadian Mist and make more units for En Provence over the next two weeks.  Maybe I need to shoot for that 20-minutes-a-day goal so many of you are trying. Some evenings after work and dinner I just want sit and relax. That's probably the best time for some quilt therapy.

Have you been making progress on your 2019 quilting goals, too?

Sunshine a plenty

February's RSC color per Angela is YELLOW. That means I am digging through my yellow & gold scraps to make several blocks for the my RSC projects. The last time I pulled yellow scraps, I made this for my daughter:

Yellow makes me think of spring.  This week is projected to be much warmer than last week here in the south. That makes me so happy!  <singing "I've got a pocket, got a pocket full of sunshine">

I am happy to announce I finished the quilting on Irish Star Chain, the first I did with my new mid-arm, and will bind it this week. Then I can plug that finish into my 2019 page (and update the picture).  Next up should be Arcadian Chain (Patty Cake/Irish Chainish), but I really want to work on the Stormy Skies, the grey/teal/yellow quilt that is already sandwiched and ready to go.

Beth Hertler of evapaigedesigns announced her new mystery quilt - Highland Fling - dedicated to us fans of Diana Galbaldon's Outlander series. Of course I have to participate! I have been a fan for more than 20 years, when I found her first Outlander novel at a bookstore innocently waiting for me to thumb through and become engrossed. For a small fee, you can jump in on the fun here. I dug through my scraps last week and decided I need to either use white as my background or shop for a light grey. Even if you do not want to do another mystery quilt, check out Beth's unique accordian triangle trick. It's a great way to mix colors for half square triangles.