Slow progress

That pretty much applies to this quilt and my knee after surgery. Every time I think things feel good and I start sewing I suffer a bit of a set back. Today I cut and made two blocks and clearly that was a bit too much time on my feet as I am in some pain now. Oh well, back to more handwork for me cause I really want to get back to cooking tonight. I love my DH but his food preparation skills are dreadful!

A little rest

I have taken a little sewing break for the last week to take care of the  final closing on the sale of our house in the Atlanta area.  It was touch and go to the last minute and I am just happy that it is over with and we can finally move forward. I thought I would be starting a new bright project along the lines of "Green Tea and Sweet Beans" but realized that some simple sewing with no math required is what I need this week. So instead I started this project from the pattern "On a Whim" by Thimble blossom designs. I had a small collection of fat quarters from the Field Notes collection by Blackbird designs and decided to use them in this project. Just 10 fat quarters, some block background and one more fabric that is in the block corners and will be the border and I am all set. Another stash project, yippee!

Oh and this is my first time using the new update of blogger for my iPad so I am a little unsure about the layout. I sure wish that updates came with instructions!

Ready to go

Well, the quilt is all prepped for appliqué and ready for my post op stitching. I find it much easier to balance colors and fabric if the blocks are up on my design wall, so I wanted to get this finished in time to put up another project that needs to get put together in the next week. I am very happy to have this finished and what you don't see is that there are another 84 leaf blocks that make up the border. I have 76 of these blocks prepped but I am leaving the last few until I know which greens I still need to balance everything out. I am really feeling the bug to start something in some bright summery colors as I have been working in this more greyed palette for awhile so I am looking at ideas for my next start. I am thinking something pieced and appliqued for my guest room that is a bit wacky and fun. Any great ideas? I have ordered the pattern pictured below and am thinking it may be the one.

Prepping for surgery

Well, though the MRI was inconclusive, there appears to be a small tear in my knee and I am having surgery in a few weeks. So I am prepping lots of appliqué for some post op stitching. Here is how "Birdsong" is looking so far. A few blocks are sewn and the rest are glued up ready for stitching. I am hoping to get all of these prepped before May 17. It is a relatively simple outpatient procedure and hopefully recovery will only be a few weeks but it will good to be prepared!

A Bit of Bragging

Last night I stopped by JoAnn's to see if I could find the most recent edition of Quiltmania (not there yet ) and thumbed through a few other quilting and sewing magazines. My son is a contributing editor for Stitch magazine and I love seeing if I can spot his designs before even looking for the designers name. I also saw the new copy of Modern Patchwork and thought I would check it out and voila there was a quilt he had made and I had quilted with him. He came for a visit from California the week after I got my longarm machine as we both were under a learning curve while quilting this one! I did buy the magazine and it is filled with some great modern quilts and small items including a mid century modern table runner that my son did. His article on Contemporary machine quilting with retro designs even made the cover.

He has a pattern company called Feed Dog Designs and has other exciting things in the works. I am a proud momma and I think that deserves a bit of bragging!

Playing with wool

So I have been sewing these bird blocks and love how they look in my great room. I tosses one on the couch to get an idea of how the colors work in the room and loved how it worked there so today I whipped up this little pillow. The pattern is adapted from the Birdsong quilt by Blackbird designs but I decided it would be fun to use some wools for some of the appliqué. The background is the same home decor weight fabric that I used in my Union Jack pillow and the reds and greens are the wools. I didn't have any of the right color teal wool so just needle turned some quilters cotton instead. It was fun to play with wool today and even more fun to have a finish.

Another Bird block and a starry start

Well much has happened since my last post but I'll start with the quilty bits. I am still working away on the bird blocks for Birdsong. Since most of the finished ones look pretty similar I am just posting one to give you an idea of the color direction. Half the blocks will have black birds and the other half will have teal birds. The flowers and berries will be shades of red and pink and of course there are lots of green leaves. Nice easy appliqué witch is certainly appreciated right now.

And I have started piecing these little 4 1/2 stars that will be used in a long range project. I have had the pattern for Phebe by Di Ford for a few years now and have been collecting fabrics ever since. Though I have not begun the appliqué, I thought I might get a jump on piecing the little stars. They are meant to be rather scrappy but so far I am not sure about the colors. I think I probably should be starting with the appliqué but I think it will work out as long as I just stick with all the fabric I have pulled. I do find it much easier to work in a very controlled color palette but I want this to look a bit more happenstance to we will see where this takes me.

I hesitate to give any more house updates cause things change daily but here is how things stand right now. Our first buyer had to pull out after finding out his job was at risk, the house was put back on the market and we got an offer the first day. We are under contract again and just waiting to see how this one goes. And in an unfortunate turn of events, my knee went out on Thursday and I ended up in the emergency room and unable to straighten my leg or bear weight. That evening I was improved enough to brace the knee and hobble around so tomorrow I head to the doctor for a possible MRI. Kinda hard to do much, but at least I can still hand sew!