I received the backing for the two quilts so I hope to get it prepped today or tomorrow. Having some leg problems so walking and standing is a chore.

Theresa

I have all the blocks done for the string quilt. I hope to lay them out and see how I like it and then put together. Also hope to cut out a quilt for the quilting bee. I hope you're feeling better soon, Linda and Theresa!

Compared to every one else I am so slow. In the time most of you churn out an entire quilt top, I get one block made! :) But I keep trudging along.

I am cutting out the small colorful squares for the May block lotto. I have bright green, orange, yellow squares ready to go. If I can find a “grape purple” in my stash I may add that to the group, too. Then I’ll start cutting out the white rectangles.

Our water source here on the northern prairie is so chlorinated and so hard it is a quick death to fabrics. Even though we have a two-stage water filter and a seperate water-softening unit here in the house, our “city water” is simply awful. We buy 2.5 gallon jugs of water for drinking and cooking.

There is a car wash/laundromat in town that has professionally filtered and softened water. The guys aren’t going to ruin their trucks’ finishes with the city water! :)

I take all my quilting fabrics to that laundry to pre-wash them.

It’s 26°, windy, and more snow fell last night. It’s a great day to sit near the window, watch the birds at the feeders, and work with these pretty fabrics!

Still hand quilting, doing it big-stitch in variegated thread. Then I have to decide whether to do a striped binding or use up fabrics from the quilt and do a multi-color binding.

Cutting up scraps into strips. I am determined to tame the scraps.

Still designing as I sew #4, I want it to look well planned. Thinking & rethinking to be sure I have enough fabric from my stash sure takes me time.

I had a bundle of fabrics I didn't really like and decided to put them together into a simple nine patch quilt to donate to charity. Should have that done today. Caroline,no wonder you are slow if you have to go the laundromat to prewash your fabrics. Of course, I don't prewash anything, but do wash quilts when i'm finished with them.

Hi Fran ... The laundry mat is less than 2 blocks from my house. I can start the fabrics in a machine, run to the post office or little grocery store, chat with either clerk a couple of minutes, come back and pick up the washed fabrics, take them home and toss them in my own dryer.

I do this for the more special or expensive fabrics. Yesterday I had three new fat-quarters with no special project in mind. I wanted to wash some older lace curtains at home; I just tossed the FQs in with them. I did give them a third rinse after adding a splash of vinegar to the second rinse.

They look lovely and have no chlorine, or vinegar, odors.

Today I have to add one black triangle to my third Pinwheel block. ( I already mailed the first two.) It was one of my disastrous blocks that I had to frog stitch. Then I cut the new light and black triangles too small, and ran out of black fabric. By then I was either going to throw the whole block in the trash, or pick it apart and do it correctly.

I’m also cutting the white fabric for May’s block.

It’s still snowing, windy, but the temp is now a balmy :) 30°. I haven’t seen the sun in four days. This grey gloom is starting to wear me down.

Spent yesterday at the final class for my pineapple quilt. I am making it larger than the pattern, so it is bed sized instead of a throw. At under 2,000 pieces, this is somewhat better than the last couple bed quilts I've done! Just love blocks with lots of little pieces, until I'm halfway done and boredom sets in. The teacher loved a piece from my stash for the backing, so yeah to me for that!

I have accomplished...very little!

I have the extra third Pinwheel block cut out and the black-to-batik triangles carefully pinned. “Black to the left!” :)

DH tapped the maple tree in our back yard and in the past couple of days we have collected 3+ gallons of sap.

I wanted to get it processed today so we have had two large pots boiling/simmering on the stove top all day long.

He was going to boil it all in a new (unused) turkey fryer in the garage, but I could see an unattended mess happening and insisted on doing it inside. I have an adequate stove fan that vents to the outside so no steam build-up problems.

Then, before I can start sewing again, it’s time to prepare dinner, iron a few more more fat quarters, and pray I’m not too tuckered out to sew for a bit this evening.

It’s still snowing! “They are predicting 5”-10” tonight.

Here’s DH with an almost-filled sap bucket. Boot dryers, and spare 10-lb boxes of Milkbones, are a fact of life here. The glowing-eyed alien in the lower left is our Sam.

Please tap the photo. He came out all squished again.

Does cutting grip lining for drawers and cupboards with my cutting mat and an old rotary cutter blade count as quilting? We're leaving Maui in 10 days, and I hope to get back to quilting upon my return home to my sewing room. I did absolutely no quilting for the three months we were here, very little since my first knee replacement in September and none since my second in October. I'm hoping that these doldrums that I have been stuck in will soon pass.

You used quilting tools; it must be quilting!

Lois, you'll be fine! Sometimes we just need a break. I have only done a little hand piecing lately. I've been working hard on a large cross stitch picture.

This weekend I did some mending and ironing, I also filed a couple months' worth of bills and receipts that had accumulated on the desk, and shredded old files to make room for the 2017 stuff I piled on the floor in January. Also weeded the front bed and "rock garden" under the eaves in the back yard. (I am NOT a gardener and have to force myself to do weeding a few times a year.)

Next weekend I'm planning to wash the windows...doesn't that sound like fun?

Donna

Lois I'm not sure I would quilt in Maui either. I'd just sit at the pool and let myself be inspired.

I hope those on the mend are feeling better!

I haven't done any quilting lately, but I did clean up and organize all my sewing stuff this past weekend so now I'm re-energized and just need to figure out what to work on next.

Nice photo, Caroline. How much syrup does 3 gallons of sap yield?

Enjoy your last days in Maui, Lois!

We got about 1 pint and 3 ounces of lovely syrup. He emptied the two buckets again tonight and got three more gallons of sap.

This was taken when he first taped the south maple. The smaller maple in the background, northwest, is the tree producing the most sap.

That's wonderful, Caroline!

I'm a bit late on the post, but I worked on this quilt over the weekend and finished the binding yesterday evening. I am fond of Evening Star and this was made for another of my 5 sisters to replicate a quilt I received from my grandmother years ago. Hope you ladies are feeling better!

It's lovely! Did you quilt it yourself?

Donna

Yes. She said she wanted some flowers on it if possible so I played around with quilting some 5 petal vining flowers/leaves & ended up doing that in gold border. I think it turned out ok

Oh, I love the flowers! Thanks for showing the closeup. You did a great job!

Donna

Thank you! I was so tired of doing the same all over quilting I was glad to do something else.

Cdscola, your quilting is lovely. Long arm? Sit down? Domestic sewing machine? All those stops and starts! I'm impressed.

Thank you! Home machine, Bernina 1090. I so enjoy free motion quilting.

Wow! Do you trace a pattern onto the quilt first, or just wing it? Your stitches are so even and the flowers are so perfect.

I don't have the patience or enjoy drawing on quilts if I don' have to. It's all free motion so I guess I wing it, lol!