a productive week

I've had a list of things to do, so it's been a productive crossing-off-the-list week, but not all of them have been quilty.  I'll just share the quilty stuff.

But I made the list because Monday I came home and sewed this together:

This is my April UFO.  While the goals is to get it done (there's a lot more to do - this will be hacked up with the Twister tool), there were other projects that have hard deadlines and I should have been doing those instead.

One of them involves the paper rolls I showed last week.  6 more days and I can show you what that was all about.  But it's done.

Also on the list is the owl quilt.  The baby shower is this coming Saturday and though I won't be able to attend, I do want the quilt ready in time.  I quilted it this morning and put the binding on this afternoon.  (Have I said how much I love Netflix?  Instead of channel-surfing and watching garbage, I can actually watch something I want to see!)

I had planned to bind it in green, but the yellow I used was the only piece I had that was large enough for the binding.  I think it looks just fine.  The owls still need eyeballs and the back needs a label, but that's doable in a week.

I also dug through my quilt books to find this:

It's called "Feather with Flowers" from the book "Quilts from The Henry Ford".  It's directions for making this historic quilt from the Henry Ford Museum.  My quilt group has issued a Baltimore Album challenge to make a single block that is 12-24" so I started digging.  I don't have a lot of books that have applique, or at least the kind that you might see in a Baltimore Album (even with their varied styles, who has a purple elephant?), but this historic book is perfect.  The blocks in the photo are 38", so I had to size it down, but I figured that out (yay scanner-printer-copier hooked to my laptop) and now I have to decide if I want to go with traditional colors or go wild...

And then I won a pattern!  Barb over at Bejeweled Quilts was giving away a sweet pattern for an umbrella table topper.  I so rarely win things, I never expected I'd win.  I think I'm going to make it for my mom...if the list of other quilts I need to make ever gets any shorter!

(Barb's photo, used with permission.)

If that's not enough, a coworker announced Friday that she's pregnant.  With twins!  She doesn't know yet if boys or girls, but they're identical, so that means two of whatever they are.  So the list just got longer for quilts to make.  (Gee, twist my arm...)

And if your bottoms aren't tired from sitting and reading all of the fun going on around here (yes, I went to work this week, too), my mom and I started a 3-month quilt shop hop yesterday.  We got to 5 shops, I think.  I didn't buy much, but a couple of shops were giving out fat quarters...

And I bought the "Quilts from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks" because I've been eyeing it for a while.  There are quite a few beauties in there.  And the "Felted Little Animals" was a bit of an impulse buy, but I have the felting needles to go with the cat hair felting book, so why not?  One of these days I'll have time to teach myself how, right?  I was looking for a new thimble, so I shelled out $11 for this one.  I like it, but it's taking a bit to get used to it.  And I got a hera marker because they seem so handy.

At the first shop, they had some sweatshirts that I liked.  The local Chamber was selling them as a fundraiser, but the quilt shop didn't have my size.  They sent me across the street to the (heavenly, amazing) bakery for one. 

And I also got two apple fritters that were literally the size of my head.  One for the hubby, one for my dad. 

So how's that for a shop hop?  I didn't buy any fabric!

Oh yes, one more fabric gain - this time from my aunt:

My mom's birthday is Tuesday, so her sister sent her a box of goodies.  In there were these two beautiful fat quarters and a sweet owl pincushion pattern for me!

I also put three new tires on my car and had the front brakes done this weekend.  But I'm sure those photos wouldn't be very interesting to anyone.

Anyone think I should take a nap?

Time to go make a label for that owl quilt!

Happy quilting,

Katie