it's a top and a winner!

When I last left you, I had the January turquoise quilt blocks sewn into rows.

The seams all look nice and matchy here, but let me tell you, this was the last time that was anything like easy to accomplish.

A few days ago, I got these 12 rows sewn into six.  That was no easy task.  Besides pinning about 1000 pins per row, my (cheap) sewing machine decided it would skip about 3 or 4 stitches after each "rock seam" (as my friend Colette calls them).  So I had to check after every thick seam, mark the ones that skipped with a pin, and go back and re-sew a few.  I learned a few tricks that helped lessen the trouble and finally, today, with the remaining seams being sewn, figured out another trick that led me to only 1 fix in 5 long seams!  (Now I just need to remember that for next time...)

Anyways, Gabby of course helped.

She and Finn made sure this quilt had a LOT of furs put on it at this stage.  It sat here as double-rows for a few days while I worked three days in a row (the HORROR!), so there was plenty of time.  (Note to self: buy more lint roller refills.)

Today I dragged myself into the sewing room and finished the final five seams needed to get these 12 rows into a top.  I hate long seams, so this was one of those tasks I needed to do so I can reward myself with starting something new.  And I already have a plan, but need to flesh that out a bit more before I share.

Anyways, you want to see the top, right?

It's a semi-cloudy, not too cold January day out there, but this brightened things up.  And it kinda looks like snowflakes in there!  The pattern calls for putting yellow circle centers (like a flower) in the white blocks, but I think I'm going to leave them be.

A lot of the intersections are not great.  But with six or more layers of fabric coming together at a time (or is that 12?), it was hard to not only sew over them easily, but also with any sort of accuracy.  I did pin, but even that wasn't enough.  Yet, I am satisfied.  It is good enough and not worth picking out seams.  My stash of turquoise is diminished as well, so a couple of wins there.

Now I want to sit around and be a lump.  Maybe read a book.  Maybe watch a movie.

But there are some things on my to-do list that are undesirable, so I think I will force myself to accomplish a few of those first.  Two bindings need to be made (one for this quilt, one for the December top) that will require stash-diving, but also a back pieced for the November top.  (And then perhaps I need to make myself quilt a few of these?  I think I now have 5 that are just tops - most have backs, too, so I'm not sure what I'm waiting for!)

And lastly, the winner of my green scraps: A Left-Handed Quilter!  I've sent an e-mail and hope to have the info I need to send the box along tomorrow.  The cats were very curious about it, though I'm not sure why.  The empty box has been a playland for a few weeks now (I shook it out as well as I could before using it), so why they all sniffed it and pulled their noses back as though they'd been shocked is beyond me.  Heck, why cats do most anything baffles me.  And I'm a crazy cat lady!

Time to go do some need-to quilty chores.

Happy quilting!

Katie