a good week for quilting

It's been a good week for quilty sewing.  Or at least a few days - working 12-hour shifts does not really leave me much time (or energy) for fun stuff after work, but it does allow for one more day off work than I would normally get, so it all works out in the end.

This week the hubby was home sick most of the week.  That was okay while I was at work, but my two days off had the potential of being less productive with him home.  I did okay, though.  He was at the feeling better, but not quite well enough for work stage, so he mostly took care of himself and I only needed to feed him.

I left you with mostly parts for the Ho quilt...I think those parts took longer to cut than they did to sew!

The H blocks were quick, as I anticipated.

The O blocks took quite a bit longer - look close and you'll see four tiny lost corners (or maybe found corners in this case?) in the center of the letter.  Not to mention those lost on the outside.  Thankfully, the presents were already made and just had to be incorporated.

I mixed and matched the prints a little - different from the pattern, as mine was more scrappy - and got these together and felt pretty accomplished.

Next up: trees!

Since there were only six trees to make (another red block is hiding behind this one), these went a little faster.  But again, a lot of lost corners made things seem to take forever.  And for whatever reason, the pattern didn't have me construct these presents with the others, so though I had the bows made, I still had to do final construction.

That one green tree on the right is a little washed out, but I was running out of different greens with enough fabric for all the parts.  We'll just call it snow-covered.  (Speaking of running out of parts, please don't make too much of the tall red tree with a slightly different trunk print!)

Yesterday I headed into the sewing room with plans to get this top together and the borders on the baby quilt.  It was a lot of work, but since the hubby was still holding down the couch, I had all day!

Trying to keep the same prints from being too close to each other when there were repeats wasn't too hard, particularly since I didn't worry about distribution of presents.  (Again, I had enough of each fabric for just some, but I think it adds interest - how I wish I had that stripe for binding, though!)

A few hours later - long seams take longer, ugh - I had a top!

I like it!

I also made the binding.  The hubby said I should use red.  Right.  With the inches I have left?  I tried for green, but needed six WOF strips and that wasn't doable either.  So I just used the grey.  It won't frame it in as some bindings do, but my sister-in-law isn't going to think about that.  Most of us quilters might not either.  It will be fine.

And with this done, it was on to the baby quilt.  This one, though it was long seams to get the borders on, was just the borders.

I wanted to use the solid pink for the cornerstones, to match those in the center of the quilt, but that was a no-go.  As with my reds in the Ho quilt, my pinks for this quilt were pretty depleted by the time I was done, but there was enough of a pink swirl (you can probably see it if you click on the photo to zoom in) and it contrasted enough with the border fabric that I was satisfied.

(I could also have done no cornerstones and it would have been fine, but I wanted them, so I made it work.)

I made the binding for this as well, using the same pink as the border.  Again, I don't think my pink stash had enough of anything else for a whole round of binding.

Salem was very helpful at the photo shoot stage (I finished both quilts and then went back for photos).  She also posed with the stack when they were on the ironing board...

You can't really see it here, but included in this stack are pieced backs for both quilts too!  I was on a roll yesterday and it feels good to have so many things checked off my list.  When I took on the Ho quilt, after having committed to the baby quilt, I was worried about getting everything done.  There are still a lot of things on my to-do list, but these were some of the biggest.  Of course, I still have to quilt them, but that's a problem for another day!

I've also been finding time to read.  I guess I AM settling into the new schedule?

I finished this one:

I enjoyed it, but reading it as an adult, I found myself wary of all the just-so coincidences that allowed things to happen the way they did.  I know that's the way fiction goes, and I find myself thinking this way in books written for adults also, so I guess I shouldn't criticize.

The story was interesting and moved along at a fast pace and I enjoyed it.

Then there is this one, picked up just to finish filling a bag at a used book sale:

I did read the blurb, as I vaguely remember that, but it was far better than I expected.

Though it does remind me a lot of the Big Bang Theory (a television show that is in constant reruns, as it ended a few years back), and it took me a bit to get into the book enough to stop comparing the two.

It's the story of a man who is surely on the spectrum for autism (though it never specifically says so) and his quest for a wife.  It leads him on sub-quests and he ends up in all sorts of situations that his very structured life before the project would have never let him get near.  Needless to say, he grows as a person and I was rooting for him the whole time.

I have learned that there are two more books that follow his story further, but since his "best friend" Gene annoyed the crap out of me most of the book, and continues into the next books (from the blurbs he is seems to be a fairly prominent character in both), I will not be looking to read them.  Yes, yes, yes, character flaws are part of the deal, but this guy...ugh!

Today I plan to get back into the sewing room and work on that ginormous list again - make the best of my time before I have to head back to work tomorrow.

Happy quilting!

Katie