A finish for February

But it's not one you might think. As is typical for me, I jumped to another project before completing the one I was working on. That quilt, blogged about in my last post, is on my wall as a partially completed top. I intend to finish that top tomorrow, if all goes well.

Today's finish was inspired by Elizabeth. She made the cutest little quilts for her dogs. Those of you who aren't pet owners probably think that is a complete waste. But I thought it might be the answer to a problem we are having with our dog, Sadie.

Since we took the carpeting out of our room last week, she is having a hard time sleeping on the cold, hard laminate flooring. And she won't sleep in the new doggie bed we bought for her. So I followed Elizabeth's lead and made her a quilt. I changed mine up a bit and used some blocks that were left over from the quilt I made for our bed. Here's what we ended up with.

I think she likes it.

Easily Distracted

I had the best intentions of having a pile of half-square triangles made by now. I got as far as printing my template papers out. But, while I was waiting for them to print, I opened my EQ software to play with setting ideas for the OP quilt. Twenty-something quilt variations later, I think I have it narrowed down to one of three possibilities.

I'm not sure I have enough fabric on hand for any of them, so actual sewing will likely have to wait until I can make it to the fabric store. These are the options I am considering, in no particular order. What do you think? Does any one in particular speak to you?

Time for an update

This is what I managed to accomplish yesterday. My blocks are all completed and up on the design wall. I am still working out what I want to use for my sashing fabric, setting triangles and borders. I think I will let this hang for a day or two until it tells me what it wants. I am going with the on point setting, as I like the hugs and kisses look to it.

As I pieced my blocks I also used Bonnie's leaders and enders technique to make these fun little blocks. They will get put to use in a crumb quilt some day. So naturally, I saved the trimmings from my OP blocks too. They are going to make some tasty crumbs! The plan for today is to make

a load of half-square triangle blocks. Happy stitching friends!

Quilting at Jane speed

For those who know me well, you may have guessed from the title of this post that I am behind in my sewing. Pretty typical of me. I am fairly easily distracted. I had just got my fabrics cut when it was time to leave for dinner out with hubby and some friends last night. I thought
I might have time to sew the blocks when we got home. Instead, we had our friends over for some friendly card games.

I headed straight for the sewing room when I got up this morning. I made some pretty good progress before hubby declared we should go out for breakfast. This is what I have so far.

To be fair, that isn't the whole truth. I do have one completed bock. Here it is.

The good new is that I am back home and ready to get in at least a couple good hours of sewing. After all, it's perfect stay home and sew all day weather here.

Double Whammy Weekend!!

This weekend is chock full of opportunity for quilters. Over at Pat Sloan's blog, she is hostessing

an OP (orange pile) challenge in the form of a virtual retreat. It is a chance for quilters to pull out their orange fabrics, pair it with another color or two and make some fun blocks.

Also this weekend is another of Judy's Quilt-a-thon's, where you will get yet another chance to do some quilting and see what fellow quilters are doing around the world. I plan to play with my fabric as much as possible. Won't you join in?

A room redo leaves little time for quilting

I wish I could say that I have been accomplishing great things on the quilting front. But my spare time has been pretty minimal this week. Hubby and I are working on a bedroom redo and things here are a bit in turmoil. We have cleared our things from our room and are temporarily relocated into what used to be our son's room. Unfortunately, there was already quite a bit of stuff in the room, so we are cramped for space. Hopefully the room will be finished soon. This is my reality for now. :(

We spent today installing a new floor. We had carpet in the room. We are replacing it with laminate flooring. I think it will be much more practical for us. Next up will be a fresh coat of paint and some new trimwork. Doesn't my hubby look like he's working hard?

A Fish Tale and A couple questions

Hubby and I took a little vacation out of state for a week. I stayed with my sister-in-law near Minneapolis while hubby and his brother went ice fishing in northern Minnesota. They stayed in a shanty out on the ice for three nights- sorta in the fashion of the "Grumpy Old Men" movie. The women were too smart for that. This was the temperature on one of the nicer sunny days near Minneapolis.

Hubby reported nighttime temps got to 35 degrees F below zero. But they had fun. As did we women.We hit the Mall of America, where we got to touch a shark and a ray. And we made it to several antique stores. And of course I had to stop at a few quilt shops.Didn't buy much, but I enjoyed the company.

Anyways, while I was at my sister-in-laws, I used their computer to show her my blog. But my background did not show up on her computer. I can see it as plain as day on mine. So my first question is "Can you see the quilt background on my blog?" It is tiles of the same quilt block on my blog title. I'm curious, since I wouldn't want to go to the bother of stylizing my blog if nobody but me can see it.

Onto something quilty. I didn't think to bring my camera along while I visited the quilt shops in Minnesota. That thought occurred to me after I got back home. Oh well. Yesterday was open sew at a local quilt shop here at home and I took some blocks to work on. I did manage to complete them all. That makes me happy. :) Here they are on my design wall.

Well, most of them anyways. My flannel isn't large enough to fit the final row. But, you can see enough to answer my other question. Right now they are layed out somewhat according to color of the lighter fabrics. But I am not sure I like it this way. So here is my other question. "Should I leave it like this, or do you think I should just have the block placement be completely random? Oh, and yes I know that one of the blocks is turned the wrong way.