AWAY. I’m cold and it’s wet out, yesterday it hailed for a bit. My bones are cold, and I feel like I need to hibernate. In between rainstorms yesterday, I hung a bunch of cloth napkins out on my solar rotary dryer. I soaked up the sun for a few minutes, looked at all the lush weed growth in my yard and scuttled back inside. In the sewing room I have a portable heater going. I turned off the house’s main heater a few weeks ago after receiving the monthly electricity bill. In the words of every parent throughout the winter months I “put on a sweater” and it wasn’t that chilly. Also keeping busy helps keep one warm.

On the design wall, I took down the scales quilt pieces. I want to rework it with some solids in it to increase the size. Doing so would have required me to pull the pieces down to rearrange them anyway, plus the dog was doing his best to scramble them too. In a box they went, they’ll be back, maybe in the summer. I was left with another box of scraps of another fabric line, Strawberry fizz. I had bought these from Craftsy when they were liquidating their fabrics, two rolls of 1/4 yard cuts. I wanted to make a Tessa Quilt from Kitchen Table Quilting after the Picnic one (Busy Hands Quilts) one I made last year. It took me about an hour to find the digital pattern, as I couldn’t remember the name of it. I didn’t have enough scraps to make a throw size quilt , so I made the baby size. There is some waste when one squares these quilts up, and lots of extra white bordered pieces due to strip piecing and cutting. The top is put together on the diagonal and then trimmed. I still had plenty of fabric left to make another top. I got out the “Just Two Charm Pack Quilts” book (PDF) from Meadow Mist Designs and chose the “Morning flower patch” quilt. Just 400 – 2 ½” blocks and I could use the extra 1 ½” white strip I had from the Tessa quilt scraps. I also remembered to use the Accuquilt Go to cut all those squares. Six passes through with the strip cutting die, and they were done. I spent the day yesterday sewing the nine patches and the cross sections. I may get the 58″ x 70″ top together later today. This is the same book that I used to participate in the quilt a long last month. You can see all the quilts in the quilt parade Cheryl posted a few weeks ago. Lots of inspiration for scrappy quilts.

This past week I also got the binding on the ‘Ribbon Runs Through it’ quilt and it is now on my bed. Plus I got the Morning Glories quilt on the frame and stitched out a row of leafy vines on it.

The Cottage, of the Fabulous Houses series is almost done, I finished the bricks yesterday, and I am hoping to finish the rooftop today. The next one, Hobbit house hasn’t been shipped yet, but I have all the flosses picked and ready to go. A few people on the FB site for this stitch-a-long were saying how they thought this next house was a little dull. Ideas about adding some flowers and changing roof lines are popping up. I kinda like the design as is, although, I think the sheep need dark faces, ears and legs, maybe a little grass under their feet. I was actually thinking I could pull the Consider the Lillies piece out and stitch a little on it while I wait for the FH pattern delivery.

Be Kind.