Long February Roundup

This has definitely been a busy month, but before I get into that, I have a question for all the great quilters out there.

A long time ago, I saw someone recreate Monet's Waterlilies with a pixelated quilt and I've been cutting all the scraps I would usually throw away into 1 1/2" squares with the thought that one day I will try to do something similar (it will be named The Most Tedious Project Ever), but my question concerns shades and tones. I vaguely remember some sort of colored film that a person could look through that would take the color out of fabric so you could just compare shades and hues instead of color and be able to sort fabric that way. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Tiny percentage of 1 1/2" madness

On to last month:

Beginning of Nemo

I've been in my sewing room 4 hours a day on weekdays and up to 12 hours a day on weekends, helped along by quite a few snowstorms that left nothing else to do anyway. I've been so concerned with making enough money to help pay my tuition that I've been making easy quilts that I don't necessarily love. Don't get me wrong, simple 9 patches are cute and I like them, but there are so many other things out there that I've sort of burned myself out on them. But, in my first month in business, I've sold two quilts... so it's not too shabby. But, I've decided that I will only make one simple quilt a week and spend the rest of the time working on more challenging, fun things. (Mom, in case you are reading this, you were right... I started to burn out.)


I'm still in the middle of several projects, but the finished February quilts that weren't custom orders were,

Hearts

Easter

Spring

And I also did something I swore I would never do again. On the day I mastered hand stitched bindings, I stood on my sewing table and, not unlike Ms. Scarlett on the hilltop, declared to the world that I would never machine attach a binding again. But, wow, it's so much faster. I keep seeing listings on Etsy that declare machine bound quilts "for long-lasting durability" and they make me cringe. I have a utility quilt (everyday use) that my great-grandmother hand bound and of all things that are giving way on that thing, the binding ain't one.

But, I machine bound the last two quilts... and you will probably see me listing my time-saving laziness on Etsy under the cover of "long-lasting durability." I'll just try not to think about it.

B's of the M

I'm doing two blocks of the month this year. The first is Craftsy's where I'm hand stitching the blocks in purple for a quilt for my grandmother and this is how that's shaping up...

And the other BOM is through Quilt Doodle's blog where she is running a great group. The more I look at the block I did for Feb. the more I'm disliking my color shade choices (and that one stupid seam that didn't line up)... but I'll think about that later. I did some rudimentary thread painting for the fossil that I talked about here.

I want to jump in on Sew What's Cooking's BOM too, but every time I think of it, I'm at work and it slips my mind by the time I get home. But, I'm scheduling in some catch-up time this weekend.

Plans for March

Well, a few more 9-patches, obviously. But I've been hording Tula Pink fabric, waiting for something to catch my eye, and a quilt in the March/April edition of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting did just that. There's a quilt designed by Brigitte Heitland that I think will be perfect. I am going to cut the pattern in half to make a smaller quilt, but I think it's going to be wonderful. I've already started cutting.

I also want to do something with this fabric (I love the pictures but despise the brown background) and an applique using this big teddy bear that I printed out with Excel... see last post.

And, because one of the last yarn stores in Boston, Windsor Buttons, is closing down, I made one last pilgrimage and bought a couple of arm loads of yarn. This is the only thing I have started so far; just a simple striped, ribbed scarf to work on during my lunch-breaks at work.

Well, that's enough rambling. I hope you all have a fun and productive (and warm) March.