Marching Along!

I have somewhat accomplished my February goals.

The next Le Jardin block.  

I chose this one because there were very few pointy leaves!

A Rainbow Garden is half quilted and my hope is to get it finished this week.

Another row is done for my red and green quilt.

I do have another pile of blocks made for Christmas Magic, but they do not make for an interesting picture. 

I did not make any progress on my red and white quilt, but...

worked instead on the long overdue wedding quilt. I also added a dozen or so of the joining hexies to the pile. Hoping this quilt will become my summer finish.

It is not too late to enter the drawing for the Easter Baskets kit.

Just head on over to The Olde World Quilt Shoppe blog and leave a comment.

And remember, if you are a no-reply commenter, there is no way I can notify you if your name is drawn, so your name is not in the drawing.

I am in LOVE!

And the object of my affection is my new Sashiko machine by Baby Lock.

You can find out more about them here.

My good friend, Lin, and I drove up to Prescott last Friday to check them out and I came home with one.  Lin's comes in next week.  Needless to say, I came home and immediately tried it out.

I had made this little 6" block to demo a Tri-Rec ruler and thought it would be perfect as my first subject.  I used a 30 wt. Aurifil cotton thread in a golden brown hue.  I was so excited I just could not wait to quilt something else, so I rifled through the now infamous closet and found a UFO that would be perfect for this style of quilting.

Count Down to Christmas, a Monique Dillard pattern, I had pieced last year.

Here is a close-up of the stitch.  It looks like hand quilting on the front and a straight stitch on the back of the quilt.  I am fascinated by how it works.  The only thread is in the bobbin, and a ingenious industrial engineered combo of a hook and needle pull the thread to the front to look like hand stitches.

Needless to say, I am itching for another project to quilt.

So, I searched my bucket of future quilts and found the fabrics and pattern for a darling small quilt called A Rainbow Garden, designed by Glenda of Liberty Homestead.

You can see her designs here.

I forget that a small quilt can take as long as a full sized quilt to construct, so it will be awhile before I can use Sashi again.  

The pattern is from her book, Farmhouse Quilts, The Scrap Basket.

You can find it here.

It is the quilt in the center at the bottom of the page. Oops, it is the one in the top left corner!

Here is my first block:

Only 46 of those little 2" finished pinwheels to make!  And then there are the 6 baskets, the embroidery and then the wool applique. It will be awhile before I am back with a flimsy.

I have kept up with my monthly goals.  My pile of flying geese is growing, another set of blocks for my red and white quilt are done and my Le Jardin block is close to completion.

This one has been hard for me to keep on task with.  It is not my favorite block in the quilt from a design standpoint and all those tiny leaves!  Only 4 more to sew down.

Finally,

the beginnings of my red and green quilt.

Yes, I have been a busy bee.

Between the Australian Open Tennis Tournament and football playoff games, I have had a lot of time to sew!  Very sad my 49ers did not make it to the Superbowl, but I am a chameleon who now wears the Seahawks colors!

Back to making pinwheels. 

 Hope I can keep up this productivity with all the projects I have in the works.