Month: February 2025

I haven’t done much sewing this week. Work has been busy and our winter membership radio drive started Thursday. So the next week will be hectic. I’ve played pickleball five of the last seven days, which has been my winter so far. I’m really happy I have access to an indoor facility and am having fun getting to know a lot of people who play there.

So I’m feeling good and relatively content but no much sewing has taken place.

I have been playing with my selection of Australian Aboriginal fabrics over the last week. I’ve removed and added fabrics and am still not sure what colors I’ll use. I had thought I would use various “black” fabrics to play with the saturated colors.

The more I’ve looked at these fabrics the more I think I will go another direction. So much so that I checked online with my local quilt store earlier today and after pickleball I drove over there and bought three yards of this black and white fabric to use in place of the various fabrics.

I bought all they had. It’s more than I’ll need for this quilt but I love black and white fabric and I’m sure I’ll eventually use it. This is the fabric that I used on the back of the quilt I use on my sofa. I’m snuggled up under it right how.

I spread out all the colored fabrics to get a feeling for how it will work.

And as I look at that photo I’m pretty sure this is not the final group of fabrics I’ll use for this quilt. I’m not in a hurry to start this so I’ll give it some time to play around a little. I may even use fewer of the colored fabrics. I’ll decide later.

I actually did a tiny bit of sewing today. I pulled out my Australian Aboriginal trip quilt blocks. I’ve been wanting to finish that quilt. I was pretty sure I had 19 blocks done with all the pieces ready to assemble for more. I was right that I had 19 completed blocks. So I grabbed a set of the cut strips and put together one more block to make an even 20.

I had been thinking I would stop at 20 blocks and assemble them 4 wide by 5 high and add a broad border to make the quilt a good throw size. So I tossed the blocks up on the design wall and tried the border fabric to see how it looks.

I think I’ll make the borders 7 or 8 inches wide. that will make the quilt around 62 x 74 or so.

Here’s a closer look at the blocks and border. There is a lot of color in there that doesn’t show in the full picture.

I also have a couple yards of that red fabric in the block at the upper right in that photo, now that I think of it. I might also work as a border. It’s definitely a different feel.

I’m not sure I love it. Here’s a closer look.

I feel like that would need a smaller inner border of a different color, but that would be easy enough to do.

We have some cooler weather the last week but it hasn’t been too wet. We actually got some snow on Wednesday but it didn’t stick. It was nice to see some flakes fall. That was our only snow so far this winter. It’s not unusual for us to not get much in the way of snow. I’ll be happy if we get by without a major storm this winter. That storm that left me without power for four days last year was enough to last me a few winters.

I’m happy to take the colder weather if I get to see the sun and we’ve had a good deal of sun the last week. We’re supposed to have cold but sunny weather through Wednesday, then it gets a little wild with rain, snow, and maybe some wind as far out as the forecast goes.

I’m loving that I’m seeing more light in the evening. And in a month we’ll change our clocks. That’s my favorite day of the year!

I decided this weekend that the one thing I wanted to accomplish was this brown, not so brown, quilt that’s been on my design wall for a couple weeks. The blocks are big so it all went together pretty quickly and I had it completed Sunday afternoon .

It’s not really very brown. It’ has purple, deep reds, oranges, and greens in thee too. It’s a lot prettier than I thought it would be.

I’m glad it’s done and pressed and folded into a small package. I’m thinking I will likely donate this quilt. Will have to see how attached I feel to it.

I have a nice stack of scraps left over from this quilt. Not sure why I’ll do with all of this. Maybe a bag or two. Probably not another quilt.

The fabric I’ve been waiting for to make the borders on my B2Q purple and green quilt arrived a few days ago. I haven’t yet dug in to get that done. That will be my next project.

I wasn’t quite in the right frame of mind to dig in and wrangle al that fabric for borders tonight so I decided to look at some of my batiks to see what I could make out o them. I have a good number. Thinking I might do more quick quilts with large blocks to slam a few quilt tops out. Will give it a little thought.

I also did a little organizing on my Australian Aboriginal fabrics in anticipation of making a new quilt form them. I managed to get them all into bins under my cutting table.

I’m thinking I’ll make another one of the economy block, or square in a square/ quilt tops and I want to make one from my beautiful Aboriginal prints. So I dug out a selection that I like. I’ll ruminate over this over he next few days. I

They are rich and saturated colors. I think I will likely ad some black in with these in the mix to make them really sing.

I arranged them a little differently go get an idea of how they’ll work together.

I’ll think on this selection for a few days until I feel that it’s all right.

After three weeks without any precipitation the rains have returned. We have a chance of snow a few times over the next week. It doesn’t sound like it’s going to be too serious.

Our radio fundraising drive starts this Thursday so I have a couple of hectic weeks coming up. My friend Linda is planning another visit. Looks like she will be for 10 days around the first of March. I’m looking forward to her visit.