My Disappearing Hourglasses are ready to assemble. It turns out I only have 16 squares in the layer cake. Now I’ve cut 2 of them wrong. The first one I made a pinwheel, but didn’t notice until I cut it. That’s OK – I’ll just have one block that is not a star. However the 2nd block I miscut and I won’t be able to use. I guess I’m making a smaller quilt.
Meanwhile, my Riviana blocks continue to accumulate as leader/ender.
and I still need to bind Eclipse and Scrappy Bargello.
My quilting goals for March start with binding Eclipse. This was on my February list, but I ran out of time.
The quilt of the month is my Disappearing Hourglass. I would love to have it finished by the 16th.
The 2026 Brandon Quilters President Challenge is pillowcases. I’ve had these cut out since 2018 and haven’t got them put together. Now is the time.
While I’m piecing on the machine, I’ll move Riviana forward as my Leader/Ender project.
Handwork Tuesday will continue.
One hoop of redwork – I didn’t realized how far along I was on this panel until I folded it to take this picture.
I have 9 stars cut out, ready to go. I’d love to get 10 stitched for my Star a Day quilt.
On my hexie project, I need to finish the neutral row, add a row of blue hexies then attach it to the center.
4th Saturday BOM
The goal is to get the next block done and attach this section to the first section.
5th Sunday/Monday
This month there’s an “extra” Sunday and Monday. As near as I can tell, I just have this Ribbon Star block to piece then the center star before I can start assembling the quilt.
It’s a lot, but I will be going to a 2 day retreat, so I don’t think it is impossible. But first – I’ve got to make some binding!
On this 4th Saturday I continue working on my Just Takes Two quilt. I actually started on the block yesterday while Eclipse was being quilted. My plan was to use interfacing to turn the Hawaiian block since I do not applique. It might have worked, but I picked a very light weight interfacing and my tools tore it. So my next attempt was the block in the lower right corner with a heavier interfacing. It turned well, but came out too small. So I tried again. This time too big. At that point I said to heck with it and just traced directly on the fabric then did a small zig-zag along the edges. Since that worked, I attempted the crescent moon and star. Finally I tackled the Hawaiian block. Next up is a paper pieced star, then this section will be complete.
As this is also the last day of the month how about a up date on my February goals. There were 5.
February Stash Report
Tomorrow I post my goals for March.
The idea behind Star A Day is piece one star a day and at the end of the year you have enough stars when alternated with a background square to have a quilt top. Great idea in theory. In practice it’s not worked for me. Something about an 8 year hiatus. The star on the left took me a week to do. The one on the right less than an hour – maybe 45 minutes. If I aim for my 65th birthday I need to make 10 stars every month.
I did not include this month in that calculation as there are still 2 things on my February To-Do list – Finish, quilt and bind Eclipse and at least 1 blocks on Just Takes Two. There’s 2 more days this month and I have Friday off, so I might just get it all done if I focus.
First a Handwork Tuesday update. I stitched a few more hexies. I should have been working on my Star-A-Day. I still have a few days to get this month’s star completed.
No, I do not have the border on Eclipse. This is not hard, but I got distracted by the Disappearing Hourglass.
This year’s continuing segment is disappearing blocks. In February I presented the Disappearing Hourglass. My sample blocks used 6″ squares cut from scraps, but I have a 28-piece layer cake that I want to use.
I bought 2 1/2 yards of Grunge in Paper White to use for the background and an inner border and made my first block last night.
I followed the Missouri Star tutorial which mean all my edges are on the bias. I just have to be careful not to stretch the blocks when I’m handling them. This block came out at 11 1/2″.
My final report is that Riviana is being assembled. I made “thousands” of HST as my leader/ender project starting in August 2022. I can’t remember If I finished making them the end of 2023 or 2024. but I knew I had misplaced 60 HST. which put a damper on things. Apparently I’ve made extra HST, as still have enough to finish the quilt. So now I’m using the split 9-patches as my leader/ender. This could take a while.
My stamina is not was it was before surgery, so every thing is taking twice as long. Before, these 2 quilts would have been done by mid-week, but it was late Saturday before I completed them.
Along those same lines, Eclipse would have been done, but I just didn’t have the energy to mess with them. Maybe tonight. There has however been a lot of hand work happening. That bottom section, along with prepping the hexies has been my go-to project with my feet up.
I haven’t spent much time in the quilt studio, instead sitting in the den with my handwork. Earlier this week I attached the 2nd section to the main body of the hexie quilt. I’ve also prepped hexie for the next section.
I’ve even pulled out the Star-A-Day – that that I’ve finished one.
No quilting was done on Tuesday, but handwork progress was made Monday night after the guild meeting. More embroidery on Winter Wonderland and 5 1/2 neutral hexies added to this section.
As for the longarm, I have 2 quilts from customers to quilt, which is exciting. I also did this small wall hanging for a friend – I think I like the back better than the front. Once I get the border on Eclipse I’ll have a 3rd quilt in the queue.
I belong to two local quilt guilds, Brandon Quilters and Quilters By Hearts Desire. Both of these guilds have a President’s Challenge. This year the Brandon Quilters challenge to to make pillowcases to give with our community quilts. So this is the year I will finally get these pillowcases made. My notes indicate I kitted these up for donation in 2018 to make for my previous guild. Who knows why they didn’t get made.
The Quilters By Hearts Desire challenge is “Roll of the Dice”. I found this challenge last summer at the Minnesota Quilt Show. Each member rolled a pair of dice. I rolled a 3 and a 4, so my options were the design element of Rectangles/Square and the dominate color of Green or flipping it Involving Strips/Strings and Blue. I opted for the first choice.
Both of these challenges have been added to my 2026 list of goals.
Eclipse is now ready for borders. I’m still confident I’ll get this quilt finished by the end of the month.
In addition to getting the first ‘wing’ attached to the main body of my hexi quilt, I’ve stitched a few hexies for the next section.
I’m progressing through my February goals. One of my handwork goals was go to get one hoop of stitching done on my Winter Wonderland panel. This past weekend I did 3 and am about halfway through a 4th.
I still need to work on the next block on the Just Takes Two and make a Star for Star A Day. I feel confident I’ll get it all done this month.
