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.
I’m a little all over the place this week. In the top left are my Rivanna 9-patch units that I’m building as my leader/ender. The green and white comes from stack of scraps my sister left for me. We are doing an on-going series of Disappearing Blocks at the Quilters By Hearts Desire Meeting and this month is Disappearing Hour Glass.
The pink, lavender and white is Eclipse, 5 yard quilt that I enlarged. I really would like to get it finished this week, but I’m not holding my breath.
The turquoise and gray is the 2nd section of Just Takes Two. It’s hanging out as a reminder to work on it this upcoming 4th Saturday.
Finally in the middle is my hand work hexie project. It doesn’t looks like much now, but I promise it’s going somewhere. – slowly. I have hexies cut that I need to prep for the section I’m working on. It’s actually pined on the wall in the wrong location, but that’s where it fit.
I don’t often hand stitch down the binding on quilts, but on this Handwork Tuesday, I did. This is a table runner for a friend. I found a quilting design for the Ohio Star then looked for something I could put in the border and sashing.
These are not my quilts. My sister came to visit to use the long arm and stay with me after surgery. In the 3 weeks she was here she put in 1,064,708 stitches on the longarm and used 25 + yards of batting. With the exception of the table runner on the right which just needed binding, the rest were quilted and bound while she was here. Two of the t-shirt quilts (the one with the pink shirt and the one with the ‘safety’ shirt) were pieced. Additionally, she quilted & bound the table runner shown below.
So, what have I been doing?
Over the weekend, I finished piecing the squares for Eclipse. I have 2 rows sewn together. I hope to get it finished this week. I also pulled out Rivanna and I’m piecing 9-patch sections as my leader/ender. Once Eclipse is a top, Rivanna will become my main project and the Color/Netural 9-patches will slide back as my leader/enders. I just have blue, turquoise and purple squares to go.
On the handwork front, I added the blue hexie to the ‘wing’ and attached the wing to the center. I need to find a different size needle to work with that doesn’t stress my hand. The next time I pick up this project I’ll be prepping the hexies. Over the weekend I cut more light, pink and blue. I have enough green to make the round. I just need to decide if I’m going to do the round, or do another ‘wing’.
I also need to deal with this pile of fabric. It’s stuff my sister left for me.
One of my goals this month was to close up the seams on the yellow hexagons and complete the neutral round. Mission accomplished. Now I need to pull out my design and see what color is next. I think it’s green. After I stitch a hoop full of redwork and make one star, I’ll need to prep the green hexagons.
Tomorrow I’ll work on the alternate blocks to Eclipse. Or maybe I’ll take that nap I’ve been trying to take all week.
It’s the first of the month and time to set some goals.
Up first is Eclipse. I would like to get this quilt bounds by the end of the month. This is on my 2026 Brandon Quilters UFO list.
For my 4th Saturday BOM, I would like to get at least the top hole filled in. Bonus if I get some of the other blocks in this section done.
For Handwork Tuesday, I’ll rotate between projects, depending on what my cats will let me do. For the hexi project, I would like to get the seams closed on the bottom of the picture and maybe complete the next round of neutral hexies.
Just one hoop full of redwork on my Winterwonderland.
At least one star on my Star-A-Day project.
This is the month I’ll find out the parameters for the Quilters By Hearts Desire President’s Challenge. My only goal with that is to figure out what I’m making.
If I get through all of this, I’ll start assembling Rivanna and/or make those Red, White and Blue napkins and jelly roll rug/placemats.
