After a day in the basement dyeing fabric yesterday, I decided I needed a little walk outside in the evening. The first stop was the bird box to see the new batch of baby bluebirds! They hatched Saturday. So cute. They look the same every year but I still get excited to see them.

We checked on the iris. There are loads of them in bloom and lots more getting ready. I don't know the story on that last one. I don't know if it's a hybrid that's gone bad but it's not something I planted!

We also saw that in just the right light that weeds can look like grass.

Now back to our little trip. When Anne and I got to Lancaster Sunday evening we decided to check out one of the outlet malls. I really hate shopping but I seem to do great at shopping when I'm traveling. Otherwise my shopping is almost 100% by mail. I've lost a couple of sizes this year so I'm in desperate need for new clothes. I lucked out and found some shorts, pants and tops and everything was on sale. Don't be diverted by the ugly maroon and orange sweater. That's specifically for cheering on my Hokies during football season! I can't believe that Gap ever thought an orange and maroon sweater was a good idea. It's no surprise that the clearance rack was FULL of them. I even picked up one for my best Hokie buddy.

Then I saw the Minnie Mouse fabric! Last week Pixie Fairie offered this shirtwaist dress as a free pattern. I didn't plan on using it but I downloaded it anyway. This fabric is so perfect for it and Ella is going to Disneyworld for the first time this month.

Then we went to Ruthie's Tees (next to Log Cabin Quilts) and I saw THIS!! It's supposed to be an adult coin purse. For $6 I could not let it pass. I see the dress with red collar, cuffs and belt with this awesome plaid bag as an accessory.

Now, on to a crochet update. I took this yarn with me and made this chemo cap on the trip. I've taken to buying some yarns in single skeins to try out.  I've been learning a lot about yarn from a few YouTube channels and have started venturing out a little. I actually like making hats so that's a good way to test out new yarns with single skeins.

​After making the gingham blanket that I liked so much, I ordered some different brands of yarns (on sale) for 2 more gingham blankets. One set was some Herrschner's yarn and the other was Premier Basix. I didn't like the Herrschner's yarn right out of the box so I'll donate that. The Premier yarn seems nice so I'll make that blanket. But for basic worsted weight acrylic I'm probably going to stick to Hobby Lobby. I like their yarn best of all that I've tried. Red Heart and Herrschner's are definitely out. I still need to try Lion Brand and Premier Anti-Pilling yarns but Hobble Lobby is 15 minutes away and it's always well stocked and they have a sale every other week.

The yarn I used on the gray hat is Lion Brand Feels Like Butta and it's pretty much the same as Premier Bundle Up that I used a couple of months ago. I think this yarn is incredibly soft and perfect for chemo hats. But I have a feeling that it might pill a lot. Does anyone have any experience with this yarn?

While Anne was at her appointment I did a little retail therapy at the nearby Michael's. One yarn that I've decided that I absolutely love for baby blankets is Caron Baby Cakes (see below) so I bought 3 cakes for one more blanket. I figure this stuff (like Hobby Lobby yarn) is on sale enough that there's really no need to stockpile it. But it was on sale so I picked up 3 cakes. Here are the other yarns that I've bought to try and I started a new hat with the Flecks.  That yarn is really soft too! This ball probably has 3 hats in it. I got the Basic Stitch Reflective to make a hat for my brother. He's a cyclist and I thought he might want it for winter rides. It really is very reflective!

Meanwhile, here's where I stand on the current project. Once this ball is done I'll add a pink border. This yarn is so soft and squishy.
I am taking crochet in short bursts at the moment. I seem to have a bit of tendinitis in my hands. It's getting better so I should be back in full gear in a couple of weeks.

Today, after spreading a 4th truckload of mulch, I hope to spend the day quilting veterans quilts. We have quilt club sewing this weekend so I want to have quilts ready to return to the quilters. I won't get them all done but I can make a dent if I just focus and don't overcomplicate the quilting.

I missed a couple of blog posts with my end of month book and accounting posts and then I got to take a quick little trip out of town so I have lots to catch up on over the next few days.

First, I have to share something that happened on my book review post. For the first time ever an author actually posted about my review of her book! I can't believe that an author took the time to do that. I'm really glad it was a book that I liked! I've been reading about some authors misbehaving on Goodreads. Bizarre. 

Over the weekend I got lots of serger sewing and kit cutting done that I'll share here. Sunday I left on a whirlwind trip with my best friend. She had an appointment in Connecticut yesterday and invited me along. We hadn't taken a road trip in a very long time.  We decided to add a day in Lancaster, PA for some fabric shopping. We left Sunday, spent the night in Lancaster then to Connecticut Monday night and all the way back to Virginia yesterday. It was fast but we packed in a lot of shopping that I'll share tomorrow.

But the pillow cases are so much fun to make because they are so fast. The serger makes such quick work of sewing things like this. It actually made constructing the dresses faster too.

When I needed a break from serging I went back to cutting veterans quilt kits. On the left is a kit for 2 quilts that will look exactly like these that I made last year. I liked those quilts a lot and when I visited the fabric shop in White Stone I saw that they still had the panels and I picked up 2 more. On the right is a kit for 2 more veterans quilts in that star layout. One has a pale blue background and one is ivory.

But I still have plenty of my patriotic batik fabric left! Some of it is going to be cut with my Go Cutter into 6" HST blocks for a blue and ivory quilt. With the scraps of the scraps I'm thinking about a completely scrappy tumbler block quilt, or a scrappy HST. 

Last night when we got home from the trip Anne gave me these as a gift so I have one more kit to cut out and then I will be totally set for vacation and quilt club sewing for the rest of the year.

Tomorrow I'll show you what I've been crocheting and all the stull I bought on our trip. Hopefully Friday I will actually have some veterans quilts quilted to share.

Today's post is going to be very brief. I had to write it quickly Sunday before I left for a little out of town adventure with my best friend. But I wanted to make sure I got the word out about the new Shibori fabrics in the shop.

​First up is this Stash Pack with 8 different fat eights of beautifully textured Shibori fabrics. Each one is dyed twice to add more color depth and patterning.

If you need a larger piece there are also 3 new half yard pieces available in the shop.
​

Since I won't have access to update the Fabric of the Week, I'm extending Midnight as Fabric of the Week for one more week. I think this gradient is one of the best options to pair up with the Shibori fabrics, maybe as a background for applique blocks. it's my current favorite blue.
​

Well, that's not a bad montage of projects for a month's worth of finishes. Granted these are all pretty small projects, they are still projects that are done!

The Summer Sunset quilts are not finished but the tops are together and that's huge! Karen's Safari quilt was started and finished in April. That's almost unheard-of. 

April was capped off with quilting 4 veterans quilts. These were all heavily quilted with feathers as practice for my feather quilting class with Bethanne Nemesch.

Here are my ending stats for the month:
Starting UFO 8
Finished YTD 3
Started YTD 2
Ending UFO 7
Other major projects - 1
Veterans quilts made -
Veterans quilts quilted - 18
Fabric Postcards - 1
Pet Beds - 6
​​Quilted for others - 2
​Crochet blankets - 4
​Crochet hats - 10
Doll outfits - 6
Placemats - 8
​Pillows - 2
​Donated items - 11

Even with all that done, I didn't quite get all of my actual goals done:
My goals for April:
- finish the Summer Sunset tops -YES!
- finish the feather quilting class practice on veterans quilts - YES!
- dye fabrics for vulture quilt border - YES!
- make some things with the animal print leftovers - not yet, but I have a plan
​- make a new set of fabric postcards for upcoming birthdays -  about half way there

May is a short month for me because we have our family beach week coming up at the end of the month but I still have goals:

1. I'll continue working on the green Club Noir quilt during quilt club sewing days and will probably finish the top at home once the blocks are done. It would be great to get that top finished this month.
2. Get the border added to the vulture quilt. This is really my primary goal for the month
   
3. Finish all the serger projects (pillowcases for the boys, walker caddies)
   
4. Make new postcards for upcoming birthdays
   
5. ​Finish cutting out all of the veterans/donation quilt kits that I have planned, including doing something with the leftover safari fabric
   
6. Quilt more veterans quilts, I'm way behind​

This week's inspiration comes from Melinda Johnson. She used a Shibori Stash Pack plus one more piece of Shibori along with Black Yardage for her cute bunnies. What a great way to use the Shibori fabrics! The pattern is Usagi - Debbie Maddy.  It was quilted by Christy Mackay.

For sharing, Melinda received a 20% coupon for the shop that's good for 3 months! If you have made anything with my hand dyed fabric I hope you will consider sharing it in the Customer Gallery.  The only rule is that project has to be complete. It doesn't have to be made totally from hand dyed fabric, just include a recognizable amount. ​

Last month Becky asked if I ever found a book so bad that I couldn't finish it. The answer to that is a resounding YES! I used to mention those books in my monthly review and stopped doing it for some reason. This month I'll bring back that feature but I'll only list them with maybe a one sentence comment without giving them a full review. Bad books just don't deserve that much attention.

Bad books of April:

• Disturber of the Peace by William Manchester. It's the biography of H. L. Mencken. BORING
• Lightning Flowers by Katherine E Standefer. Should be a great book about the cost of health care but I couldn't get past her indignation at her father's suggestion that she get a job where she could have paid for her healthcare.
• Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese - 4 hours in and we were just to the point of the narrator's birth and it was told with excruciating medical detail.
• City of Windows by Robert Pobi - supposed to be a mystery but is really a political manifesto

Now, on with the list of better books.

​What good books have you read this month?

Distress Signals 
by Catherine Ryan Howard, Read By a cast

This is the second book that I've read by Howard and I'm sure to read more.

Adam Dunne's girlfriend left for a business trip to Barcelona and never returned. The Dublin police are not interested in helping with a missing adult so Adam starts researching on his own. He eventually discovers that she wasn't in Barcelona, she was on a cruise ship and she wasn't alone.

After more research he fins out that another woman went missing from the same ship under similar circumstances a year earlier. It's full of twists and turns and will keep you guessing. I never wanted to take a cruise before but I doubly don't want to now. The cast narration worked fine.

Tear Me Apart
​By J.T. Ellison, Read by a cast

Mindy Wright is 17 and a competitive skier. She's working her way up to qualify for the Olympic team when she has a ski accident and breaks her leg. During the surgery on her leg doctors discover that she has leukemia. Chemo is not working. She needs a stem cell transplant from a relative. It's a surprise to find out that none of her relatives are a match. She was adopted and the adoption was under strange circumstances.

It's clear early in the book that there's a reckoning coming and it's clear (to the reader) who did it, but it's fun to watch it all come together. Not a lot of mystery but a lot of action.

I don't know why there's such a trend for cast narration. I find it distracting. Sometimes it works, like in Distress Signals, and sometimes it doesn't. It doesn't work so well in this one. The narration is pretty flat.

The White Princess
By Philippa Gregory, Read By Bianca Amato

This is the 5th book in the Cousin's War Series. Gregory sure knows how to write compelling historical fiction. She clearly does a great deal of research and is meticulous about telling the story of the time. There's no overlay of current mores onto the past and I soooooo appreciate that.

The brilliant thing that she does is to tell the story of the time through the women. Since the information on women during this time period is scant, she can create really compelling characters as the heroines of her books.

This book picks up after the War of the Roses and the first Tudor king, Henry VII, has come into power. His mother broker's a marriage to Princess Elizabeth, one of the daughters of Edward IV. This was an attempt to bring together the York and Tudor factions. I really enjoy these books. The character development is so well done that you feel like you know them all.

The Light Over London
By Julia Kelly, Read by a cast

In 1941, Louise and her cousin leave their Cornish village to volunteer with the Army. This was precipitated by a blow up with her mother over a pilot that she has started dating. Louise becomes a gunner girl in the anti-aircraft unit.

Today, Cara Hargrave is fresh off a divorce and has a new job working with an antique dealer. While clearing out an estate she finds a diary in a tin. It becomes an obsession with her and her new neighbor to find out more about the diarist and to return the book to her family.

​This is the second book I've read by Kelly and I've enjoyed both of them. I'll read more!

Feels Like Falling
By Kristy Woodson Harvey, Read by Kelsey Navarro and Amanda Ronconi

Summer beach read.
This is a great Southern summer beach read. It's set in a fictional coastal North Carolina town. Gray Howard and Diana Harrington couldn't be from more different worlds but their paths cross in a drugstore photo department. Gray accidentally gets Diana fired from her job and she feels some responsibility.

With Gray's help Diana started to get back on her feet. With Diana's help, Gray is able to redefine her life after divorce. I loved the characters and the dialogue is brilliant. It's lighthearted and fun and made me want to get to the beach soon. I should add a book like this on my reading list each month. It would be like book dessert.

The Truth About  Melodie Browne
By Lisa Jewell, Read By Anotnia Beamish

I've become a huge Lisa Jewell fan over the last few years. This book was a surprise because it's not her typical mystery. Melody Browne can't remember any of her childhood and she's been estranged from her parents since she got pregnant at 15. Her son is about to turn 18 when she has a chance encounter with a hypnotist. Now she's getting flashbacks from her missing past. She not only finds out about her past but also finds out how she impacted the lives of others. I loved it.

The Right Side
By Spencer Quinn, Read By Susan Bennett

LeAnn Hogan is in Walter Reed hospital recovering from an attack in Afghanistan. She has lost her right eye, has damage to the right side of her face and a severe case of PTSD. She forms a friendship with her roommate, Marci. She is devastated when Marci suddenly dies. LeAnn leaves the hospital and eventually finds her way to Marci's hometown in Washington State. After arriving there she discovers that Marci's daughter is missing.

The book summary gives the impression that this book is about finding the missing daughter but none of that story line even starts until the book is halfway done and her involvement in the search is minimal (although important). 

This book is about putting the reader in the mind of someone going through PTSD and as that, it's a good read. LeAnn is quite a sympathetic character. It isn't much of a mystery/suspense novel at all. There's also an awesome stray dog.

Sea Stories
By William H. McRaven, Read by the author

You will remember McRaven. He's the Admiral who gave the commencement address that advised graduates to start each day by making their bed. He's was also the commanding officer over the successful raid to get Bin Laden. On the down side, he's the reason that we have to take our shoes off at the airport.

This book is a collection of stories from his career. It's very interesting but much like the contemporary autobiographies by Bob Iger and James Comey, it's probably incomplete. People write their autobiographies to set their own narratives and can leave bad decisions out. That's fine, but it's not complete. It came off a little smoothed out, if that makes sense.

That said. This man is TOUGH. We, as a nation, need to be very grateful that people like McRaven exist. He did have an amazing career.

The Wild One
By Nick Petrie, Read By Stephen Mendel

​This is #5 in the Peter Ash series. Peter Ash is a war veteran with a bad case of PTSD. It mostly manifests as intense claustrophobia. 

A grieving grandmother contacts Peter to try to find her missing Grandson. She has lost her daughter and son and her Grandson is all that's left. She believes that the boy's father killed the mother and left with the boy for Iceland, his homeland.

When he reaches Iceland he's met at the airport by a representative from the US Embassy. It seems that his own government doesn't want him to find the boy. That's a sign to him that the boy is in danger and he needs to find him quickly.

Fast paced and fun, as always. Not quite as good as the first 4 books. I think it needed June and/or Louis in the mix. But that's just a quibble. I'm already looking forward to book 6.

The Four Winds
By Kristin hannah, Read By Julia Whelan

What to feel better about the times we are living in? Read this book. You will feel nothing but deep gratitude for this piddly pandemic that we are going through.

The Four Winds is set in the Great Depression and specifically in the Dust Bowl region of Texas. Hannah always researches her novels thoroughly, and I've read enough about that period, to know that this book could easily be a true account.

In 1921, Elsa Wolcott, is deemed too old, infirm and ugly to marry. She's treated like the Cinderella of her family. But one night she meets Rafe Martinelli and has a little too much fun. She ends up disowned by her family and married into his Italian Catholic farming family. It's a tough start but she finally finds "family".

Things are good until 1934. The Depressions had ravaged the country and drought has ravaged their farm. The Martinelli farm is dying and Elsa must decide what to do to save her family.

Jewell writes a good book but this one is a depressing. The characters never seem to get a break. There's  a lot of disaster and hopelessness all set in an unforgiving landscape. 

The House We Grew Up In
By Lisa Jewell, Read By Karina Fernandez

I've really enjoyed Lisa Jewell's books. Until now they have all had a mystery element to add to the family dynamics of the book. This one was a little weird for me. I did finish it because I wanted to see how it ended, but, I admit, I didn't much like any of the characters.

The central figure is Lorelei Bird, the matriarch of the family. There's also husband Colin, daughters Meg and Beth and twin sons Rhys and Rory. The book opens with family members gathering back at the family home after Lorelei's death. In typical Jewell fashion the story is told back and forth in time and the central theme is figuring out how the family got so torn apart and wondering if the bonds can be repaired. All of the stories revolve around Easter for some reason.

It's a fine story, except that the underlying problem is Lorelei's hoarding. I've watched a couple episodes of one of the hoarding shows on TV and they make me terribly uneasy. It's so clear that these people have severe mental illness and, mostly, the families are powerless to do anything about it. That's true in this story too. It affects everyone. There are some really messed up people and storylines in this book. 

Lisa Jewell also seems to be kind of obsessed with body weight. She obsessively focuses on fat and skinny people. She probably should back off that a little. Having the hoarder deride the overweight daughter seems a little out of bounds.

Official Secrets
By Andrew Raymond, Read By Adam Gold

Tom Novak (American) and Stella Mitchell (British) are journalists investigating the terrorist attack that murdered the British Primer Minister just as he was making a speech that supposedly contained a surprise confession. There's a "maverick" CIA agent and a British intelligence officer "helping". Their reasons for participating are the deaths of one's sister and the other's interrogation target. It's a good plot but there are so many characters and so many sub plots that I had a lot of trouble keeping up. It needed some serious editing. tThe characters were a bit one-dimensional so it was sometimes hard to tell who's who. 

It could also be that the book was ruined by weak narration. This is clearly a British book and yet they picked an American narrator. It was a little surprising how that one decision affected the quality of the book in a big way. I spent enough time working in England to recognize a lot of mispronunciations. That has to be incredibly annoying to actual British people.

This is supposedly the first in a series but I'm not sure I'd be on board for a second installment.

Blackberry ad Wild Rose
By Sonia Velton, Read by Esther Wane and Shiromi Arserio

It's good to end the month with some historical fiction.

This one is set in the 18th century in the Spitalfields area of London. When I worked there I often wandered around in Spitalfields Market and you can really feel the history of the place when you are there. 

IN the 18th century it was the center for silk weaving and was heavily populated by Hugenot weavers from France. Irish weavers were coming to the area also and merchants were starting to import cheaper calico from India. Wages were bottoming out in the weaving trade so tensions were high.

Esther Thorel is the wife of one of the master weavers. She is an artist and is interested in designing patterns for silk weaving but her husband will hear none of it. Sara Kemp was new to London several years before and was tricked into working in a brothel. Esther tries to save Sara by bringing her into her house as a maid. 

The story weaves together the stories of Esther and Sara into the very real unrest among journeyman silk weavers as everything heads toward riots. It was an enjoyable read.

The serger is out and I'm starting to work through all the projects that I cut out for it. I don't leave my serger out all the time so to use it I have to clear off a table and set it up. I don't like getting it out for just one thing so I'm calling this week "serger week" and I plan to get a lot of things done.

I started with these mastectomy drain bags that I'll donate locally. This was a fabric that Mom gave me and it really lent itself well to this project. I enjoyed making these so I might cut out more before I put the serger back. These went together so fast. They get tagged and bagged individually before I drop them off at the donation center.

Next I was on to doll outfits. This top is called California Baja and it's really easy. I had cut out a bunch of walker caddies with some leftover denim and there were enough scraps for 3 jeans for the doll. I found this ikat weave in my stash for the top. Do you see how perfectly that pocket matches up to the orange and purple stripes? That was complete accident! I've got to get some black velcro for the back opening to finish this one off. I'll probably save it to give to her until the fall since it's more of a fall look. I also think I will make a headband to go with it.

After that I put white thread on the serger and will work on all of the rest of the projects needing white thread. First up is another pant but I decided to add patch pockets to the back of these because they are going to be "garden pants" and it made them so much cuter.

A few weeks ago they were giving the Little Gardener pattern for free so I downloaded it and found this perfect fabric in my vintage fabric collection. It's a pretty darned involved pattern but it's really cute and the instructions are really thorough and clear.

Here's the back of the apron. The straps are snapped on behind those blue buttons. If we need to adjust it to fit the doll I'll only have to move 2 snaps.

The pattern also had a sun hat. It looks kind of weird here but it should fit. You can see it on the pattern cover.

And gardening gloves! Once I change the serger thread to something darker I will be making a tshirt out of the same blue knit that I used for the cuffs of the gloves. After I sent this photo to my brother he suggested therapy.

Here are all the garments together. isn't that cute? But that's not all!

The pattern also comes with a page to print on card stock to make seed packets. They thought of everything! I cut them out, glued them together and put beads in them so they will shake like real seed packets.

Now I will switch to pillowcases for the boys because I have to have gifts for the boys when I take Ella her new outfit. I'll get back to the serger today after I empty another truckload of mulch this morning.

I have 3 brothers and no sisters. Growing up that was a great set up. I'm the oldest and set all the rules. I was pretty sure the whole house would have fallen apart without my leadership. 
Yes, I was THAT kid. 
But after becoming an adult I realized that a sister might have been a good thing. Instead I have 3 sisters-in-law that I love. Last year I set out to make each of them a quilt. I made Penguins on Ice for Carol and Corona Cats for JJ. She was also supposed to get Where In The World Is My Cat, but we know what happened to that. Turns out it's the most appropriately named quilt EVER!
With those 2 quilts done I still had one more to make for Karen. Karen is a decorator. Everything in her house looks perfect (completely unlike my house where everything is cluttered with one project or another). I wanted to make a quilt that she would want so I asked for her input. She loves animal prints so that sent me on a mission to fine animal prints there weren't juvenile or just plain tacky.

Fortunately those geniuses from Lunn Studios had just designed the Serengeti Artisan batiks for Kaufman and they were absolutely perfect for Karen's quilt. I bought too much of  all of them  so there are some charity quilts coming soon.

I wanted to focus on the fabrics and eventually settled on the same pattern that I used a few years ago to feature some vintage Indonesian Batik fabrics. This was made easy by using Jamie Wallen's nested triangle design rulers.

It's a really simple quilt design wise, but I think it's really effective. I could have moved a couple of the triangles around but it looked good when it was laid out on a design bed and that's what I sewed together.

I suggested Minky for the back and she agreed. I had to get the extra wide "Cuddle" version and I found it at Big Sky Quilts. I got very fast shipping from this veteran owned business. The pantograph is called Ebb and Flow. I've never used it before because to get the water effect that it's meant to be you have to load the quilt on the short side. But for this quilt it's a perfect motif to run the length of the quilt. I never want Minky to be quilted too close together. I know some people are afraid to quilt with this fabric but it really is so easy. I've never had a problem with it. The Cuddle version is even more stable than the "regular" Minky so start with that if you are unsure.

I used Superior Magnifico on the front and So Fine on the back. 

I dithered over the label for a while. First, I didn't want to hand stitch a label on that thick backing fabric and second, I know this will be a display quilt so I didn't want the label to stand out. I settled on hiding the relevant details in one of the zebra print blocks. I'm sure I'll never be able to find this again and that's A-OK with me.

This quilt reminds me of a very valuable lesson that all of us makers need to always remember. We must keep out recipients in mind. I've heard so may sad stories of quilters gifting quilts that they feel that the recipients didn't appreciate properly. It's not the recipients responsibility to love a quilt that you made in a design and color that you love. It's our responsibility to make quilts that we know will feed the soul of the recipient. I would have never purchased these fabrics for myself, they do not speak to me. But when I see them in this simple, yet elegant, design, I see Karen and I think she will love the quilt.

I'm now out of sisters-in-law so I think it's on to a lot of charity sewing for the rest of the year.

Also this week, Black is back! If you are new here you might not know the story behind my black fabrics. When I started dyeing, there was an awesome black dye available to us. About 6 (or so) years ago, that dye was discontinued and none of the replacements met my needs of having a wonderful deep dark black plus reliable shades of gray. I spent over 6 months and 67 recipes before I finally created my own black dye. 

​Stephanie Wilds used a Black Shades Pack for her dog portraits.

Continuing the blue theme, my favorite blue gradient is the fabric of the week this week. Midnight is 20% off through Sunday. This gradient would be a wonderful border for a scrappy blue quilt or the background for a stormy sky or undersea scene.
​

Yes, it was a very productive weekend here. On top of the sewing projects I got done I also got the first 2 truckloads of mulch spread. usually I start in late February and go through March. I was delayed first by a ton of rain and then I hurt my foot. Now it's going to be really warm for the next 6 - 8 truckloads. I guess I'm going to have to try to get up early and get my work done before the day heats up too much. It's a ton of work but it's great exercise and it really does look so much better when it's all done.

But, let's get back to sewing. First, I got the gradient border on Summer Sunset. Now the quilt will finish about 96" square, exactly the way I wanted. You can see how huge the star is and that you lose some of the effect on the bed. Oh well, It will still look great in my dark orange bedroom. But for now, it's going to relax on the guest bed until I'm ready to quilt it. I'm expecting an order of cotton sateen wide backing in a month or so and I think I'll ice dye some of that for the back and see if I can make this a reversible quilt.

While I was finishing up, I pieced the back, cut the binding AND made the hanging sleeve for the small version. I want to get this one on the quilt frame soon and have it finished by the end of May.

I kept going and cut the binding for the big quilt and put all the leftover fabrics away and I have an empty bin!

Remember the animal print quilt I started earlier this month? The wide cuddle minky backing fabric arrived Friday so I decided to get it loaded and quilted. It only took a couple of hours and I think this Ebb and Flow panto is perfect. I'll have this one bound and finished to share by Wednesday!  

​Now I can officially start something new!

That something new is going to be adding a border to my vulture quilt that my best friend made for my birthday last year. I LOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEE this quilt and want it on my bed this summer but I also want it a little bigger so I'm going to add a piano key border in the colors of the vulture block frames. We found more of the same fabric that she used for the backing so this should be a really straight forward project to do.

I've even got the fabrics dyed and ready to go. These are all from the Color Wheel collection of fabrics.

But first I'm going to take a little diversion and do some serger projects. There will be some donation things, some pillowcases for gifts and some doll clothes for Ella. It's going to be very nice to do some quick projects this week. I'm starting with the mastectomy drain bags that I cut out a couple of weeks ago.

I'm trying to stay away from crochet for the week. My hands are bothering me a bit because I've been overdoing it. I've got a little road trip to Connecticut (with a pit stop in Lancaster, PA) coming up this weekend and I want to be able to take my crochet to do in the car and hotel. To do that I've got to get the tendonitis calmed down some. Maybe playing on the serger instead will help. I could also take the vulture quilt with me and work on removing the binding.