A sewing weekend

Lately I've been thinking a lot about why I don't sew so much when I am home. I find myself heading to my crochet chair when I have time to make. Yesterday while ironing fabric for the shop I finally figured it out. My fabric shop activities have taken over my sewing room. I might start on a project but about half way through I have to stop, clear everything off and iron and package fabric. It makes me not want to start anything. While I am on vacation next week I'm going to give some thought to how I might rearrange my sewing room to better separate my business and sewing activities so they can coexist better.

But when I'm away from home with a sewing machine I get lots done! That was the case this weekend. We had sewing club Friday and Saturday. On Friday I got this veterans quilt top done that I started last month. Working with all the seams on the 4" HST blocks is kind of a PITA but I can't stop using them because I like the results so much.

I don't know where I saw this quilt. I'm certain it wasn't an original idea but I'm glad I mocked it up in EQ so that I could make one.
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This is the block. What makes it work is that every other block is turned upside down. For this quilt I made 40 blocks for a finished size of 48" x 60".
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I finished that on Friday after lunch and I immediately started in on the next kit. Once I pulled out all of the pieces I realized that I had cut enough for 2 quilts! That seems a little overly ambitious but I'll roll with it. I started off by making the 24 square-in-a-square blocks and had to finish them up Saturday morning. 
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By the end of Saturday I had made 4 blocks and sewn the first row with sashing. I'll probably continue to make blocks and rows in chunks so that I don't get too bored with one step. They actually go together pretty quickly.
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When I got home Saturday I was putting everything away from the first top and counted the leftover blocks . I had 32, just enough for 4 placemats. The universe had spoken so before dinner I pulled out more of the gray backing scraps and got these pieced in no time. I may try to get them quilted this week too. I'll do them on the longarm so it will go faster. Later I'll need to dye matching napkins but there's no rush.
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I also need to get the baby quilt quilted this week too. I got the purple dyed for the backing. I was trying to match the purple in that top ring and I think I cam pretty darned close!

So my goal is to spend my week with the longarm while I get my sewing projects ready to head to the beach on Sunday. 
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