February Goal: Check!

My One Monthly Goal for February, Village Square, is finished--whew!
I put the final stitches on the binding this past Sunday. 

Coming up with a different design for each roof was too much for my brain, a few of them had to be repeated.
The center of the quilt is done with an all over Orange Peel. 

Last night I remembered to add the label.

Willow wants this picture taking session to end NOW so she can go outside and sniff out the deer tracks. It's all about her--!



And....I have my Temecula One Block Wednesday blocks done for this week....and next week's too!
 I think I will reward myself by setting up some more Stonefield's blocks!

Linking with One Monthly Goal HERE

Hospital Sketches BOM

Yay! My comments are showing up again--I followed a tip from Lori @HumbleQuilts and so far it's working. I'm a little worried about what will happen next week when Google+ goes away, although I'm not even sure exactly what Google+ is or how it works--haha!

I have been looking forward to the Barbara Brackman Hospital Sketches BOM since she announced it last year. The history of block one is fascinating. I had no idea Louisa May Alcott had published a book named Hospital Sketches under the pen name Trib Periwinkle about her time as a nurse (you can read the book HERE).   Choosing a fabric theme for my quilt would be a dilemma though. At first I thought I would do a traditional red/cheddar/green combo. Then I thought of using one of my bundles of fabrics that have been aging in the cupboard--Jo Morton, Betsy Chutchian, Judie Rothermel--hmmmm.  
In the end, I decided on blues--and scraps, to boot--go figure--lol! 

Although my first block is all Laundry Basket fabrics (because the bin was still sitting on the cutting table), I will be adding in other blue fabrics for future blocks. Barbara Brackman sent these fabrics to me (along with the signed book) in a surprise give-away on Facebook for posting the first block to the group page. So fun--and this will make my quilt very special (to me, at least)! 

 Yesterday I finally got around forced myself to long arm machine baste my Arctic Circles for hand quilting. I did a little research on doing this and never really came up with much. I have heard that you can take a stitch or two every three or four inches in a grid, but that sounded like I would end up with a huge net that would be a snagging disaster. I decided to set my machine to the largest stitches I could (4 to the inch) and do a large wave across each pass of the machine. 

This probably shows better on the back. Once the quilt was loaded and the machine threaded, the actual basting was complete in about 10 minutes. Much easier and faster than pinning! If I ever get it into my head to hand quilt again, this is how I will do the basting, for sure! 
 I used an orange thread so it will be easy to spot when I am ready to remove it. I deliberately did not worry about the tension thinking it will be easier to remove  the stitching later. 

I recently watched this Kaffe Fassett video on hand stitching called Kantha. It's   pretty much what I had been thinking I wanted to do on this quilt, although not as dense. I'm not a hand quilter, and have pretty bad arthritis in both of my wrists, but I think if I take it slow I will be okay. 
And look--the center is already done--lol! 

Progress Report

I'm not making any progress at all on my monthly goal, but I have managed to keep busy.....

I couldn't resist working on the next twelve blocks from my Stonefield's kit.
 They are such addictive little blocks!

My One Block Wednesday blocks are caught up for now--48 so far.
Twelve blocks a week is going to be tough if I am working on other things. I didn't cut the 90 2" strips as directed--I've been cutting from scraps that are close at hand, but pretty soon I will have to dip into the bins--lol! .

Hmmm----more Stonefield's blocks or work on my goal......?!?

February One Monthly Goal

Even though my Arctic Circles (aka  Temecula Summer Circles) is loaded on my machine, it's not my goal to be finished this month. I am going to try machine basting it and then do some hand quilting--we'll see how that goes--lol! 

 Village Square (pattern by Joanna Figueroa) is my February One Monthly Goal. I'm not sure why this one hasn't been finished yet--maybe because I never made it a GOAL! It's a goal now though, so wish me luck. I will be doing a little traveling this month that will cut into my sewing time, but I think I can do it! 

Linking with Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal HERE