February Goal Finish

My Hospital Sketches top sat on the long arm for several weeks before I finally forced myself to start quilting it. I think I was having quilting anxiety. I didn't have a clue how I wanted to quilt it, and I didn't have the right colors of thread on hand either.

I ordered a couple spools of Superior's new Microquilter 100 wt. polyester thread--a blue and a cream--both worked out great. I planned to use the thread just to outline my appliques instead of using a monopoly, but ended up using both colors for all of the quilting. The background quilting is just some fun curls...

...and the border was just echoed. 

I wish I could leave Hospital Sketches hanging in the bedroom but I suppose Mr. Moosebay will be wanting to get into his closet. 

For the back, I didn't have enough of this Blackbird Designs fabric to attempt to match up the print. There's a seam straight down the center near that fold line, but somehow it doesn't look too bad--whew! 

I'm happy to have this one done--another fun Block of Month! 
Linking with One Monthly Goal HERE

Cheddarback Update

The 12 inch block for February is a bit of a doozie but thanks to a collaborative effort, it was very doable. On the  Cheddarback Facebook Group someone recognized that it is part of a Jack's Chain design. It was also shared that the squares (rather than the nine patches) should finish at 2.25". Gail had provided us with instructions for an alternate block to do instead of this one, but it was fun to see if I could do the original block from the quilt. 

 

Yes, there were lots of Y seams, but I love how nice the back looks when they are used. I had to "make-do" on one of my corners. Since there is a lot of making do on the original quilt, I didn't feel bad about having to do that. 

It was kind of a relief to get to the five inch blocks.
We were given paper piecing patterns for a couple of the blocks, but I did some math (gasp!) and was able to piece them without the paper. 

I had a lot of pinwheels, hourglass blocks and log cabin pieces left over from my Smith Mountain Morning quilt (because of bad math--no surprise!). I was tempted to tuck them away and deal with them later, but knew that would never happen. There were plenty of blue plaids left to work with, but I had to dig into my brown stash tote to be able to make these blocks.  

So....this happened over the weekend.
I'm still pondering the corners.
I like that I could use the leftover half square triangles, but not sure I'm crazy about them.
It will be a while before I can get it quilted, so I have lots of time to think about it! 

One Monthly Goal February Version!

Just a short post today.
I guess it's pretty obvious that my February goal is to finish my Hospital Sketches top since it's already loaded onto my frame. I've been pondering how to quilt it and still have no idea what I will be doing to finish this one.
No sewing tomorrow...I don't usually watch the Super Bowl (not a sports fan), but I will have to keep an eye on the game to see if I can spot my niece Brooke--she is on the cheer-leading team for the Chiefs. I think it may end up being a "Where's Waldo" situation--lol!
Linking with One Monthly Goal HERE