February accomplishments, March goals

I think I had a rather productive February, which surprised me a little bit.  I expected to get my top three goals done, but I managed to get quite a bit done on other things too.  Hurray!
Here were February's goals:
1. Finish Sarah's quilt. Done!

2. Finish duvet. Done - sort of.  I still need to pick some threads off of it and iron it a little bit, but it went through the washer today.  (In the picture it's drying over a wall.)  A finish post will be coming shortly.

3. Finish the top of the I-spy. Done!  And I have also been able to get about half way through quilting it.  The middle blue section is all done but I still need to do three sides of the border.

4. Interlocking hearts quilt (finish by end of April).  I am planning on giving this to the local Hospice chapter for their biannual auction.  So I need to get it to them by April 15, which is sooner than I expected.  So I tried to kick it in gear a little bit for this goal and have about a half of a heart block left.

5. make the wall hanging for office. No progress
6. pretend to work on scrap quilt. Goal blown out of the water. (Because I actually cut up some scraps for it!)

7. finish green coasters.  No progress
8. Aunt's throw.  No progress
9. Pillow for family room.  No progress
10. Quilt map quilt. Done!  I love it.

11. Another wall hanging for upstairs. No progress
12. Quilt red quilt for mother-in-law.  No progress
13. Random triangles (finish by end of April). I starting putting some together one evening.

14. Fractured quilt. No progress
15. Jeweled floors. No progress
16. Picture quilt (finish by Christmas).  No progress
17: Simply Solids Bee Block -March Done!

 

Addition #1: Write a pattern for the Interlocking hearts.  I decided to put this back on this list.  Most of the pictures have been taken.

For March, my top three goals will be:

1. Quilt Sarah's next quilt.
2. Quilt I-spy.
3. Finish piecing Interlocking hearts and make a binding for it.

I'll also try to get some work done on these:
4. make the wall hanging for office.
5. pretend to work on scrap quilt.
6. finish green coasters.
7. Aunt's throw. 
8. Pillow for family room.
9. Another wall hanging for upstairs.
10. Quilt red quilt for mother-in-law.
11. Random triangles (finish by end of April). 
12. Fractured quilt.
13. Jeweled floors.
14. Picture quilt (finish by Christmas).

15. Write a pattern for interlocking hearts

Oh wow...my list got shorter!!

Joining up with Fresh Sewing Day and Just Three

Map quilt

I finished quilting the map quilt yesterday!  It was the quilt that I've enjoyed quilting the most so far.  I used lots of quilting patterns, different colors of thread, and I didn't feel intimidated by the machine every time before I pushed the ON button.

On the map section I used swirls (from Angela Walters).  I chose them because they look like ocean currents too.  Then I did some triangles (Angela Walters) because I wanted to try something new.  Then some back and forths (Leah Day, I think.  But I can't find a direct link) because the boxes gave me a nice grid to work in.  Then some more swirls (inspired by Malini) and triangles to pull everything together.

Then I got to the outer sections!  I did pebbles in the white squares and city scape (Leah Day) in the city squares.  It took me a while to figure out what to do in the city squares, but the city scape was perfect for it.  At that point I was really worried about the outer border because there were wrinkles all over the place.  I had been planning on just doing light quilting for it, but decided I needed something more dense to hopefully get rid of the wrinkles.  For the most part it worked.

I'll admit though, this picture of the back is probably my favorite.  If it were my quilt I might end up hanging it backwards some of the time.  Maybe I should think about doing a whole cloth quilt.

And a close up of the back...it is easier to see the different colors that I used.  Well, it is easier to see in real life.

Joining up with Free Motion Friday.

I-spy

I finished the top of the I-spy quilt.

 

Well, I call it an I-spy quilt, but it is also a maze and matching quilt.

More hearts

Since it is Valentine's today, I took a break from my top three goals the past two days and worked on my hearts.  (I also found out what the deadline is, and realize that I kind of have a lot of things I would like to finish by April 15.)

They started as broken hearts,

but I was able to mend them back together.

,

Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker

I was once again given the opportunity to do a review on a book, Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini.

source: Amazon

I have slightly mixed feeling about this book.  I ended up giving it a 3 (out of five), which is my average rating.  Good but not great.  If I had only read the first part it would have been a great!  But the second part annoyed me.  It had nothing to do with Ms. Chiaverini's writing, but I found the story annoying.  The problem is that it is based on fact!  The seamstress was so caring towards Mrs. Lincoln that several time she put her own life on hold.  I can understand doing that for good reason, but I didn't think the reasons were good enough.  Anyway, enough ranting since I can't change history.  The book as a whole was interesting.  The book was mostly about sewing, but it does briefly mention a quilt made from Mrs. Lincoln's dress scraps.

source: whitehousehistory

Would you like to read the book next?  Leave me a comment (about anything) for a chance to win.  The winner will be chosen Tuesday,  Feb 12.  Oh, that's Mr. Lincoln's birthday.  That works out well.

Puce!

I finished my bee block last night.  It was pretty easy...and there are no points to exactly line up which is always a bonus!

 

Sarah's quilt

Sarah contacted me a little bit before Christmas wondering if I'd be interested in quilting a quilt for her.  I was thrilled and quickly said yes!

However, I am a pretty slow quilter.  I just finished it, and think it came out pretty well.

The majority of the quilt was done with pebbles in the quarter circles and three wavy lines in the middles.  It is a dusty brown thread, so it shows up well.  I really like how these blocks turned out.

The inner border got criss-crossing lines and the outer border got straight lines.  I'm quite happy with the straight lines...they managed to be straight!  I definitely think I will be doing these again.

The criss-crossing lines are a different story.  I think they are passable, but that's about it.  I offered to take them out when I only had one side done but Sarah said not to worry about it.  I decided that if it was my quilt I'd leave them in...and so they stayed.

Sarah did an awesome job piecing the top!  I realized that as I was doing the outer border...it was so straight and made my job much easier.

Linking up with Freemotion Friday, Whoop-whoop Friday, and LAFF