Meanwhile....

I have been rather productive. I am still keeping up with my quilt-along and my new block of the month!

Here are my latest two blocks for the Bible Studies quilt:

The lower block shows the perils of using homespun plaids in a block. I am still trying to decide whether to remake it. I could do it as a half sort of flying geese instead of half triangles stitched to square blocks. I am going to think about it. I haven't made up my mind yet. I have been using a LOT of spray starch on this quilt, but it seems like it is taking a lot more starch to get the plaid to crisp up than the other fabrics. (I had to make a run to the Hancock's one evening this week to buy a refill because I had run out of Mary Ellen's Best Press.)

We had our first meeting of Historic Club at Quilter's Loft last weekend. We are doing the Away from Home and Mill Girls quilts by Nancy Rink. I was going to do both, until my husband and my mother talked me out of it. Now I am glad they did. I saw the tiny tiny spindles in the tiny tiny hands of the mills girls and thought, "how in the world would I needle-turn that?" I still bought the book in case I change my mind later. I see some cool projects in there that I would like to do. This month, the first block is for a woman named Huldah Currier.

Meanwhile...

I also finished my inner blocks for my Amish with a Twist quilt this week. I had it in pieces strewn about my sewing area, and I was terrified that they would get lost or one of my kids would play 52-card pickup with them. I still need to put the framing on them, which I may start doing today. I have my giant 12.5 inch ruler out, and my iron plugged in, but I haven't gotten much further than that. My goal is to finish the top and piece the back so that I can fold it up and put it back in the closet. Currently I have four active projects out of the closet, and my goal is to get down to three active projects.

I haven't been able to make much progress on the hand quilting on the Irish Chain quilt because of the cold weather. My fingers have a bizarre tendency to crack in cold weather, no matter how much bag balm and hand cream I put on! It's no good to bleed all over the white area of a quilt marked in water soluble pen, ha ha ha. While cleaning up the Amish Twist quilt, I found a second feather wreath 8" template. I have one downstairs next to the tv that I am using on the Irish Chain. At least I am consistent in my artistic vision! Maybe I can get some quilting done today with the ACC game on and the Selection shows. I got some quilting done Friday evening with the game on.