Time well spent

I'm happy to report that I had a nice productive weekend. I quilted the postage stamp quilt, made the binding and machine stitched it on, and got one of the long edges all hand stitched. I had to clear off my cutting table in order to trim the batting and backing even with the edge of the quilt, so I put all the scraps I'd cut into the proper containers. I'd cut a lot of half square triangles of lots of different sides in addition to strips, squares, crumbs and strings - I matched them all up into pairs, stitched them together, pressed the seams and trimmed them to size. The little half square triangle squares went into the crumb box and the bigger ones went into the drawer of orphan blocks. Lots of rectangles cut from leftover strip sets also went into that drawer. I'm getting a nice collection there so will start putting them into a charity top before too long. I pieced a backing for the bunny rabbit flimsy that I showed you a few days ago, and started pinning it onto the quilting machine. I'll finish doing that tomorrow night, and may even start the quilting.

I found the pattern and templates for Grandmother's Choice in my filing cabinet, and the rest of the backing fabric in my fat quarter stack of backgrounds. Plenty to make two more blocks so I can make them into a 3x3 quilt. I'm eager to working on that one - the bright colors are so pretty against the white. I'll hand piece these two blocks like the rest of them were done - some relaxing work for Tuesday night quilt group. I tucked the spring blocks back into the drawer they came from - I'll think about them another day. I also tucked away the 30's blocks, along with Around the Block with Judy Hopkins. I've marked a bunch of 6" blocks with post-it's that I'll make to add to what I have. I'll have a quilt big enough for a baby quilt or a decorator throw for my little bench in the entry way.

I have a friend on the east coast who is wanting to make some Amish inspired quilts who was talking about shopping for solid colors. Since my solid color fabrics have been sitting on the shelves upstairs for years and years - I very rarely use solids in quilts any more - I told her I'd pull all the Amish-looking colors and send them to her. I'm happy to report that was about half my stash of solids - hooray! I completely filled two $8.10 priority mail boxes - stuffed to the max - plus a $4.05 priority envelope. Took them back to the PO Saturday afternoon. Talk about busting stash - what a great feeling!

I even finished switching out my dishes! I can't believe we were still using our "Winter Dishes" - I refuse to call them Christmas dishes since this year we used them until March. I normally put them away early in February - since the design is holly I figure it's not strictly Christmas - but I've been too busy sewing and visiting with Jeremy, Chelsea, and Sophie. Never mind that we were still drinking coffee, tea and cocoa out of Santa Claus mugs - minor details, right? Now the regular dishes are back out - just in time for our balmy spring-weather day. M-60's outside and mid-70's in the house even without any heat turned on. No wonder I was way too warm in bed last night!

I hate to write a post without pictures. Since I didn't take any pictures of anything I did this weekend. I'll leave you with a couple new pictures of Miss Sophie.

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Gratitudes:
1. Puffy batting quilted up fine on the machine
2. Short sleeve weather
3. More light in the evening - I'm one who likes daylight savings time
4. Fresh baked sourdough bread
5. More stash busted

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