In which there is not a clever title

My Single Girl is coming along faster than I might have expected.

Perhaps it's due to my helper?

Anyway, since it's getting close to the time I actually need to make a decision, I've been debating whether to buy a bunch of different black/white/cream prints or just go with white. I like the idea of a varied background, but it would be more expensive and time consuming.

Option A: Varied patterns, more expensive

Option B: Plain white, less expensive

Which would you choose?

Busy bee

That actually might be a cool name for a quilting bee - for busy people of course. When I have time, I'll get it started...

Tonight I am skipping yoga because I have a headache and Excedrin is not helping very much. I might have tried harder to force myself to go anyway if my friend Katy was planning to go as well, but she went to an earlier class and let me off the hook.

In sewing news, I've completed the ring portion for 5 single girl blocks! Here is what my strategy looks like:

I cut 3.5" strips from each DS fabric (plus 1 other that seems to fit right in). Then I folded them and laid them in a circle resembling the pieces of the ring. It turned out I bought more fabric than I needed... I'm not entirely sure how that happened, but since it did, I decided to just use all of them and switch out a few each block. (Confession: I bought a new blue dot from JoAnn's yesterday to add in too.)

I traced and cut templates out of freezer paper. This is working out just as well as I imagined! First I iron the template to a fabric strip, then I cut it out. Once I've cut all the pieces for a ring, I peel off the templates as I sew them together. Finally, I shuffle the fabrics around and repeat. 

In the interest of curbing my spending on this quilt a little bit, I've decided to go with a white background. Or at least, I'm leaning in that direction. I suppose I still won't make the final call until I have finished getting the scrappy parts ready. I'm more certain that I will use straightish line quilting for it when we come to that.

The guild meeting was last Wednesday night. It kicked off a couple new activities (block lotto and challenges). We all received kits for EPP since our summer challenge is hand work. Last night I stitched up my little hexies and tonight perhaps I'll assemble them into flowers. For some reason it has reignited my interest in doing some knitting. Namely, the beekeeper's quilt, which is made of knit hexagons. I'm intrigued by the idea even though I'm not sure the finished product is quite my style.

Spring already?

One of our Christmas packages included some daffodil bulbs. At first I thought I could put them in the fridge again, but they began to sprout anyway... crazy things. I decided I'd better just put them in a pot and let spring come a little early - at least indoors.

I've heard it will be snowy in Madison again this Saturday - good timing for the MadMod sew day! I'll be taking the baby quilt to finish binding and my Single Girl stack. I'm really excited to have all that time to work on sewing projects!

 

Oh, and I need to pick up a pattern for boxers as I thought that might be a cool Valentine's gift for my husband...

Packages!

Shortly after the holidays, I spent the most on fabric I ever have in one go. It finally arrived in the mail this week! Do you want to see?

Children at Play:


Basics to coordinate.

Prints I already had stashed.

Stash building:

An assortment of Pearl Bracelets by Lizzy House.



Denyse Schmidt - Single Girl:

New DS prints from Chicopee.



DS prints from previous lines (except the black dots third from top left).



Templates and pattern - ready to go.



This is the one I'm starting next! I still plan to buy 3 more prints (Shelburne Falls Deco Fans in Maple and Willow and Chicopee Dotted Leaf in Lime) so that in each ring there won't be repeats.

(Actually, not all of my purchases have yet arrived - I signed up for the Stash Stack again after skipping brown.)