tried and true . . .

Have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy binding?  I really do.  I love the rhythmic stitching motion.  It's soothing and settling. So I often volunteer to do the binding on group quilts.  (I dislike giving blocks for group quilts ... not because I don't want to give or participate, but because of comments someone once made about my blocks in a swap.  It hurt my feelings and I'm just afraid to stitch up bad blocks for a quilt someone else is having to piece. So I bind.)

I volunteered to do so for a quilt we were doing for a gal in our group that had breast cancer.  This is the third of these quilts I've bound in the last year for our Stitcher's group . . .

Binding is a great activity for the boat in the spring time, when the days can still be a little cool!

What I wasn't thinking about when I also volunteered to bind the guild's President's Quilt for this year, was the possibility that they might end up in my lap at the same time (figuratively speaking, of course)!

Whoops! But I made it work.  It really did provide some good boat projects this month.  Hahaha—win/win!

I got those two quilts finished and had the urge to do some things for me (or at least for my own) . . .

With a baby boy on the way, I needed something in blues!  I love this pretty pinwheel design (I reworked it up in EQ).

After getting Joc's approval, I pulled fabrics for it.  It was a super easy thing to do, now that most of my stash is in the storage room!  Whoop whoop!

I also pulled one of the UFOs I'd purchased last year from an estate sale, and got busy putting it together.

She had the individual 8" Flower Girl blocks pieced, and I put them together, stitched the sashing, and added borders.  I LOVE IT!  It finishes out at about 56" square.

There are enough leftover blocks to do a table mat, and maybe a smaller (single block) table mat.  Which would make this ensemble just perfect for our screened room . . . 

Right?!  The summer colors are just perfect!  I love it when a plans comes together all by itself!

I also pulled out this big boy . . . 

Now that I've got room to work, I went about adding borders.  I wanted it to be at least 72" square for the girls to use as a picnic blanket.  I think this will do it!

Then ... I did another thing.  April's been a really quilty month.  I took a longarm class, along with my friend, Gail!

One of our LQSs offers longarm rentals, but you've got to take an introduction class first.  It was a lot of fun!  I've got time scheduled soon to work on a quilt.  I need a LOT of practice!!  About the only thing I showed any promise with was quilting my name.  Baahaahaa!  So if I want a quilt quilted with my name in cursive, I'm in good shape. *insert eyeroll here*

I wrapped up the month with an evening with the girls.  I love our Thursdays together!  This night, mommy and daddy were the meeting hosts, so we all went upstairs for dinner.  The girls set a lovely table complete with a quilted table runner and a vase of flowers.  They called it a "peaceful and quiet" dinner!

How I love these sweet girls.  They are so precious ... I love spending as much time with them as possible.  I know how fast they grow up!  Memories. ♥

something about that space . . .

When it's clean, anyway, there's definitely something about my Nook space that stirs the creative juices!  Since being in there most of the day on Saturday, I've dreamed of sewing and UFOs that become finished, and fabric that I'd forgotten about, but am suddenly anxious to put to work and ideas for new projects.

Whoa, slow down there Tiger . . . beware the ides of March!  ;)

I recently saw this photo on Instagram, posted by Lucy Brennan of Charm About You fame. 

When I saw it, I *immediately* thought of the five orphan fairy frost blocks and the pile of fairy frost fabric (Michael Miller's) that Jean (Creates) had picked up somewhere and sent me (see this post). 

(Oh, and pay no attention to the fact that it was sent nearly three years ago, okay?)

I've played around and used the fabric in projects. A wall hanging here. A table topper there. But I've never been able to decide what to do with those block and how to really use that fabric up.

Until I saw that IG pic. BAM. It clicked and all the pieces fell into place and I knew *exactly* what I wanted to do with those blocks and that fabric. Oh my yes, I did know. And I have a burning desire to work on it immediately, too!

I have two problems.  One is not so big.  I need a sixth block.  I wasn't sure what I wanted to do about that, until I got to looking at the blocks in My Orange Crush.

Surely any one of those blocks would fit in well with the blocks already prepped. I feel better already.

The second problem I need some help/advice/coaching on. All of the blocks are 10.5" (unfinished). Except one. 

This particular block is 10"ish. One side measured 10.25", one measured 10". What do I do about that?  I've got more of the background fabric--should I just sew a generous strip around on all sides and then square it down to the appropriate dimensions? Someone please tell me how to make this work using the block!  I don't want to create an additional block if I can help it.

Any idears?  Please and thank you!

:)