February Pinks.

The blocks are done and these Ohio stars up to now, have 22 block so far.

Sawtooth blocks have 9 done so far.

Finished the blocks for Finding the way as well.

The Mystery quilt, aka the Jeopardy quilt is finished. Found the pattern, had all the parts still after all these years. Moving house a few times, countries and continents. It appeared in McCalls Quilting magazine in 2007 over the course of a year: "Hearts-All-A-Flutter" designed by Gerri Robinson.

The original was done in sweet colours, mine was done with French General fabrics.

Hand quilted while watching Jeopardy, started in September last year finished it yesterday.

It has been washed and the bamboo batting shrunk quite a bit. It is now 90 by 85 inches, instead of the 95 by 90 inches. It was pieced with fusible applique by machine stitched with a blanket stitch and hand quilted. This quilt was done in small bits over many many years, the journey was a slow one and enjoyed every step along the way.

Red and blues.

For a few projects I needed to get red and blue prints. Looked for a while, just could not find what I was looking for. One day a newsletter popped into the inbox, spent some time looking at all the fatqaurter bundles. Yes, there was one but at the time it had just come out. It would have to wait a while...

It came with four panels and one odd yellow fatquarter? One odd piece was good, so it was placed on the list. Ordered the bundle a couple of weeks ago and it arrived this morning, perfect to remind us summertime will arrive in a few months time. Something to look forward too!

These panels will be sewn into two quilts, with all the selection of little and bigger blocks. One could even stitch on each on with the red or blue thread to add a raised effect.

Never a dull moment, our driveway was encased in a crust of freezing rain, ice pellets more freezing rain and rain and ice on top. It was not melting and our neighbour had problems on theirs as well. Driving on to it was an issue as well. Yesteday afternoon was spent breaking up this layer and clearing the driveway. Sometimes we have to do stuff because we need to. Luckily the housekeeping was done before this all happened!

Peter Rabbit.

Peter Rabbit baby quilt has left and is on its way to its forever home. My niece is having a baby boy in the spring, she loves Peter Rabbit!

Have been paper piecing the box of red and white triangle squares, it is a bit every other day, so it is slow going.

Finding the way pink blocks got done as well, also hand quilting of the mystery quilt.

Two more sides to go and the quilting on this one will be done.

Back and front.

We had freezing rain, ice pellets, rain and snow overnight. It is cold and slippery outside.

A milestone.

The four corners for the Hertfordshire quilt is done.

Now the diamond and triangle pieces for the sides will be worked on each month, these cornerstones is the foundation for these diamond borders. Above the pink diamond and the yellow triangle shows a part of this pattern.

Hertfordshire corner blocks.

The four corners for the diamond borders has many pieces, cut them out earlier this week. This is the top of the corner piece.

Prepping the pieces as I go along, sewing the sections for all four and making them first, then adding the next part, will continue this process until the four corners are finished.

Once the corners is done, it is only the diamond sections in between which only has two pieces a diamond and a triangle. It may be slow but it is the fastest way to do these corners.

Books.

A love of books is something which we have had from a young age. Going to boarding school young, having strict routines. Within those parameters we had specific times to do homework, if you finished yours quickly it meant time to read. The only books available in the homework room was Brittanica Encyclopedia, the whole collection! So reading my way through them was a natural outcome. It was fun and I could explore anything and everywhere, we were told to learn from books. The funny thing was, if we wanted to know how to do a craft or anything else we used books and taught ourselves. Our kids was taught the same thing by us, our daughter in law was blown away by this fact. Her family did things differently. So yesterday a belated Christmas present arrived and down a rabbit hole I went, into a world of words and pictures. The book are in both French and English, so I read the English part, then repeat the French part. Over time it will hopefully improve my Language skill in French?

What fun it was, very little sewing happened and a lot of just exploring of fabric and the art of a craft whiich I am passionate about. It is filled with a journey of the lives of a family and a country with quilting in the modern era, after 1970 in France. To touch on quilting prior to this, would open a vast world from a rich part of quilting in France.
(Do I have an amazing book on that, oh my and she is a beauty)!

Some of the projects in the book, it has a lot of photos which accompany each and every story and project. At the end of a rainy day it was put aside to thumb through again and dream of creating with needle and thread.

Sorting out EPP.

This is a collection of diamonds for the next round of the Hertfordshire quilt sorted into colour groups.

The corner pieces have all these intricate puzzle to assemble it, so each shape now has the fabric cut and it was all placed in little bags to work on slowly.

Progress indeed, spending time handquilting the jeopardy quilt. Finished the fourth side and have started the crosshatching of the lines crossing the opposite direction.

Star blocks.

Ancient star blocks are done for February. Made nine more Ohio star blocks, will need 96 in total for the quilt.

The triangle borders have some blocks done and sen together as well.

The sawtooth stars, 49 of these are needed for the quilt.

The next round of the Hertfordshire quilt has diamonds cut in a rainbow of colours, they will be EPP. Starting with the pink ones this month. Just doing a few each month.

Turned the corner.

The quilting is cross hatching and it is done in one direction first. The back shows the quiltinga lot better, than the front. Found the binding, that was missing for a while. It was placed with another quilt.

Once this side is done, will change direction and do the other direction.

Quilting continue on the mystery quilt, a lot of this quilting happened while watching Jeopardy and now also other shows on tv. With the extreme cold, it is the perfect past time. Staying indoors, warm and safe.

Playing with pinks.

Found a half yard cut of this fabric, it is now cut into squares and more.

Pinks from the layer cake to make diamonds for the EPP.

The star and triangle square blocks all cut out and can be sewn next.

Once they are done, will move on to a round of the Tahoe quilt which has pink in it.