Finishing up before packing up and closing down.

The time of year when I am very sad.  Sad to be leaving the glorious sunshine in Arizona and heading back to the rainy west coast.  Weather here has been much cooler than normal and lovely for playing tennis and having windows open during the day and not having to run our a/c.
I got my crazy windmill blocks finished by digging through all possible sources of white prints and black fabrics in my scrap box and stash of fabric.  Not much to be found but the reds were easy. Blocks will get trimmed and assembled back at home.  There are 13 so one will be an orphan block or put on the back of the quilt. 

 A couple more of my stargazer blocks are made but the rest are packed somewhere in boxes to be mailed to my WA state address for pickup after I get home.  Fabric weighs a lot so I use the 'if it fits, it ships' boxes to save money on having an overweight suitcase.

Boxes have been taken to the post office.

Plus quilt is ready and packed in those boxes.
A new quilt started that has been a ufo for a couple of years.  It is a Villa Rosa, Portlandia and I have the top completed and ready to take home for quilting.

My green scrap blocks got done for Oh Scrap but having trouble loading the picture onto her site.

And I dug out my container of 'economy' blocks.  These were started many years ago and using scraps.  A good leader and ender project.

And so happy that all my L-7 blocks are made!

That is about all that is going to happen here.  Time to service my machine, extra oil and packaging in a heavy plastic bag so that nothing dries out during the heat of the summer months.  I also bag all my thread and have heard I should pour in some mineral oil?

In like a lion....

The weather here in Mesa started off as a very cool March and it has been wonderful.  At this time last year, the afternoon temps were up to 99 and last week, we were having temps in the mid 60's!  We are warming up now to mid 80's in the afternoon and warm evenings but am hoping that at home, the cold weather will also be warming up to comfortable temperatures by the time we return for the spring and summer months! But, good sewing time!
My Plus quilt got put together.  This was a kit from Connecting Threads and it has sat for a year.  It was very slow sewing, one row at a time once I got it up on the design wall and had to keep checking to make sure I had my pieces in the correct placement.  I modified the pattern which added to the confusion!  But very happy this is on my 'needs quilting' list instead of my 'to do' list.

 And a really simple quilt from Villa Rosa got put together as well.  This is Sheryl and it is a really simple way to use up some fat quarters with background fabric.  I think this will need a border to make it large enough for a Quilt of Valour.

I started playing with half rectangles using some 10" squares and background.  I have a pattern in mind but will see how this goes.  I need to sit in the front of the tv drawing the lines on the back of the background rectangles.
I .

 I dug out my green scraps as yellow greens and light greens are the scrappy colour of the month.  More string piecing planned!

 And another Villa Rosa kit that is called Show Biz.  You have turn your head to see this properly but it has a cat panel in the center and lots of oranges, pinks and purples. 

I  splurged and bought myself a totebag at the tennis tournament.  I could easily have made myself this bag BUT... the fabric is fabulous and not available anywhere.  The gal making the bags said it is impossible to find tennis themed fabric. 

 

 I pulled out a kit I purchased at a quilter's garage sale.  It looked great and had all the pieces cut in it.  BUYER BEWARE!!  I opened it up and yes, there were cut fabrics but all in one length - 6.5" and in black on white and white on black fabrics.  But, it needs 4.5" strips of the same fabrics AND it needs red fabrics in both lengths.  The red was easy for me... but had to really scrounge in my fabric closet for the rest and I don't know if I have enough but will finish it at home where the supply is better.

 But, I did get to try a new ruler that came in my monthly box from Fat Quarter shop and it is quite slick. It is called "mini simple folded corners"

And this is what the finished blocks look like:

I have the binding ready to stitch for the Villa Rosa Show biz along with almost being finished with my L -7 blocks.  They have been my leaders and enders as I have worked on the other projects and almost there!

Another project on my list was to cut the blocks for the Moda Stargazer quilt.  A lot of cutting and each block gets put into a ziplock bag - 20 of them!

I have one block stitched and another one on my design board.  This will end up heading home with me but the cutting is done and that was the complicated part!

My husband had Moh's surgery on his face last week and is recovering but it is a long time just sitting and waiting for each step.

So, I started knitting a scarf.

And I managed to get my Quilter's Planner March block completed.
Down to less than 2 weeks of sewing time left here and weather is warming up plus lots of tennis tournaments happening!  Busy but happy days.