Is it Spring? Or, is it still winter?

 Weather here in the Pacific Northwest has been brutal. I know not as bad as in the eastern part of the continent, but not pleasant and certainly not dry.  Tennis playing days are very limited.  However, I have tried to get the roses pruned and a few weeds pulled as well as cutting the grass when it is warm enough to venture outside without wearing a raincoat or something warm. It is nice, when weather is decent, to see the baseball games happening with spectators cheering their teams on.

My April goal was get quilting and binding done and reduce my large number of tops waiting their turn.  

Three Thomas the train quilts got finished and they are toddler size.  Plus, two rail fence butterfly preemie quilts were finished and the main fabric came from a garage sale of a  dear, departed friend, Sally, in Mesa.   The flannel backing on the Thomas quilts was given to me by Marge, one of my Wednesday Diva quilting friends. 

A quilt made last fall at retreat was taken by a long arm quilter, Dianne, and she returned it to me, quilted and bound.  And, she took two more quilt tops/batting and backing with her to work on and get finished.  Thank you Diane!

I had a stack of quilt tops ready for quilting and managed to get three done plus the binding. The first one is Carolyn's blocks and used up a variety of fat quarters from my stash in Mesa.  

And, another project using the same Carolyn's block made from some knitting themed fabric and will go to a special friend who loves to knit.

This one is quilted and bound and was made by Janet.  Great use of red scrap fabrics. I need to get a picture of it finished with the binding.

Two more are quilted and waiting for binding - 9 patch field day and Illusions (another 3 x 1yd quilt) plus,  my red/beige hst quilt is ready to load up for quilting.   I also worked on cutting more batting and making more backings for the next 5 quilts that I am ready to tackle. 

We had a lovely Easter dinner, thanks to our neighbours and Susan always makes a great turkey dinner.  

March: 13 finishes

April: so far - 12 finishes with one ready to be quilted and a stack waiting their turn. 

This last quilt was made by Carole and I am showing it as a reminder and inspiration for using up scraps.  She used a variety of Canadian themed fabrics that she had on hand and made happy blocks.  But the center in some cases is a 2.5" square, some are four patches, half square triangles and some are strips.  She used what she had on hand and I think it turned out quite stunning and great use of  a "make it happen" quilt. 

The good news is that it is only the 19th of April so I still have 11 days to work on finishing up some of these tops that are living on hangers.  

Springing into quilting action for the month of April

 The weather here in the Pacific Northwest is typical of April but that doesn't mean I like it.  We switch from warm, sunny days to miserable, cold, wet, dreary days in a matter of minutes and hours.  But, on a sunny day, one can't help but enjoy spring growth and colours. 

Two more quilts of Valour got bound and labelled and are ready for donation.  These are technically UFO's since I made and quilted them in the fall of 2021 but didn't get them completely finished until March 2022.  However, as UFO's go, that wasn't a lengthy wait. One is a tumbler quilt and I did cut the tumblers in 2020 and these were leftover from a quilt I made a year ago.  The other is Sew Easy, a 3 yard pattern that is super simple and quick to make. 

 

I also quilted and bound 8 preemie quilts.  I cut kits for these in the spring/summer of last year and then stitched them up at retreat in September 2021.  I had managed to cut battings and backings for them and they were spray basted and waiting.  Last week, I quilted them and got the labels and binding added and they are now ready for donation to my guild's We Care program. There is quite a selection of fabrics in these quilts.  There are trucks, Dora the Explorer, bears, tools, Lorax and some ducks. 

Now, I am onto my next huge project getting all the tops hanging, quilted.  I have spent the last couple of days making "frankenbatts" which is leftover batting pieces put together to create a new piece that is large enough for a quilt.  Great way to use up batting scraps but not my favourite activity.  Thank goodness for Zoom because chatting with guild members on a Friday is a good distraction from a task I don't enjoy.  But, it does feel good to see the stack of leftover batting reduced in size and it is like getting a batting for free. 

I have been cutting some backings as well and have 3 quilts ready to go.  I would like to prepare two more so that I have 5 and can try to get those done between now and the middle of the month.  If I can do 10 per month, that is just over 2 per week and it would make a nice dent in my hanging collection of tops waiting to be finished.  This week at Wednesday Quilt Divas, I came home with 4 more tops to add the hangers.  sigh. 

Maybe by this time next week, I will have a couple of finished quilts to show you?  Think positive.