Nine days into February.

 The month started off slowly... time to make some meals, do some decor for Valentine's day and a bit of sewing and suddenly,  the month is one third gone.  

I took yesterday off from working on lists and tasks calling my name.  I wanted to make some Valentine's mug rugs and pulled out all of my heart themed fabrics.  Some are truly vintage and been around for a long time.  

 I had a few mug rugs in the container that I started working on last year and would like to have some for a few gifts and a door prize for guild so I got busy.  I did not do anything fancy and let the fabric speak for itself. 

I pulled out some strips and scraps to use for binding and have that made and today I will get busy and bind them.  Now, I think it should be quick but am slowly figuring out that what I might have accomplished in a couple of hours a few years ago, will now take me far longer.  Everything takes longer - cooking dinner, housework, addressing Valentine's cards to my grandkids... obviously, am becoming a slow, old woman.  

In the meantime, the first week of month had me complete the binding on the quilts quilted in January, rewriting lists, (adding more than I ever subtract) and also working on some new projects.  The first one is a block I figured out and copied from a quilt that was given to me as a donation to Quilts of Valour.  I pulled out lots of Canadian themed prints plus some black fabric and started stitching.  I began this in December, finished in January.  
 

A close up of the block and fabrics. 

January's Running Doe sew along  - Lazy Goose is complete and I used a background that is a Canadian themed print with Parliament buildings.  The reds and browns were fat quarters.  These blocks are huge and I downsized them from 18" squares to 15".  

My economy blocks are complete.  I started making these blocks when we were living in Arizona for the winter.  At the end of the season, when getting ready to head north, there is a lot of things to take care of in and around the house including washing all the bedding, shampooing carpets, spraying for bugs and making sure all food is sealed up to keep bugs out. I also did a lot in my sewing room including bagging threads and putting as much as possible down low... remembering that the a/c would be set at 88ºF for all those months of mega heat.  When all was done, there was still some time left before we actually left and instead of starting a new project, I pulled out scraps and started making blocks.  Every year I did that.  However, I never really wrote down the sizes and when all these blocks appeared here in September, they were a variety of sizes???  I carried on, now using scraps from my sewing room here.  I got it to a good size and determined that I had made enough blocks.  It was interesting that the blocks from Arizona all had a lot of yellow in them.  The blocks from here, no yellows.  

I did intend to layer and quilt my house block table topper but it is still waiting because I got distracted by another idea.  I started playing with hourglass blocks made from charm squares.  Our guild has a quilt show coming up in April and the challenge is to make a quilt for our local NICU and I love making preemie quilts since I had two preemie grandsons born 27 years ago.  One survived and sadly, Isaac didn't but, I learned a lot about NICU and quilts on the isolettes really brighten up the unit as well as help parents/visitors to identify their baby. The challenge for the guild has a few rules... black, white and a colour.  So, I started playing with pink fabrics since I had a container of pink still out from making a quilt for my great granddaughter.  I played with a variety of ideas and ended up with 3 quilt tops.  

 I continued to make churn dash blocks as leaders and enders.  I finally got my Carolyn's blocks quilt stitched and pressed and ready for quilting at the end of the month.  

Two blocks made for the guild 12" block lottery.  

My cactus is happy... very happy. 

Blocks made for the quilt of Valour sew day - The larger block is the new block for 2026 for Quilts of Valour.  The two smaller blocks are hug blocks ... the one on the left is in memory of Lezley Zwall, founder of QOVC who died last year.  The other heart is also a different option.

Growing churn dashes. 

 These quilts are ones made by Leon's quilting group that I have done the binding for.  Always great inspiration. 

Sewing, piecing and watching the Olympics.  Getting ready to submit quilts for our quilt show.  Always more task on my list - never dull or boring moments.  

Word for the year - too many to choose

 I constantly feel overwhelmed... so many appointments, lists of things to get done, things I want to do, and am always busy yet never feel like I have accomplished much.  I thought of a word for the year - organizing, reducing, declutter, less is more, so many options to make me feel like I am in control of my environment and my life. I could not choose one word.  

One thing I have done is to go back to using post it notes for all my tasks.  I have lists that I rewrite constantly and the post it notes are moveable.  I gathered up lots of bits and pieces of papers where I had written down a sudden thought of something that needs doing and created master lists... one for our home, one for me and one for quilting.  I really hope I will be able to feel more on task and accomplish things so I can get rid of the post it note.  

I was a bit over zealous when it came to making blocks this month. I decided to do the Stashbuster block and did a few in teal.  I also decided to follow Connie Kreskin and she gave teal as the January colour and also hole in the barn door.  I changed that to churn dash for me and cut and made a number of those blocks.  

I won the blue blocks at guild this month and made a few more to create a small quilt top and handed it the community quilt group to quilt for me as it will be a donation.  

I am still working on my third leader and ender by Bonnie Hunter and it is growing slowly.

The Heartstrings group I belong to chose fat quarters as the cut of the month and I had a few bags of fabrics tossed to my at a modern guild meeting from community quilts so I went through, added in a few more reds and put these blocks together.  It is waiting patiently on my design wall to be put together. 

At the bottom of my design wall was some playing with charms to create hourglass blocks.  I then realized that the guild has a challenge for our upcoming quilt show and the rules are to use black, white and one colour... so am playing with pink.  

I have quilted my projects the last week of January and they are now waiting for binding... the binding is all made and I just need to be home and sit at my machine to finish them.  The good  news is that my tables are clear and a lot of tidying is getting done as I work with fabrics.  I organized all my black/white, white/black and black background fabrics so that I could see what I have and I like to handle my fabric stash at least once a year.  

Off to an immunotherapy session with my husband so no sewing for me this afternoon.