End of May

I can't believe it's the end of May already, and that this is a holiday weekend.  Oh well, we have nothing planned except to stay at home and maybe a cookout for the two of us.  Hopefully, our younger son will be home some of the time.  I have lots of sewing to do no matter what.
I've been working on the blocks from the Red White and Blue swap, and they're so nice.  I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to do with them, but there's certainly no rush.  It's not like I don't have lots of other things to work on.  Anyway, this is what I did today.

I have the blocks ready to quilt from the Red and Aqua swap, and I'm going to try doing 'quilt as you go'.  I have the first block all ready, and had decided on a design for it, but realized as I tried to mark it that the stencil is way too small.  I don't want to get anymore ready until I know if this is feasible or not, so this project is on hold until my new stencil comes in.  That's ok, though, because there's always the DJ, DWR, Red White and Blue, etc., etc...

Normal Again

Life has been a little topsy turvy lately, but I'm still here, sewing as much as I can.  But, starting last Wednesday, we spent a lot of time celebrating the marriage of a friend's daughter.  It was an Indian wedding, and the celebrations go on for days.  Wednesday was a dinner at the home of the bride's parents to meet all of the family members who had come long distances to the wedding.  Thursday was a luncheon for the ladies, where the decoration of the bride was taking place.  If you click on the picture, you can see how intricate the designs are on her hands.  Unfortunately, you can't see the foot that's completed. 

There was also a second young lady who decorated the hands of the guests, of course not nearly as complex as those for the bride.  The designs are done with henna, and last for as much as two weeks.  This is my hand, with my design slowly fading away.

Thursday was a second dinner party at the home of the bride, and Friday a dinner at the hotel where the wedding was to be held.  Saturday, after a breakfast for all the guests, was a Catholic wedding, followed by lunch, and then mid afternoon, the Hindu ceremony.  Early evening was a cocktail hour followed by dinner and reception.  It was an amazing, beautiful, wonderful, exhausting 4 days!

So in the sewing time I've had, this is what I've been doing.  I've started on the triangles for the DJ quilt, and have completed 4 so far. 

When I made the blocks, I just picked any one of them to make, but with the triangles, I'm going straight around, just as they're printed in the book.  They haven't been too hard yet, (and not as wonky as they look in the pics),  but I'm only on the fifth one. 

Pictureless post

My husband and I are on our way out of town for a wedding on Saturday.  So far there have been 2 days of parties, and one more to go before the wedding.  There's been no sewing going on now for 2 days, and 2 more to go!  I'm in withdrawal!!

Sunday Catch Up

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted!  Again!!  I've been very faithfu about reading blogs, but so bad about posting this year.  Anyway, I'll try to do better.

For most of the time since we returned from our trip in March, my husband has been ill.  It took weeks to diagnose - so many tests, so many visits to doctors and hospitals, so much time that he's felt lousy.  He's on the mend now, feels somewhat better, and hopefully will be completely well soon.

It seems to me that whenever I finish a large project that I have a hard time getting back into the groove of sewing.  I absolutely loved finishing the green quilt; it turned out so nicely.  Since then, sitting on my sewing table or the bed in the sewing room, I've had my Double Wedding Ring project, Red and Aqua swap blocks, Red White and Blue swap blocks, a pile of blocks for Sylvia's Bridal Sampler and, of course, my Dear Jane blocks.  If you remember, back in March, I was sure I would finish the DJ blocks by the end of the month.  I only had 3 left to do, but since then, they have just sat there, glaring at me!  I didn't sew a stitch on them -- until Friday.  Then I started in on the last three, and now all 169 blocks are done!!  I can't believe it. I started putting sashing on them this afternoon, and will start on the triangles tomorrow.  I'll show you the top after I get all the blocks sashed and sewn together.

I haven't done a lot of sewing in these weeks, but I've spent more time doing the redwork for yet another project I have underway.  Do you think I'll ever finish them?  So these are the few things I've done.
Red  White and Blue swap blocks

Jelly Roll Quilt along

Red and Aqua swap blocks

My First May Post

Would you believe I actually have a May finish?  I got my green and cream quilt back from the quilter, and put the binding on Saturday.  I worked on it every minute I had and finished it in one day.  Sunday morning I washed and dried it, and it is now clean and soft and crinkly.  I love it!  Thank you to all the ladies in the swap for the beautiful blocks.  I still have to put the label on it, and I want to list the names of all who contributed to it. 

Finishing up a quilt made with swap blocks makes me really want to finish up another one.  I'm still working on the D9P from the fall, but I have to admit I haven't worked very hard on it.  It still has a long way to go, and I'm trying to get a little bit done each day.  As I promised, I'm not going to bore you with another picture of it until it's done.

I finally started working on the blocks that I got from the Red White and Blue No Sew Swap.  As usual, I made a mistake on the very first one, and had to find another fabric to add to the block.  I have a lot, and I do mean a lot, of 4" red fabric squares, but of course, none that really matched what was already in the block.  I messed up one of the half square triangles, and it was way too small.  Since the middle square was the same, I substituted a blue star fabric.  I think it looks okay, and at least it keeps all the corners the same.

Also, look at the beautiful block I got from a monthly swap I'm in.  The colors will go just perfectly with the other blocks I gotten in this swap.  Thank you Ellen.