Feeling Chuffed!!

 I've picked up the expression "I'm chuffed" from watching too much Britbox and Acorn TV.  But it described my current state of mind perfectly -- I'm delighted!!

Why you ask?

Quilts have been finished in the past couple days!!  The whimsical 8-pointed star took about 8 days to quilt -- would have been faster but I took a 2-day break to ponder (and whine) about the border quilting.

Isn't the cute, cute, cute backing perfect!!  The quilting is simple which is the key right now to keeping my momentum going.  

I thought I was finished it Sunday afternoon but then went back Monday morning and added a bit more quilting. The intersections of the sashing and cornerstones looked too blank.

Echoing the large squares that cut across the sashing improved the look for me.  Another reason I like simple quilting for many of my pieces is the quilt is softer and drapes beautifully which ups the cuddle factor for me!

So three finished!!  Sixteen to go!!

I recognize that the key to maintaining my momentum is to know ahead of time which top I'm going to layer and quilt next -- trying to eliminate those "it's finished" pauses.  My birthyear temperature quilt was next up but I've been a bit dissatisfied with the cute picket fence border I added to it last fall.  

It's "blah" against the rest of the quilt which is so bright and cheery.

Happily, inspiration happened and I'm adding nine little hexie flowers to spark it up.  The hexies are 5/8" -- as small as I'll ever go with hexies -- and the center of each flower has a fussy cut bee.

It will take a few days to get this top ready to layer so I opted to layer another Mississippi Mud sample and quilt it this week while I finish the hexie flowers and get them appliqued to the top.  I plan to quilt it the same way I did the last one using gold rayon or metallic thread -- whichever one the machine enjoys using!

In the meantime, this beauty came back from the quilter.  I sent it to Julie Stocker here in Ohio and she used a delightful swirly snowflake-style pantograph with a silvery sheened thread.  

It's just perfect!

(It's not on my list of nineteen quilt tops to finish in 2021 but by sending it out, 

I could enjoy it sooner and it won't be on my 2022 list!!)

This morning we woke up to fresh snow and just enough sunshine to get some great pictures.

The blocks came from December's Moda Bakeshop quilt sewalong -- Winter Frost.  There were 6", 12" and 18" blocks.  I used eight of the 6" patterns and thirteen of the 12" patterns.  The setting is called Bear Creek Trail and the only modification I made was to leave off the sashing between the blocks to make the quilt shorter.  I worked out of my HUGE stash of blues and added some special bird prints here and there.  Tonight it goes up on the living room wall for the remainder of the winter!

A friend and I are thinking we'll have a little private stitching retreat before spring and so I started thinking about a project that I could take along.  It will be a break from the quilting frenzy and Jennifer Sampou's Polygon Play pattern has been on my list from the moment I first saw it.  

So I started to gather fabrics and then this happened!?!  

We have not even set a date and I'm almost ready to start!!

Really I'm just avoiding the work of finishing the quilt on the design wall (did you notice where the temperature quilt is hanging -- on the fabric shelves?!?).  So "someone" needs to have a toe-to-toe convo in the next couple days to refocus and empty that design wall before diving into this exciting new project prematurely.

My birding-sidekick-daughter and I actually left town for the day on Sunday and headed west to the never-freezing pond in the village of Castalia, Ohio.  Lake Erie is freezing up so any open water is a treasure trove of ducks right now!

All the males are sporting their best plumage in anticipation of breeding season. 

Those are Redheads above and Shovelers with one handsome Gadwall in the upper right below.

I've made an appointment for the vaccine -- shot #1.  If you haven't found your first shot yet, I suggest you round up one of the tech-savvy young ones in your life to help you navigate the websites.  Then once you feel savvy, help your friends get their shots organized so you can start to get together again!!

And finish something else this week!!  It will make you feel sooooo gooood!!

Mary