A Baby -sized Finish!

I finished one of the four baby quilts on my docket! 

I like to try new quilting designs on baby quilts, but since this was the first time I did any FMQ on my M7, I opted to just meander and get a feel for it. I didn't even do a practice piece. The M7 sewed like a champ, and I'm quite happy with how it came out.

I don't usually show the backing fabrics, but this one had been in my stash for a while. I bought the Celtic Angel fabric to make a skirt for DD#2, and the skirt never got made. The angel motifs are such a large size they were hard to use in a quilt, but I had just enough to make the backing for this quilt! I had to piece it in four pieces to get it to fit the top, and it was really close, but all I have left is one 6" square that's going in the scraps. 

I made the blocks for this baby quilt last year, so it counts as a UFO finish too! My count didn't go down any though, since my original plan was to make one larger quilt, and I made two baby quilt tops from the blocks. They other baby quilt top is a top, but I have no plans to quilt it soon, so my UFO count remains the same. 

I've started quilting on the next baby quilt now too. This one is a new start. Now that I have a feel for how the M7 does in free motion, I felt comfortable trying a new design. All of that pink background needed to be broken up, so I chose a green contrasting thread to quilt with, and I'm quite happy with how it's coming out. I've got more quilted than this now, but even baby quilts take me 3-4 days in one hour quilting increments. 

Since I've been in the mood to assemble quilts, I dug out an old UFO, that will be finicky to assemble.

My design wall isn't big enough for this king sized quilt. I have 25 large blocks, which need color coordinated sashing in between them. I'll have to piece each section of sashing separately, with cornerstones, and sew those onto the blocks before I can actually start assembling the rows. Only the top three rows are on the design wall. Once I have the top two rows together, I'll move the third row up and lay out the bottom two rows under that. I have to be able to see the block next to it to make sure I don't choose matching sashing pieces to the last row in each block. 

I did get that basket of blocks pressed. I ended up with 84 black blocks, and I'm making the neutral blocks as my leader/ender project right now. Once I have all of those blocks made, I'll dig out the other colors I have, and figure out what I want to do with them. 

I said I'd take a photo of the sewing room with the vintage machine up in it. Having the vintage machine in a folding table is going to make it much easier to use this as a backup guest room. I've got a folding TV table next to the folding sewing table, but this works well, since I can just fold up the tables, stick the machine and projects in the closet, and I've got space for an air mattress in just a few minutes. 

While I was dealing with scraps from one of the baby quilts, I came up with what I hope is a good idea for some leftover units from a wedding quilt I made four years ago, so I'll be working on that as I get a chance too. As usual, I've got tons of projects going, but I am seeing some turn into quilt tops or completed quilts, so I'm happy about that. 

The house drama continues.

Our front yard is raised and someone hit our retaining wall. Our neighbor saw the whole thing. Someone was teaching a kid to drive, and when the kid couldn't make the turn at the end of our dead end street and hit the wall, the adult took over the driving and took off, rather than knocking on our door and taking responsibility. Hitting the wall was a bummer, but DH thinks he can repair it as long as we can find these not standard sized concrete blocks. What disappointed me was the response the adult in the situation had. It could have been a great teachable moment for that teen about taking responsibility for your actions, and instead he gave the teen a clear message to avoid responsibility. We have other people hit things before in multiple houses. We've had our mailbox taken out three different times over the years. I always feel better about making the repairs when the person responsible took the time to apologize.