Twin Finishes

Well, it was indeed a virus we were dealing with, which completely changed our Thanksgiving plans. Miss S started vomiting during Wednesday night, and continued to be sick all of Thursday. My preliminary plans were to finish the twins quilts on Thanksgiving if we didn't go up to Phoenix, but I ended up being sick too, but my symptoms were more flu like, and I was so sore I could barely move. I did get a little bit of quilting done, but it was akin to swimming in molasses, and it completely drained me moving the quilt around, so I didn't get much done.

It must have been a 24 hour thing though, because I feel much better today, and I zipped through the rest of the quilting on Miss S's quilt, and sewed the bindings on both quilts.

^Here is Miss S's quilt in all it's purple glory. This pic has a blueish cast to it, but the nine patches and borders are all purples. I am still undecided about the scrappy nine patches on an I Spy quilt. Maybe all the random novelty fabrics are enough variety, and I'm better off sticking with constants for the nine patches.

^Here is Mr. L's quilt. I just couldn't find a blue fabric I was happy with for the border, so he got a black border. I was really trying to do their quilts all from stash, so I was determined not to go buy a border fabric.

The funniest thing about these border fabrics? I bought them at the same time, because I knew they'd make good borders for kids quilts. I make a lot of kids quilts, both for kids in my life, and Project Linus, so I when I find a really good piece of fabric that's just begging to be a border on a kids quilt, I get three yards of it if the price is right. I like to cut my borders lengthwise, and I can usually border 2 quilts with a 3 yard piece. I'll either cut eight lengthwise strips for two 5 inch borders, or four strips each for a 4 and 6 inch border. Any leftovers get cut into narrower strips and go into the strip drawers.

I had enough of one fabric I liked for the backing of Miss S's quilt, but I really wanted to use the motorcycle fabric (top left) on the back of Mr. L's quilt. I didn't have much of it left, so I gathered three other fabrics I had about the same amount remaining, and made a backing out of four fabrics. Two of these fabrics only have bits in my scrap bins now, and the other two have less than 1/2 yard left.

Today the Easy Street Mystery started, and I've printed out the first clue. I'm hoping to get the strips cut for it tomorrow, and maybe get the first step sewed on Sunday. I'm babysitting most of tomorrow, but I might have enough time to get the cutting done. I already looked through my pre-cut strips, but only had three the right color. I did keep those strips out, but now I need to cut the rest.

I am so glad I finished all my deadline quilts before the mystery really got going.  As far as I know, the next quilt with a deadline I need to have finished the end of March, and it's actually already started! I have several other quilts I am working on, but they are more lax on when I get them finished. I'm hoping to get at least one quilt together as leaders/enders during the Easy Street Mystery. We'll see how far I get!