Twelve Makes a Dozen

This morning I sat and finished the 12th of twelve blocks for the Quilting Snowladies quilt. Yahoo!

The first block was started on February 13, 2013, and so it's been more than two years in the making so far. Hopefully, I'll get a start sewing it together in the next couple of months. It's going to be fun to finish and quilt because I have some good ideas for it.

In the meantime, there are a couple of "interim" projects for hand-stitching...the 8th block of the Vintage Kitchen, and one embroidered block for Lisa's Live, Love, Teach quilt. Those shouldn't take too long, and then I'll be ready to start on a short-term project...this little "Feed the Cat" wall hanging from Walzing With Bears. There are so many projects on my embroidery list that I usually let Mr. Random choose for me. It's impossible for me to decide since I want to stitch all of them at once. As I was looking at the list last week, however, I decided this one was next. It's been a while since I made a cat quilt. I can't remember where I found this pattern...at a quilt shop or at a quilt show...but you can find it there on the website under the heading "Everyday Patterns". Some cute stuff on that site, so get hold of your credit cards before going in.

Yesterday I finished up my Four Fabric Forest. It went together simply, and I found I didn't even need to worry about matching up the hash marks I'd made on the pattern pieces. The "X's" at the intersections were helpful, however. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out this post right here.)

As I looked at this, I wanted to bring out the green in the foreground fabric at the bottom of the quilt, and my mind landed on this scrap from a previous quilt. I'll use this for the back.

Also, I have a pretty almost perfectly matching green batik that I'll use for the binding. You can see it there at the left of the image below.

"Anonymous" left a comment on my post from the class on Saturday that Ann Shaw is teaching in the Ruth McDowell style. Being hungry for more, I headed over to Ann Shaw's website. In perusing the website, it became clear that she is somehow connected to Fiddlesticks Quilt Shop, one of my neighbors to the north in Vancouver, Washington. As it turns out she's teaching a four-day workshop next April called "Design from Nature". I tried to get into the April class, but surprisingly, the class is already full, even at this early date. So I wasted no time registering for the July class to be held next summer. I'm first on the waiting list for the April class, and so I'm hopeful that will work out. In either case, count me in for another class in the Ruth McDowell style.

When I'd finished my Four Fabric Forest, it was time to leave to pick up this week's CSA share. What a gorgeous haul of veggies and fruits this week! 

That's a watermelon and a cantaloupe you see there in the upper right corner. The cantaloupe is incredibly fragrant. It may be the best cantaloupe I've eaten since visiting Italy ten years ago. I've put off this week's grocery shopping until I could see what would be in this week's share, and so today's the day. I'm really looking forward to turning this stuff into yumminess for this week's meals.

Aside from that, I'm getting my hair trimmed today, and so it's time to get going on my grocery list. I'm hoping I'll get some time for sewing today, but after grocery shopping, I usually just want to put my feet up and relax.