OMG: A Finished Quilt!

Good morning, my friends. We have a couple of nice weather days going on right now. The temperatures have warmed considerably, which is very much appreciated. It was a good day for sewing with bright sunshine streaming in through the windows. I started my sewing day taking the first stitches on the third of three blocks for "S" is for Sew. (There are nine blocks in all, but I'm only doing the first three for now.)

From there, I was itching to finish off the Vintage Linen quilt binding. And there it is...a finished quilt.

It ends up at 64 x 64 inches square. Here's how it looks from the back.

If you're new to this blog, then know that this quilt was made from vintage linens embroidered and crocheted by my maternal grandmother, Bertha Maust. I have tons of this stuff, and it has been packed away in my mother’s cedar chest since before I was born. I decided it was time to bring it all out into the light and make a quilt from some of it. I selected designs randomly, and then incorporated them into a crazy quilt block. Blocks are 16-1/2 inches square. My grandmother passed away more than 50 years ago, but I like thinking that she and I made this quilt together.

Finishing the Vintage Linen quilt was my goal for February's 

so I'll join in the party there. (Has it started yet?)

With that finished, I could devote the rest of the afternoon to my "Circus" project. The collage is finished, and it turned out better than I could have hoped. When it was finished, I peeled it up from the teflon pressing sheet and laid it out on the two background fabrics I've selected. I wasn't sure if my idea for the background would work, but it will. Here's your peek:

That was enough sewing for the day, but I sat and stitched the rest of the Sewing Bee block while we watched the news. 

And that's the end of the first go-round for this project. Here are the three blocks I have so far:

If you look at the pattern for this, you'll see there is a running stitch around the outer edge of each block.

It's supposed to be embroidery, but I can't really stitch that line until the whole thing is sewn together. I'm considering turning those into big stitch hand-quilting stitches. It would make an easy finish for this small project. I'll think about it and make up my mind when I finish the rest of the blocks. If I'm remembering right, I even have an appropriate Perle cotton thread for that.

So this morning, I'll move on to the third block for A Year in the Garden. I'll be starting March's block, and since March is nearly here, I'd say I'm right on schedule.

There's a lot on my to-do list today. There's one small housekeeping chore, and I want to get in a walk on the treadmill. We need to make a short trip into town, and I need to bake up something new for our pre-breakfast snack. Mike requested biscotti, and so I'll make some orange and pistachio biscotti. I'm not sure I've ever tried the recipe before. When all of that is finished, I can get back to my sewing.

I'll probably devote most of my time to the "Circus" piece today. I've reached the scary thread-painting part of the project. Whenever I'm thread-painting, I think I'm ruining the piece. So far, nothing has been ruined, but it's no less scary when I'm starting out on a carefully constructed collage. Wish me luck.