February Recap

Trouvaille was my first finished quilt for 2026.  It's informal reveal post is HERE.

Camp Sefton was in action for 10 days while Mommy and Daddy were out of town.  

Biscuit's and Nutsie's new stuffie quilts were designed and made during Young Man's stay (link here).

He also worked on the layout for their new autumn ottoman quilt named Ruska (click here to see him in action).

(Ruska - the time of fall foliage, the process of tree leaves turning various shades of red, yellow, purple, and brown in the autumn)

The quilt top was finished after dinner on the last day of February  - it's roughly 52" x 70" at this point.

The filmstrip backing is perfect since this will be used in the room where they watch their television.  The long-stashed KF diagonal stripe will make wonderful binding. 

They don't need the finished quilt until fall so Ruska can now wait until the three gift quilts are finished.

Fandango, no. 7 of 12 in my Macnas series, was also quilted and finished.  That post with outdoor photos is HERE.

In between, I finalized two small journals that were started last year.

This one contains a lot of magazine photos containing typewriters and a few with old cameras, ink bottles and fountain pens mixed in.

I keep thinking I'd like a typewriter again but then I remember how much space they take up and how little I would actually use it and I step back; remembering I can use a typewriter font on the computer for the bits to go in my journals.

But these photos still remind me of the hours on end that I've spent at a typewriter and/or keyboard . . . none of which were as cheerful and colorful as this photo.

This is the final page in that journal.

The other finished journal - titled Just Words - is my second creative commonplace book.

This was the approach I took throughout the eclectic mix of pages, which ironically hold just over 100 quotes or saved passages.  

No need to worry about an official 100 Day Project when I have just finished an unofficial equivalent without any of the fuss or pressure to document the process day by day.

And this is the piece I plan to write on the final page of Just Words.

This is the March first backyard photo.  Still very much khaki season here, but if you look closely to the right of the tree and just under the azalea, there's a clump of blooming daffodils. And, when the light is just right, we are starting to see the first subtle hints of hazy green softening the bare branches.  Not yet, but soon.

Next up - quilting and finishing Incandescent.

Quiltdivajulie

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"The best part about making a mistake is deciding if it will be an anchor or a sail."

J. K. Kennedy

Fandango - the Quilt

Fandango, the seventh quilt in my Macnas series, is finished.

(Fandango is a vibrant and lively shade of purple with pink undertones, often associated with a lively and energetic feel; it falls within the spectrum of magenta tones, offering a bold and eye-catching hue that can evoke a sense of creativity and fun)

This close up photo shows a more true version of the colors.

Quilted with my liberated all-over unmarked spiral fans using Glide thread in Pink.

The Timeless Treasures wide back demanded to be used in January (a year after the project was started) and I'm so glad I didn't argue with it.

52" x 72" overall, Fandango provided a real bright spot on a very gray day.

* * *

Next in line:  Incandescent is rolled onto the pool noodles and ready for pin basting - it is to be gifted in April and I want to have it finished and ready to ship without needing to worry it won't get there in time.

I also need to spend some time getting our tax paperwork together and ready for our tax guy -- I'd much rather sit and sew/quilt.

Quiltdivajulie

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"You meet saints everywhere.  They can be anywhere.  They are people behaving decently in an indecent society."

Kurt Vonnegut

Another Week Begins

The morning sunlight was just right a day or so ago and I was able to get a couple of really good photos of the blooming Christmas cacti.

Being landscape in orientation, I can't make this one as large but you can click on it to make it larger.

These make me so happy.

I'm trying hard to notice more moments of goodness and this morning sky filled with the remains of the many jet comtrails that crisscross above Memphis was just too good not to stop and take a photo.  

On my way home, the sky was clear blue so I'm glad I stopped when I did.

In the studio, aside from continuing to put things away that were piled for two weeks, I've managed to create the next four weekly circle collages for my Eclectic Energy journal.  

One more and I'll be caught up through the end of February.

The aquas . . . 

The red violets . . . 

And the blues.

Through an online newsletter, I discovered these STOBOK washi tape holders.

What an awesome way to consolidate and store washi tapes instead of the rolls constantly getting jumbled and-or rolling off the table and onto the floor.  

I love that I can see what I have more easily, too.

Here's where I've gotten so far.  Unfortunately, the repetitive action of wrapping the tapes around the new holders has aggravated my formerly frozen shoulder so I'm taking a break until it calms down again.

I'm loving how these first sets look and they take up literally one-half as much space in this new format.

* * *

I really want to see if I can get Fandango (Macnas no. 7)  quilted before the end of February,  along with at least a dozen other things.  

I know I can't get all of it done, but we shall see what I can manage.

Quiltdivajulie

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"Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always sings."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Catching Up and Making Progress

I pin basted Fandango on the very last day of January.  Next step is time with Max and a lot of free motion quilting.

This is the very last of the amaryllis blooms - it's been a marvelous run of reds, pinks, and whites over the past two months.

The driveway continues to reappear a bit at a time.  The bottom third is still solidly frozen to the concrete but that will change in the coming days.

Temps are expected to rise into the 40s Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday with overnight lows staying above freezing.  Neighborhood streets are still very icy and I won't miss that going away.  I will miss the serenity of the snow itself and the way it quiets so much exterior noise. 

Last week's Full Deck Challenge 4 shipping tag is now done.

These are the prompts I used from ShanoukiArt's longer list.  You can find her on You Tube.

My weekly paper nine patch for last week is done.  I've figured out that I like spacing the squares apart instead of keeping them tight together.

And the weekly collage using circles for last week is also done.  

Looking ahead - this is the fabric pull for Ruska, a Camp Sefton quilt project destined to become a seasonal ottoman quilt at Young Man's house.  

The fabric in the center is a wilder option for binding (I'm going to let him choose when he's here), backing fabrics on the right, and top fabrics on the left.

This is the other more subdued binding option.  

Design wise, I'm going with the same approach I used for The Yellow Quilt (2016) but this time without borders.  

(The Yellow Quilt was inspired by the Rouge design in Kaffe Fassett's Quilts in Morocco book)

I'm planning to cut 5" squares for the top and let YM lay them out on the design wall so I can then sew them all together.

I'll do the same kind of thing but with larger squares/sections and let him design the pieced back as well.

And, unsurprisingly, another squirrel named NUTSIE has taken up residence in the sewing room . . . his arrival brings the headcount in my scurry of studio squirrels to nine (gasp).   

But honestly, the way things are going, it feels like we all need a little more whimsy (fanciful or playful humor) in our lives.

And last but not least, here is my February 1 monthly photo of the backyard.

Quiltdivajulie

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"We don't create fantasy world to escape reality, we create it to be able to stay."

Lynda Barry

This, That, and More

In the game of bobbin chicken, this has to be my "best finish" to date. 

I had literally just finished the seam. Whew!

A long time ago, I pulled this mix of grays to use as backing for Fandango (Macnas series no. 7) since the "light" rectangles featured a lot of grayed neutrals.

Once up on the design wall it was a quick NO WAY - this is too dull and heavy.

(Note:  later in the day I decided to make a second set of January placemats for 2027 using the large scale KF print; I've tried numerous times to work it into a quilt but it has never played well and it really needs to stop hanging around in the stash)

I wasn't sure this Rubin design from eQuilter would work but it was the largest piece of stash yardage that even came close to Fandango's palette.

Again, it was a NOPE.  

Hmmmmmmm

A quick review of the waiting-to-be-quilted closet yielded this wide back that had been set aside for a future project.

That is not going to happen since it "is just right" to back Fandango.

For the sake of accountability on my weekly challenges, here is my scrappy paper nine-patch.

And my scrappy paper circles featuring 2" punch outs from food packaging.  I may go back in later and add smaller circles in the open areas.

This is my shipping tag for Full Deck Challenge 4 (prompts used include cat, red, yellow, clock, flower, ticket, postage stamp)

And lastly, I put the sticker Lynne sent in a magnetic photo holder and added it to the inspiration board in front of my sewing machine. 

Oh, and I've started quilting Trouvaille!

Quiltdivajulie

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"Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder."

E.B. White

Githerments and Trouvaille Make Progress

I decided that since Fandango (Macnas series no. 7 of 12) will be quilted early next year, I'd like to have Githerments (a bonus quilt made with leftover rectangles from Fandango and Blossoms) ready to be quilted as well.  With the same color palette I should be able to use the same quilting threads.  

To that end, I went ahead and spent part of an afternoon power sewing the remaining sets of color rectangles with black and white squares. 

The half-block strips are much neater since being pressed.

Next step was to sort the half-block strips based on the rectangle's color (41 unique fabrics in the mix).

This photo was taken after I'd started pairing pinks with purples (that's the taller stack at the far end of the dining room table).

I came up a few pinks short so I'll cut 24 additional rectangles, pair them with the leftover black and white squares and then pair the new half-block strips with the leftover purples.

I need a total of 156 4" x 6" (finished) blocks to lay out the quilt top (along the lines of Caim and Comfortable).

The nutcrackers on our dining room buffet kept a close eye on my work.

I've also gotten the back pieced and pressed for Trouvaille.  The back (left), batting (center) and top (right) are rolled onto pool noodles ready for me to pin baste the quilt sandwich early next week.  Trouvaille will be the 12th quilt for my annual quilt calendar so I need to get it done soon - the calendar itself is laid out and ready to order as soon as I have photos of this last 2025 finished quilt.

(the wrinkled batting on the far right is the last 62" from the giant roll - it has plenty of time to relax before I use it with one of the smaller quilts in the waiting-to-be-finished queue).

Quiltdivajulie