A Finish and Other Whatnots

Hi everyone!!  I hope that you all had a great weekend!  And that you're staying warm!  We've been colder than anything around here lately.  I'm hoping that the groundhog is right this year and Spring comes early.  In my book, it can't come early enough.  I'm sick of all this cold!!

I finally tamed the beast in the form of the mitered borders on the Cotton Club and it's finished.  After months of putting the thing together and then another month (or two... or three) of stressing over the darned mitered border, I finally took myself by the arm, forced myself into the sewing chair and decided it was time to get it off the quilting WIP list once and for all.  So thanks to those wonderful videos on YouTube, here it is:

Ahem...Bailey, do you think that you could move?

Hello?  Bailey?  Do you hear me?  Hmmm, not listening, are you???  Darned dog!!  No surprise there - just like my kids when they were little (well, they're still that way - who am I kidding?).  Oh well, the lighting isn't good for a photo op anyway.  So a couple hours later the lighting got better and I convinced Bailey to go outside (I told him that there was a kitty cat in his yard), and here is my finish:

The Cotton Club

(mitered borders and all)

I don't know what my big fear was with mitering those borders - it turned out to be so easy (although you'll notice the fabric tails at the corners that I can't bring myself to cut off until the quilt has its final pressing just in case).  I'm so happy that it's finally done!!

In stitching news, Ann Smith is coming along although not as quickly as I had hoped.  A few nights where stitching time was a big fat zero.  But this is where I was last time I posted:

And this is where I was a couple days ago - Dear Son came home for a visit along with four friends from college this weekend and they camped out in our basement.  Can you say Dorm party?  Lots of cooking and washing (DS couldn't let an opportunity pass by without having mom do his wash) and laughing because of all the funny college stories they told and yes, there were a couple that I had to plug my ears - kind of - LOL):

The over one lettering and the sky just below that were the real time killers.  That took so long!!  But I'm loving her with her bright colors.  Although by my next post I may be hating her.  After this section, I have a whole section of over one.  If you hear some screaming and a car furiously gunning its engine and the squealing of tires (that is if our roads aren't all iced over as they have been here for a while, otherwise you can envision me furiously doing donuts in the street), you can rest assured that it will be me trying to run it over!!

After finishing up the Cotton Club I decided to start on one of the quilting projects I picked for this year.  Well, I lied.  I actually started two projects.  I started on Sylvia's Bridal quilt and got the first four blocks done.   Dear Jane will wait a little bit as I think that I'm learning a lot with these blocks that will serve me well when it comes time for Jane.  These are persnickety blocks - a little more detailed than the Farmer's Wife blocks.  Or maybe not - I think that with these blocks I'm given less fabric to work with than with previous Block of the Month programs, so I have to really take my time in cutting out the pieces.  The blocks will be a finished size of 6 inches.

Sylvia's Bridal Quilt BOM

I decided that since these blocks were rather time consuming I would also work on another quilt.  One that doesn't require a lot of brain power and can go together easily.  This was a kit from a local quilt store that I picked up during the summer and because of the fabrics - Blackbird Designs Antique Fair, I just had to have it.  I only have three blocks together at this point:

Easy peasy blocks that I can practically do blindfolded....well, maybe not.

So there you have it.  A little bit about what I've been up to since my last post.

And I have an apology too.  One of my plans (not a resolution, but a plan) was to post more and also comment more in 2013.  I have seriously lagged in the commenting department and I'm sorry for that.  It seems that I've needed a slight break from commenting because of things that have been going on around here  - nothing bad at all, just the kind of thing where you need to put attention to other things for a while.  Seems that once I got through my craft room, I proceeded to go through the house with reckless abandon cleaning out things.  I don't know about other people, but I get a huge sense of "Ahhhh" when I get things cleaned out.  I'm happy, the Salvation Army is happy, but it hasn't left me with much time to comment - and when I've had time, I put it into sewing as a reward for cleaning things out.  We're also gearing up to do some inside home improvements which means I'm driving around in my car looking for paint colors, bathroom vanities, etc.  BTW, did I mention that I hate looking for paint colors!!

So, I'm sorry and hopefully I'll be back to commenting more soon.  I think that my husband is getting a little worried that I'm going to empty out the entire house and buy all new things!  Well, it's been a thought!  Not really - maybe some new stash - but definitely not a whole house of goods.

Have a wonderful week and thank you so much for your comments!!  They truly mean a lot to me!!