Is it SPRING yet???

Spring is almost here --- 8 days away, but who is counting?  ME!!!!!!!!!  It has been a very long winter for various reasons, but I am sure mine has been no longer than anyone else's.  I am anxiously awaiting enough warmth to get some planting done.  I have lots of ideas for container gardening this year and am excited about getting started.  I did get a picture of my daffodils today …. almost there!    

 I am way behind on the quilting goals I set for myself at the first of January.  Oh well, what else is new?  I have had a ton of work, for which I am very grateful, and caring for my mother-in-law is a full time job in itself.  She is really losing ground and getting very feeble.  The Alzheimer's has really kicked in over the past three months.  She has forgotten how to do the most basic of her self-care needs.  I stand within arm's reach of her when she is in the shower and remind her to take the bar of soap and wash her body and take the shampoo and wash her hair.  She can still dress herself with minimal help, but that is about it.  There is no way she could even fix herself a sandwich.  We are going to take care of her as long as her safety does not become an issue.  Back to quilting --- I have managed to piece two table runners and have them laid out to try to quilt and bind one evening this week.  Here is the blue braid ...

The cat decided to jump in the second picture.  I bought this fabric several years ago and actually have had a friendship star quilt in mind for it, but I have been looking at pictures of this braid variant and decided to try it out.   As gorgeous as this blue is, it matches absolutely nothing in my house and may turn out to be a Christmas gift.  I did not have a pattern but it wasn't at all hard to figure out.  

The next one ..... this DOES match nearly everything in my house.  You may have heard me mention once or twice or even dozens of times that I LOVE Kansas Troubles fabric.  I have somehow managed to quilt for several years now without working with side-setting triangles or corner triangles.  Again, I did not have a pattern but it went together nicely.  I just took my time when working with the side triangles.  

One of the things I love dearly about Kansas Troubles is that nearly every line of fabric matches another line or three.  The side-setting triangles are Strawberry Jam, which I bought around 2006 or 2007.  The blue and tan is Aunt Purdy's Parlor and I am really happy with the way they look together.  I did not take any measurements at all when I was putting it together, but when I laid it on my dining room table was thrilled to see that it is a perfect fit.  

I had put together a little block with Cattails and Clover, also by Kansas Troubles, and had laid it aside to make a little potholder or candle mat when I discovered that the flower vines are not all headed in the same direction.  I had cut 4 extra Strawberry Jam triangles for the table runner and ended up sewing them to the sides since it also matched the Cattails and Clover.  It is probably 13 or 14 inches square now and I will find something to do with it.  

 

Lastly, I have found a couple of things on Pinterest that I have actually tried instead of simply pinning and never using.  These swing-arm hangers are perfect for spools of ribbon ...

Just make sure you get the hangers with the smaller arms and not the fat ones, seen in the picture.  Some spools will fit on the fat ones, but not very many.  Secondly, I love looking at Goodwill to find great cotton fabric to upcycle into something awesome.  Plaid fabric in guys' shirts often works very well with primitive quilting projects.  I always save the buttons for future use.  Thanks to Pinterest, I found the coolest way to do this --- cut off the whole strip instead of each individual button.  This saves a ton of time when searching for like buttons and it is easy to see in an instant what size, color, and number of buttons you have. 

I don't spend a great deal of time on Pinterest because I do not need anything else as addictive as quilting, but it sure is handy to keep "stuff" in one place and see other folks' "stuff."  Hopefully after the upcoming weekend I will have pictures of my two newly quilted table runners!  Hugs from Kentucky!