Little Blocks Quilt Finished

The Little Blocks quilt is finished and has been delivered to its new home. I have also written the quilt's story. I like this quilt and may very well make another version of it.

I've been getting everything ready for my Liberated Birds Classes I'll be teaching at the Night Owl Quilting Studio later this month. (They have added two more class dates to the schedule.) I went through my class kit and updated some data and went through all my samples and example pieces so I had it all clear in my head about what I wanted to say and demonstrate. 

Years ago I set up a separate travel kit so I don't have to pack my tools when I have a class, and I know I have everything in one place, ready to go. I went through that and got that ready to go. I haven't taught an in-person class since before the pandemic (2019), and I am very excited to teach again. I had printed copies of my tutorial for reference in the class, and the kit reminded me that I have updated the tutorial since, so I ordered printed copies of the newest version. I've made a list of the quilts I want to bring with me. I'll bring Crowing About It, which is the quilt made from birds students have sent me.

The weather has been good for working out in the garden and I've been clearing the old raised bed in the yard. It's less work than I thought it would be, and I'm enjoying it. I want to plant tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, snap peas and some corn. All that in addition to my usual herbs and lettuces. I got about a third of it done, but the weather is supposed to be rainy all week, so I don't know when I can get to the rest of it. I have a gal who will help me out, so I won't overtax myself.

I was assembling a planter box on Friday when I got bitten by some bugs on both wrists. Now, mosquitoes love me, and their bites always swell up and remain itchy for days, but these bites were just next level. There must have been ten bites on my wrists and hands and all swelled up and were crazy itchy. I tried all the anti-itch anti-bugbite stuff I had but nothing seemed to work. These bites drove me crazy. I had a hard time sleeping, and actually woke up in the middle of the night dreaming of being itchy, and scratching both wrists. I tried applying ice, and that seemed to settle things down a bit.

I made it through Saturday, and had the same hard time sleeping Saturday night. The location of the bug bites made them sensitive whenever they came in contact with anything, like the sleeves of my shirt,  putting my hand in my pocket, or anything I touched. I had an antihistamine cream I had been using, but when I checked the tube it had expired in 2022. 

I drove to the drugstore and showed my wrists to the pharmacist. He winced. "OH! Does it itch?"

"Is the sky blue? It itches every single minute."

He told me where to find the Cortisone creams and said to buy the cheapest one. When I got home and looked at the directions, it said to apply it three or four times a DAY! Well, three or four times a day was about three or four times less than I needed! No matter what I had done, the itching never stopped.

I knew it would go away eventually, but sleep was what I wanted most. After applying the Cortisone cream thoroughly, I realized that perhaps the swelling was making things worse, so I took an ibuprofen before I went to bed.

This morning the swelling has gone down, and it's almost bearable.

So anyway, that's what's been going on in my neck of the woods!

Crowing About It

 

The first student bird quilt, Crowing About It, is finished. I've been sewing the binding on it while catching up on Sanditon, Top Chef and The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. This is the only place in the house that I can hang it, and it gets terrible light, so this isn't a very good photo, but I PROMISE to take outdoor beauty shots when the weather improves.

Whenever that is!

In The Meantime...

 

I never work on more than one quilt at a time. Now I've got TWO going simultaneously. AND I've got two STUCK. I am waiting for more fabric for each, so I am sewing the binding on the first student bird quilt, "Crowing About It."

Oopsie!

 

I'm in New England, and we got hit hard with a Nor'Easter on Tuesday. I elected to work from home, which was smart as the roads were just terrible. As it happened the powers that be decided to close the plant at noon because travel was so treacherous. So I got a real live Snow Day. I was glad I had sewn the binding on the Crowing About It quilt, because it meant I could sit on the couch and sew while I "watched" the BNP Paribus Open on TV. But then I started to fold the binding over I realized that I had not added a hanging sleeve to the quilt. OOPS!

I rummaged around the bin with the leftover backing fabric, and pulled out this, measured it all up and made the hanging sleeve.

Then I had to unsew the binding from the top edge of the quilt, slip the hanging sleeve between the binding and the quilt and pin it in place.

But before I could pin the binding over to the front of the quilt I heard a big WHOMPH!

A branch from a tree had broken and as it fell it brushed against my house and one end landed at the edge of my roof. It had been slowed down by the bushes nearby but it was still startling.

I pinned the binding over to the front of the quilt. NOW I am ready to sew it down.

Binding the Crowing About It Quilt

 

This is the fabric I chose to bind the first student bird quilt, "Crowing About It." 

Regular readers know I sew my binding to the back of my quilts, so I can do the finish on the front.

It's nice to have a quilt to work on when I "watch" television (Top Chef Season 20 started last week, and the Tournament of Champions IV is well underway) so I'm happy to finally get this quit to a point where I can be sewing while I watch TV.

Working my way around, mitering the corners...

Here I've joined the strips and sewn it all down.

I like to fold the binding over to the front and pin it all down before I start hand sewing it. But that will happen later.

Crowing About It

 

This is the first student bird quilt, quilted. I was finally able to connect with Janet-Lee Santeusanio and pick up this quilt. Both of us have been really busy since I dropped this off last summer.

Once home I set out some fabrics to see what would be best as a binding.

So here are three options. I have decided which one I will use, but I will keep that under my hat for now. 🤣

These birds are birds inspired from my tutorial, Lynne’s Liberated Birds, which you can get on Etsy. It’s an instant download, so you can get started right away. These birds were not made by me. These were made by students/ readers / customers, who took the ideas in the tutorial and made variations on the “standard” bird. I feel this will be a terrific quilt to show students.

I may have had a title for it back when, but my Mom accidentally named it while we were visiting Janet-Lee over the weekend. “Your students will be crowing that their birds are in you quilt,” she observed.

“MA! I love it. You just named the quilt! CROWING ABOUT IT!”