Minor Milestones

Another fun week! I did the best thing you can do when the temperatures are playing in the single digits in January. I sewed and quilted like crazy. 

I'm alternating right now between two projects, and it's working out well. I usually spend a little time in the morning and evening piecing blocks for my Choose Your Illusion quilt. It's a pattern by Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs. Her title is Use Your Illusion, but I mistakenly thought it was Choose, and that's stuck as the name for my quilt. I love working on this one. The seams nest so nicely. I always say that I love every aspect of making a quilt, but if I'm honest, I'm not that excited about sewing rows together, so for this quilt, I'm sewing the rows together as I go. That way I won't have a daunting task when I'm finished with the blocks. I'll just be done! It also keeps me from mixing blocks up as I'm working. I'm sewing in my living room, so I'm using my design couch instead of my design wall, and that's not ideal for keeping things straight. So, sewing blocks and rows together as I go is a win all the way around. I reached the halfway milestone yesterday, and since taking this picture, I've made the next row of blocks already.

In the afternoon, when the sun on the snow makes perfect lighting in my quilting room, I've been quilting on the Big Quilt. (If you want to see lots and lots of other posts about this quilt, just click on the label Big Quilt at the bottom of this post.) Another milestone!! I have officially quilted 2/3 of the top (and really more, because some of the already-quilted patches reach into that final third). I am picking up speed, and now that I'm waiting to bury threads until evening when I'm watching TV, it's going much faster. And all this quilting has made me so comfortable with my treadle--working with it daily reduces user error and seems to make the machine run smoother and smoother. This project was what I needed to master working with a treadle. 

Here's my favorite patch this week:

No more sketching--I just get in the zone and let it happen, irregular or not. And that's OK.

I usually sign my initials and the year in the bottom right corner of the quilt. That's where I was quilting this week, so I went ahead and signed it. Now it HAS to be done in 2016. I'm committed!

Even though this was a fun week there was one sad spot. The little quilt shop near my home closed last Friday. The owner decided to retire from retail. She had been thinking of retiring for a couple of years, and I think she's still planning to do longarm quilting, but I'll miss her store. It was close enough to ride my bike to and was always the first one I went to when I needed something or started a new project. I went on Thursday and bought enough batting for four small quilts and a piece of fabric that I might use on the back of Choose Your Illusion. 

So, that's it for the past week. Winter is definitely good for my productivity. And for a bonus, let me share with you my winter quilting "uniform." When my daughter was in middle school (or maybe early high school), she came across a fair isle sweater when we were shopping. The sweater was a men's medium. (She was tiny). This was in the era when biggest was best. The sales clerk said it was a classic design and a great buy because even though it cost a small fortune for a young teenager, it "would never go out of style." Now I knew that my daughter's love affair with the sweater would last only a season (or less), but I loved the sweater (more) and told her that she could get it if I could have it when she got tired of it. (I really hoped she'd tire of it quickly). Well, here I am at least 20 years later, and you know we've reached the deep freeze when I pull it out for a few weeks in January or February. 

Yup, it's still huge, even considering it's a men's medium. The shoulders fall about 5 inches down my arms and I have to fold the cuffs back, but it's roomy and cottony and warm, and I still love it. It's my favorite thing to wear in the house when I'm quilting at this time of year.

I'm linking up this week with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday and with Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social. Buttons are on the right.

I hope you're having a fun quilting week and that you're wearing your most comfortable quilting clothes.