I've been sewing up a storm here. The pink string quilt is making good progress. It still only has two borders, but maybe I'll get the other two on soon. I'm hampered in finishing this one because I need batting, backing and binding for this community quilt. Today was my guild's community quilt day and I had planned to get down there and pick up the necessary supplies. Unfortunately, I came down with a nasty cough and fever and I didn't want to infect all the ladies. So, it may be a month or two before this one is finished. Here's a close-up. I like how the red sets off the pink and purple.
This is the Charlotte's Web block that I was working on for my guild. The guild was asked by our local hospice center to make a children's quilt. I am part of the committee and decided to do a truck block for Ryan and this one for Chloe. I forgot to get a photo of the truck block, but I'll get one eventually. It's going to be a great quilt filled with the sorts of stuff that kids like. When it's finished it will hang in the hospice center's meeting room.
I finally made some progress on Better Not Pout! Yesterday I embroidered the lines on Ryan's drawing of Santa. I really like how this came out. I decided to embroider through the two layers of fabric and I like how it stayed flat, with no bunching from the embroidery.
I'm trying to decide what to do next with this. Do you think it would be good with a plain border or a pieced border? I really think it needs something, just not sure what.
You can put this next one into the "Kathy made me do it" category. Last week I was enjoying her blog and saw her adorable Sugar and Spice quilt. I had seen the Bento Box pattern before, but hadn't given it a whole lot of thought until I saw it there. In addition to that I've been thinking about making a quilt for my oldest nephew who is about to graduate from high school. This pattern seems tailor made for him and I had a stash of blues I've been wanting to use up. By necessity this quilt won't be as charming as Kathy's because of the more subdued colors, but this block couldn't be simpler to put together and works great with fat quarters. I don't have the Bento Box pattern, just figured it out from looking at the photos online. It seems a little strange to work on something so precise after all the free piecing I've been doing lately.
I discovered that it takes me about a half hour to put together a four block set and that means there's a real sense of accomplishment even if I can only get into the studio for a short time. I'm well on my way to having enough for a quilt top. And, I'm finally using up the blues that I hardly ever go to. I'm not sure why that is, I wear blue all the time.
I'm showing this photo just because it seems like a tradition now to pose Scrabble on the ripple blanket whenever he gets groomed. Here's the handsome boy and the blanket looks pretty good too. I want to make it longer, but it had gotten down to having only autumn colors in the basket. I bought a few brights to lighten it up and I'm still working on it sporadically. I do get it out often to snuggle under even though it's not finished. Is that weird?
Today was my last day of radiation! What a relief to have all the hard stuff over. Actually, radiation wasn't bad at all. I came to see it as a quiet spot in the day. I'd go and sit and knit while waiting, then close my eyes and relax for a few minutes during treatment. The skin reaction isn't too bad either. Tomorrow, I start taking an aromatase inhibitor which is a long term medication. My hair is growing out now. Sometimes I wear a baseball cap and my friends have seen me without a hat. I'm not quite ready to go completely hatless in public, but I'm getting there. Life goes on and if I didn't have this darn cold we'd be out celebrating tonight. Hopefully we'll get a chance to do it this weekend.