Wadsworth, Buttercup, Jeff and Clover

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! February is certainly starting out mild up here! It's currently 51F at my house. Unbelievable! But it's supposed to cool down and snow starting Wednesday afternoon. The timing is perfect for me because I have plans to take a friend out to lunch for her 70th birthday on Wednesday so we'll just beat the snow!

I've made some great progress on my Dog Park quilt designed by Elizabeth Hartman. I finished the individual dog blocks:

Dog Park - Wadsworth Block

Dog Park - Buttercup Block

Dog Park - Jeff Blocks

Dog Park - Clover Blocks

I also fixed the ear units on my Pickles block. The two ear units were almost identical and I accidentally swapped them, so I took the ear units out of the block and put them back in the correct places:

Dog Park - Original Pickles Block

Dog Park - Fixed Pickles Block

It's subtle, but the ear shape is definitely better on the fixed block! And it really didn't take long to do. I'm proud of myself since I'm usually too lazy to fix something like this! If it was for me, I probably would have left it, but this quilt is for my sister so it was worth the extra effort. I was also able to get all of the dog blocks sewn together to make the body of the quilt.

Dog Park - Body of Quilt

I'm really pleased with how this quilt is turning out! I usually have trouble getting good consistent 1/4" seam allowances but I've been pretty spot on with this quilt. And this quilt really needs accurate seam allowances! I've also started on the tennis ball borders. I got all of the fabrics cut yesterday, but I decided not to do any sewing because it was extremely windy yesterday and we had a little power blip right when I was going to start. We often have full outages after these blips, so I turned off the sewing machine and concentrated on the cutting. This morning I went ahead and sewed the first couple of blocks for the border:

Dog Park - Tennis Ball Border Blocks

I went through all of the instructions with the first set of blocks to make sure I was reading the instructions completely. Now I'll sew everything at each step to get through the sewing more quickly. I also went to the quilt shop and picked up some colorful solid fabrics that I can use for applique flowers to add to the quilt. I'll cut some of those out and pin them to the quilt to see if I like them before committing to adding those.

As I mentioned above, a friend of mine turns 70 in a week. As a gift, I decided to make her a Twice As Nice Pouch designed by Aneela Hoey.

Twice As Nice Pouch - Front

Twice As Nice Pouch - Lining

I used the same fabric that I had used for one of the mini coin purses I made last week because she had admired that fabric from the purse. I think she'll really like this! (And now I need to make one for myself sometime.....)

I was also able to finish the embroidery for my Posy Pocket Handbag designed by Crabapple Hill:

Posey Pocket Handbag - Embroidery

I really like how this turned out! Now I just need to make the bag! And decide on my next embroidery project.

Finally, I've made some progress on my Boublay scarf designed by Laura Nelkin:

Boublay

This kit came with two small balls of yarn, designed for knitting two matching socks. The pattern was written for using one of the balls of yarn, but you could use both balls to make a larger scarf. I decided to continue on with the second ball of yarn, this time pulling the yarn from the outside of the ball rather than the inside to reverse the colors and keep the color transition smooth. I think I will like this scarf better at the larger size.

Nancy