Animals in My Barn

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! We're half way through March and no big snows at my house yet. We've had several minimal snows, but nothing worthwhile. March is generally our snowiest month, so hopefully something will come through soon. While it's nice to not have to shovel, we really need the big snows to reduce the fire danger.

When I went to a local quilt shop a couple of weeks ago, I came across a cute panel for making a soft book. It looked perfect for my great niece who is now 4 months old, so I picked it up. This weekend I knuckled down and put it together. It's called "Animals in My Barn."

Animals in My Barn

It has several flaps to open to reveal some of the animals and the sounds they make:

Animals in My Barn - Pigs Flap

There are three finger puppets:

Animals in My Barn - Finger Puppets

And a horse and cow to play with:

Animals in My Barn - Cow

There are pockets to store the finger puppets, horse and cow:

Animals in My Barn - Pocket

I mostly followed the directions for the panel, but did line the pockets and finger puppets to make them more durable. 

I also finished my little Flowering Shrubs embroidery:

Flowering Shrubs

This was a lot of fun to make and I look forward to working on the other two scenes that came with it! Then I'll have to figure out how I want to use them!

I also made some more progress on my Ruffled Roses designed by Sue Garmin. This project will be put away for a while so I can work on my Jungle Magnolia BOM when that arrives, so I wanted to get to a good stopping point. I was able to put together all of the pieces for the four-patch border that I have been working on:

Ruffled Roses - Four Patch Borders

I can't add these borders to the quilt until I finish the preceding applique border, but here's how it's looking so far:

Ruffled Roses - Current Progress

I finished the four-patch border before finishing the applique border because I was working on this at our monthly BOM small group meeting and I didn't want to get to the meeting and find out that I didn't have all of the applique supplies I needed. So, I'll have to go back to the applique border and really concentrate on this after I work on the Jungle Magnolia quilt.

Finally, I've made a lot of progress on my Desert Blossom Blanket designed by Rohn Strong. 

Desert Blossom Blanket

I'm making good progress on this blanket and should have it finished by next week. There are only a few rounds left. Since I like to have things as centered as possible and every number in the last section of this pattern is wrong, I have to evaluate the stitch pattern and calculate where it should start on each side before I can begin each round. I have markers in each corner and in the center stitch on each side so I can check for mistakes in my math and in my stitching as early as possible to reduce the amount of ripping I have to do. I'm really enjoying the variety of stitches and the feel of the yarn while making this blanket!

Nancy