OK, so it was more than one block

Remember my previous urge to do some hand-sewing? Well, it has turned out to be a little more lasting than I had expected.

Since the previous post, I've made two more blocks and have cut out the pieces for another one already. I've decided to use some of my novelty prints that have been sitting around for a while. I love novelty prints, but it's not always easy to work them into other quilts, unless they are for babies/kids or for someone like me that apparently never grew up. It's been fun working with the cute patterns and bright colors. It's definitely my style.

Here are the new blocks:





And the three together:



As much as I'm enjoying these, I have to put them aside for a while. One reason is that my friend's sister has asked me to make her a Purdue quilt, so it's back to black and gold fabric until I get that finished. (And started, but I've already bought some more Purdue fabric and more "gold." I have lots of black around.)

And another project I just finished was a slouchy dark gray beret that I knitted for myself, since it matches my coat and will look OK with just about any scarf I own. Of course, now that the hat is finished, the weather has turned bizarrely warm. Like 80 degrees warm. If I could guarantee the temperature would stay like this, I'd continue with the hat knitting!

Old school

Did I ever mention that the first two quilts I made - both around queen size - were done entirely by hand? My mom and I worked on the first one together, a Grandmother's Flower Garden, but the second one, a Seven Sisters pattern, was all me. It took FOREVER.

Anyway, I was a die-hard hand-piecer and hand-quilter. After a while, I finally got a sewing machine and started working with it. It was so hard to get used to! I finally did get acclimated, and now do a majority of my piecing and quilting on a sewing machine. I still have a few projects that I decide to hand quilt, but I hadn't hand pieced anything for a long time.

Until tonight. I'm not quite sure where the urge came from, but I was so in the mood to do some hand sewing. I busted out my template plastic, pencil, straight pins, needle and thread.

And here's the result:


I'm not sure if this will be a singular block (potholder, maybe?) or a small quilt or a big quilt, but it was nice to do things the old-fashioned way for a change.