Sunday, April 28, 2013

April Recap

Wow, April sure flew by me!  I didn't even get around to blogging once during the month, but now it's time for my April UFO recap and plans for May.

I got three of my plans for April completed - that's probably a record!
This dinosaur quilt is my second quilt for Hands 2 Help - this one is going to Quilters Without Borders.  It's a dinosaur panel in the middle, with some blocks added on top and bottom to make it the correct size.  I did a lot of free-motion quilting on this one, and a machine-applied border, so it should stand up to some wear and tear.  It's a lot cuter than this crooked picture shows!   It's completely done, but I think I need to add a label.  I'm calling it done anyway!
This Bricks and Cornerstones quilt is also quilted and bound.  This was a scrap quilt from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville, and I made it as part of our guild's retreat day in March.  It will be a donation quilt eventually, but I need to show it in the guild show next April.  I'm done a year in advance though!

And all the appliques are on My Favorite Things, all blanket stitched and ready to quilt.  I'm not sure whether this will be machine or hand quilted.  I love the way Linda machine quilted the model at the store, but I lack that talent, unfortunately. I may give it a whirl anyway. 

So, that's three of my April UFOs done!  I'm pretty happy about what I was able to finish in April, but things will probably come to a screeching halt quilt-wise now that spring is finally here.  We had a cold, wet April (like most of the country, I think), but this weekend has been beautiful.  I can't wait to get out and do some gardening, but that's still a few weeks away.  I did pick some chives from the garden tonight - they are always the first thing to come up, and it's so nice to have something fresh from the garden.

For May, my UFOs are:
1.  Keep quilting on the wall hanging from the cruise - no progress on that in April, other than hauling it on vacation and back.  It had a nice trip south to find spring - does that count for anything?
2.  Finish the cross-stitch pin keep - no progress on this either.
3.  Baste and quilt My Favorite Things wall hanging.
4.  Finish my last two blocks from last year's BOW from Primitive Gatherings, called Evelyn's Album.  Their Block of the Week usually starts in June, so it's time to get last year's done!

On our way back from vacation, I found a new-to-me quilt shop called Inspirations in Hills, Iowa.  It's a very cute shop featured in this year's Quilt Sampler magazine, which is just now available.  They were giving their customers a free template to cut shapes for a braid quilt from 2 1/2" strips, so I may have to try that out this month.  I have a lot of 2 1/2" strips left, even after several scrap quilts lately.  If you're anywhere close to Iowa City, it's worth it to check out this shop.

That's it for April!  See you in May.