This is my new quilting assistant Mew. She is not actually mine, but Sammy's. He worked hard and kept his room clean for a whole month, even picking up after Phillip, who shares his room, just to make sure that he got it right. That is pretty amazing for a seven year old, he really wanted a kitten. When he is home from school she is not out of his hands, but she has to do something while he is in school and she came and visited me while I worked. Can you see the white tip on her tail? He named her Mew because that's what she told him her name is. He is in love. She is a very sweet kitten and purrs very loudly. Very friendly and always wants to be where people are.

The hour glass units seen with her are going to be sashing between the Dresden Plate blocks. I have a lot to make, ten per strip for each sash. I haven't started appliqueing the plates onto the background yet, I need to cut them out which means cleaning off the table and it's not my stuff on the table. I'm going to try to work on that tomorrow. If not I can always work on hour glasses.

Another top finished. It seems they are all coming together at once lately. I finished this one on Ernestine the treadle this afternoon although I finished the blocks about a year and a half ago. This is one of my Pinwheel series and there are quite a few blocks left in the tub. At 32 triangles per block and 144 blocks there are 3,608 triangles in this quilt. That's a lot of triangles although I never count pieces before I start to piece. If I did I probably would not start. Anyway it's ready to be quilted. And the tops are piling up again.

I hope the part for my machine comes soon. I need to get quilting!

Hexagons are coming along pretty fast too.

My little birds are escape artists. We had a lot of fun catching them.

They are fast. Happily I could shut the door and keep the other bird catchers out.

Wishful thinker. Any way you look at it, it makes life fun. I never leave the door open if I am not in the room. I love having birds again, I have missed them so much these past years I haven't had birds. I miss having canaries, but am content with these little beauties. They are very talkative and just love conversing with the sewing machines. They talk back to the TV too and like really loud music. Hmm sounds like some teenagers I know.

Now I need to plan the next quilt that Ernestine the treadle and I will work on. I don't know whether I will use some more of the Pinwheel blocks or start something entirely new. Or, maybe one of the UFOs upstairs in the tub. We will see.

Moving right along! I'm trying to do a sort of light/dark pattern, but mostly I'm trying to make sure that each blade contrasts with the ones next to it. These blocks have some of my favorite fabrics in them, some of it the last time I will use it since it will be gone.

I have 15 now, well over half done; actually 3/5 done because I am doing 25 blocks in all. When they are all done I will applique the "plates" onto the background and then I have an idea for pieced sashing. Then I have an idea for a border using more blades. I'll be on this quilt for a while yet. I am happy with that. The quilts left in the UFO tub are waiting for me to find the pattern, or the diagram I drew when I was planning them and it gives me more time to find them.

I also finished another Drunkard's Path Turtle top down here in the basement over the last couple of days. Now I am piecing Drunkard's Path birds that I have pinned and ready to put together. No specific plan for these yet.

It will soon be warm enough to weave again so I need to pick up where I left off with that last Fall and it will take a little while to figure out exactly where I did leave off.

Still plugging away with the hexagons too in my afternoon hand sewing. I'll get pictures of that soon.

So it's busy, busy, busy, which keeps me happy, happy, happy. I'm never bored!

I got started sewing the blades together for the Dresden Plate quilt that was next in the UFO tub, but then I realized I didn't have enough for the blocks I wanted to make and I didn't have anywhere near enough variety sooo,

I cut a whole bunch more.

I got this ruler to make Tumblers with, but it was originally designed for Dresden Plates. I love cutting, so probably I cut way more than I needed.

Anyway I found the best thing for poking out the points is a flat screw driver, quick and easy and then iron.

I finished sewing and pressing the points this morning and actually got a back on sewing the blades together. These are fun and I do have a plan. I expect to be on this quilt top for several weeks.

It's just as well, I can't do any actual quilting until the part comes for Julia Juki, I am hoping for that this week. When that gets here I will finish quilting Fancy Nine Patch.

And basted four more or I will wind up with a half dozen more tubs of unquilted tops like I did before.

Meanwhile I have a couple of tubs of completed quilts that I need to get sent to new homes that I have planned for them but haven't the money for postage. Sigh. If it's not one thing it's another. Not to complain though, I've had the fun of making them and since I've gotten almost caught up on the UFOs I can slow down, relax and enjoy the process even more than ever.

I wound up the Ohio Star blocks today. I have 159, the quilt planned is going to wait for a couple of months to be put together. I am a little burned out on them since I used so many in the borders for the medallion quilt.

I pulled this out of the UFO tub:

Dresden Plate. I've had it started for three or four years. I thought I had plenty of the blades prepped, now however, after sewing the first ones together, I don't think I will have enough.

They look like a pile of neck ties there. I stopped and figured out how many I was going to need, 300 and I don't have that many, so tomorrow I will pull some fabrics off the shelf and cut out some more. They are fun to do so it's not a problem. The more variety of fabrics the better they look any way.

We have a lawyer that's arbitrating for us, so that's encouraging. My kidney function has improved a tiny bit so that is encouraging too. All in all I can't complain. Still waiting for the sewing machine part, but I knew that was how it was going to be so I can be patient. I will be glad to have it back though, the tops are starting to pile up again!

It's a top, totally scrappy and ready to be quilted. Pretty big, nearly 90" x 90". No pattern since I made it up as I went along. This quilt went together so easily. It was complicated enough that it kept me interested right down to the last, but not so complicated that it frustrated me. It was so much fun!

I'm still waiting for the part for Julia Juki, there is still a basted quilt I'm waiting to finish before I baste again, this quilt will be among the next ones to be basted and I've got plenty of time to plan how I will quilt it.

Time to dig into the UFO tub and see what is next. That's for next week though. I've still Ohio Star block pieces cut out and I will finish those next. Anyway, that's for tomorrow. The rest of the day today is my hand sewing, with my feet up, listening to my birds chatter and watching the cat try to figure out how to fly so he can get up to where the birds are.

Working on my last pieced border. The squares are out of inch and a half strips and finish at one inch. It's really easy to get the border the right size with these small squares. I am alternating pink-green-pink and green-pink-green strip sets to get a pink-green checkerboard three squares wide. It's hard to believe this quilt top is only about 3 days away to it's finish. Its gone together so smoothly without being hard to make the effort the ways it seems they used to. It must be the experience.

These are the two newest members of the family, Patchwork and Piecing.

These two older members of the family are absolutely fascinated. I don't leave them in my room with the birds. I don't think they can reach them but I don't want to take any chances. I really wanted a canary but couldn't afford them, so I decided to be happy with with two parakeets. They don't sing quite as pretty but they talk a lot. And they play so cute I can't help but laugh. The cat's antics are pretty funny too.

I spent the afternoon cleaning and putting away things in the bedroom. Tomorrow it's the sitting room. Since I got everything cleaned up I want to stay on top of it, especially since it's warm enough down here now that we are finally getting Spring. Actually it was 84 degrees on Tuesday, that's Summer.

I had two doctor's appointments this week. Yesterday it was a diabetes check and everything is ok with that, it's nice to have good news. No more doctor's appointments until near the end of the month.
The car is actually behaving. I'll take what I can get!

 It's getting hard to get the whole thing in the picture.

I am going to do one more pieced border. I don't think I'll do more than that. When it is on I will decide whether or not I will do a final whole cloth border.

I thought I was having a lot of fun on my last few quilt tops, but compared with the fun on this one they were tame.

I also thought I would be getting another die for my Accuquilt, but I've only tapped the surface of these little quarter-square triangles that are on the first dieI bought so I'll put it off for another month. After all, why buy something if I don't need it?

I still have five more of the center Feathered Star blocks. I already have ideas for the next one.

The next doll outfit, also pretty tame.  They will soon be all done and I will go on to the next thing. Some clothes for me!

I had a doctor's appointment today. She just wanted to check up on my diabetes since my medication change and everything is ok in that direction. We went to Goodwill and a couple of garage sales and I got some plaid shirts to cut up. I am trying to get together  enough cat color plaids to make the cat quilts for the boys. The trouble is I have to make three at about the same time so as not to hurt feelings. I'm not sure what I will do so they can tell them apart, but it will come to me. The have to be big quilts too. Phillip is a giant, Malachi is tall and Sammy is a tank. No point in making them so small they won't be comfortable for the boys to use.

So it's time I got busy, I'm trying to wrap up the last top of the larger size of hexagons that I'm using. Time to think of my next hand project is coming up and there are so many to choose from that it's difficult to decide. It will come to me though anticipation is also an enjoyable thing.