END OF THE MONTH UPDATE AND SOME MORE IDEAS

 February may be a short month but it has been a very long month for me.  Getting my Garden Party Down Under second month instructions complete of a 12 month project has been a challenge.  A minor error with my interpretation of mirror image threw me off a bit, but my quilt guild obligations as both treasurer and second in command membership co-chair has me running about like crazy.  February ends the guild's fiscal year and as we are a 501(c)7 we have mountains of federal and state tax forms.  Plus getting everyone on board for a budget meeting.  I am also involved with helping plan our guild's quilt show in April.  My home is were all the meetings take place as I can easily sit 15 or 20 people, and my husband makes the best cookies.

The above picture is how the vines should have been finished on my GPDU.  But because my error had the vines ending as opposite angles I could not complete them in the correct manner.

Thus I ended them as you see here.  I am very happy with how I managed to save the day.  

Only the very last dog ear border on the bottom to go.  I should be able to get that on by Monday and be ready to start March instructions on Tuesday.  

Do I need another project, NO!  But this guy might just be too cute to pass up.  Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom offers monthly free patterns for very fun appliqué projects.  I have a daughter that volunteers with a feral cat rescue team feeding and trapping feral cats and getting them neutered and returned to their colonies.  They have a couple fund raisers each year to help pay for the vet services.  I took advantage of this particular February free pattern and hope to slip it in-between some of my more challenging scheduled obligations.  

And old picture taken by my youngest daughter one evening at her home.  Her peacocks were out enjoying the evening sunset.  

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GARDEN PARTY DOWN UNDER MONTH TWO & SNYDER

I have spent the entire week working on my Garden Party Down Under February BOM instructions.  What I thought would be a much easier month after the center piece and dog ear borders has not turned out to be all that simple.  An error on the vines placement threw me off a bit, but I decided to move on and deal with that as is.  

All four borders are now done.  I have left about 6 inches on the vines that are tucked under the brown and white half square triangles.  I am now debating wether to end them as you see now or extend them into the squares curved and tuck into the seam in the center of the half squares blocks.  Maybe add a couple more leaves as well.  I have the rest of the month to make four more dog ear borders on the outside of them.  I did manage to get the bottom border sewn onto the center piece and add that final leaf that extends into the first dog ear border.  Everything fits perfectly so far, so just planning to keep marching forward.

My daughter sent me this picture of my oldest grandson Elijah.  The duck's name is Snyder.  My daughter has a whole zoo of chickens, peacocks, and yes ducks.  Snyder was a rescue, she found him in a rain drainage pond area near a busy street amongst Canadian Geese.  When she stopped to check out why he would be there he ran up to her and it was obverse he had been abandoned and would not do well among the wild geese.  She picked him up and carted him home and he now lives with her 15 or 20 Muscovy duck friends very happily.  But Snyder thinks Elijah is his very best friend and the feeling is mutual.

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BABY QUILTS & GARDEN PARTY DOWN UNDER FEBRUARY

Two things I am juggling this past week.  Some baby quilts to stash away for emergency baby shower gifts and the February instructions for my Garden Party Down Under Block of the month project.

I have two daughters that live within 15 or 20 minutes of me.  We are long ago past the new grand baby stages, but they often are invited to baby showers and ask if I have a spare baby quilt hanging around.  Well, yes I do.  I keep a stash of them all ready to give them.  They hit me up with three just before January so my supply was getting pretty low.  This past week I got busy and turned out two.  Just need those bindings hand sewn down and we are back in business.  

I am back at my Garden Party Down Under with February's instructons given out on the 1st.  I have run into a little issue with the extension of the vines into the half square triangles.  The directions said mirror image of the two vine and leaf sides, which I seem to have misunderstood.  The top vine section was suppose to be the same curve as the lower one.  Now I could scrap the entire border and also the second one I have almost done and start over, or figure out some different design to  join it to those half square.  The appliqué is all done on this finished border and part on the second.  I'm voting for figuring out a new design to join them.

Zoey our little 11 month old Yorkshire Terrier has found herself the perfect afternoon nap place.  Not a care in the world.  I was tempted to join her after discovering my mishap on my BOM.  Sometimes a dogs life is just the right place to be.  

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CRAZY DOT BLOOMS AND CAMDEN STATION ADDITIONS

Finishing up my January Garden Party Down Under a week before February's instructions came out gave me an opportunity to work on two other project hanging around the sewing room needing attention.

I managed to get several more blossoms on my Polka Dot project.  I must admit these are wacky fabric choices for sure.  However, it is so fun.  No pattern, I just stumbled across a picture on the internet and went for it.  The vase originally was to be a tea pot but the handle and spout I cut out were a light dot yellow and the black dots on the lower right background showed through the yellow fabric so I scraped them and just made it a vase.  Still have three more blossoms to add, coming up with some crazy prints combinations still needed.

Camden Station blocks 4 and 5 are finished.  Almost half way there as I have a start on the 6th one now.  That last fifth block ended up for some reason being a real chore.  I got the vase down before getting the right and left vines tucked into it.  I finally got that all appliquéd down but it really threw me into a bit of head scratching.  One has to really think these things out when what goes down first and what goes down next.  This particular block had lots of over and under lays.     

My daughter sent me this old picture a week or so ago.  An old picture taken in January of some years ago when we were celebrating birthdays at our home.  Made me laugh.  The white poodle was ours, Sophie passed away in May of 2019 at the the ripe old age of 17.  The other three each belong to two daughters and our granddaughter and still manage hanging around hoping for January birthday treats.  You never know when the chef might slip up and drop a slice or two of that nice piece of beef their way.   

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