the weekend's here...

and plenty of sewing plans on the to-do along with some (drat) cooking duties...the many pluses to a healthy diet do not include quick-to-fix processed foods, so more time is taken up with meal prep and cleanup, but doing all i can to streamline the process to maximize sewing machine time...did finish block #2 in the antebellum album sew along PLUS finished all the setting blocks. 

block #2 (right) is made with some gorgeous jo morton prints....ah, i just love her fabric designs and anxious for may when a new line of neutrals will be out.  for now will focus on the scrappy DWR, a new applique gardening angel block and quilting the donation quilt.  a march finish?  that would be good but it's a busy month so probably not.  *** with the sighting of a skunk today and the sound of early morning birds, spring is definitely almost here.  time does indeed fly!

head start

remember this?

with february's goal completed early (the scrap basket), moved on to sewing up some foursies from a stash of 2" squares, but for march it'll be this scrappy project....

i need to make 240 of these arc pieces, plus cut 120 melons plus the curved outer pieces for this flimsy.  have made a good start with these and with plenty of scraps, should meet this goal easily.  i have made 2 DWR quilts so far...but i am a scrappy girl at heart and have long admired them from afar.  ***  also in february made a start on this wallhanging....

all the color pieces are ready but more of the backgrounds are still needed before this can get started.  these projects plus quilting on the big quilt and doing an applique block for a guild member have kept my needle flying this month.  but also got a head start on this...

it's a loaf of irish soda bread!  this is my tried-and-true recipe (sans salt) from the boston globe cookbook published eons ago, quick to make and delish to eat.  i could have put the teaspoon of salt in it, of course, as that's my daily ration and spread out over 4-5 days would hardly have been noticed, but it's just something i do regularly and it didn't affect the taste one whit....there is nothing like St. Pat's Day in Boston, and a bit of trivia here, in Boston proper it's a holiday as it's also evacuation day, the day the British left town for good.   *** thankful that i've squeaked thru another month; without my little job the budget is back to serious penny pinching and juggling for the necessities of daily living...now it's time for your own head start!

a whole week?

has it really been a week since my last post?  i guess so but don't think i haven't been sewing....idle hands are the devil's workshop, as my grandmother often said.  been working on the hand quilting of my donation quilt, of course, plus an applique project that is about 3 hours from finished.  also spent some time on guild project and meetings.  another stack of scrappy brick blocks are done too.   finally yesterday got back to this stack of blocks...

these are setting blocks (left) for the brackman sew along "antebellum album."  another block will be out wednesday but thought i would get these done.  managed to use up a fair amount of muslin from the bag-o-scraps posted previously...here is what it looks like now...

makes me feel uber-frugal to find a use for the scraps and use them up.  have no plans for the remainders as of yet.  as february winds down and hints of spring are all around, hoping can finish the donation quilt in march and continue on using up more of the stash in my own little shop.