I Wish That I Had Duck Feet

I wish that I had duck feet.

And I can tell you why.

You can splash around in duck feet.

You don't have to keep them dry.

Do you remember that children's book?  It was one of my favorites ( and the kids', too.) That is what comes to mind each time I pick up the strip pieced Duck, Duck, Goose quilt to work on.  Well, I just found the perfect accompaniment to that quilt... knitted duck feet booties from this book. See them hanging there, third from the left? I plan to make them just as soon as I find some bright yellow yarn of the right weight.  My sister is here visiting from North Carolina and we spent most of yesterday at fabric and craft and yarn stores but that yellow yarn was not on our radar then.  We saw it in the newly purchased book after getting home (along with at least another half-dozen projects in the book that just elicited one Awwww or Ooooooh after another).

 

Here is an update on the status of Duck, Duck, Goose. The piecing, as I said in my previous post for this quilt, went quickly.  Then I tried FMQ and chickened out of quilting it myself.  I have become braver but plan to be less ambitious and do sections of it in straight line quilting that I can do with the pressure foot down and not need to worry about uniform stitch size.

Adventures with BOM

In my last blog entry I showed my attempts at recalling how to free motion quilt.  I used a leftover scrap block and thought I should show the quilt from which it was an extra block and tell the story behind that quilt.  Here is that quilt.

The quilt top is made entirely from Jo-Ann Fabric's 2006 QuiltBlocks Collection titled Rhythm & Blues. Finished, the JoAnn version is designed to be 78"x90" and looks like this.

Mine finished 70"x"94. The challenge was that I had no finishing kit and not all of the twelve blocks. A fun part was collecting the blocks from the bargain bin at a bunch of Jo-Ann's stores for $1 each. I visited three Jo-Ann stores within my area on a Saturday road trip with my husband, the farthest being a 50 mile roundtrip.  (Gas costs were not then what they are now!) My sister in North Carolina and my daughter in Oklahoma checked the bargain bins in their local stores too. Some of the blocks, ones that I had two or four of, I made as is, but others I raided for the precut fabric pieces and made flying geese or bar inserts such as in the middle of the four edges along the border.

Here the the individual blocks I had to build from.

I had no block 2 (strange, because I could get block 1's) and I had one block 6, the center block with applique petals, which I raided for some last bits of dark navy.  Since the pieces were all pre-cut I could just pick up and sew a few minutes at a time, no design planning nor possibility of messing up the cutting out part.  My youngest son was stabilizing after some pretty serious heart health issues at the time I worked on this quilt (he is doing great, now) so it was a good sewing outlet and stress reliever.  Tracking and finding the blocks were a good bonding mini-adventure and distraction for my husband and me, too. I finished my quilt in 2008, finding time to back and bind it as critical issues with my son diminished. It is so true, "Every quilt has a story..." and I associate each quilt with what was going on in my life at the time I worked on it.  This one has fond associations since Alex was getting better throughout its making.

New memories are being made now.  My daughter is expecting a baby girl in October so here is a sneak peek at a quilt in the making for my first grandchild.  Just a peek though, since my daughter reads my blog.

Completed projects:

1. Restocked closets and reassembled four bedrooms after emptying for new flooring- Whew... what a job!!!
2. Attending middle son's MBA graduation from UC Irvine
3. Took youngest son to special needs camp and back
4. Nothing quilty this week- unless you count the quilt finished in 2008.

Ongoing projects:

1. Little witch girl quilt to be
2. Duck, Duck, Goose - completed binding- will send out to quilt I think
3. Doll quilt - with free-motion quilter, binding is made

No progress (but re-listed here so I do not forget and leave buried in closet):

• Hexagon Mask Quilt - layout begun but overwhelming
• Fire and Ice Quilt- sitting in closet awaiting decision on backing
• Grinch Quilt - ripening on the design wall
• Pumpkin/Iris/Blossom square wall hanging- needs backing and binding
• Bug baby quilt - not started - decided to do little witch girl instead
• Chicken quilt - planning to spray baste with 505

I want to start:

• Presents with Bows quilt kit
• The Ghastlies- strip quilt

This week's stats:

     Completed  projects - 0 

     New projects - 0 

     Currently in progress - too many to count