Who’s seen the Bird Boxes Quilt by Kaffe Fassett?

What a fun way for an unapologetic square-user like me to do her thang. I really like this one.

This, too. It has a nice vintage feel, with all that white.

I’m sure the many hundreds of 2-inch squares would be no small PITA. Could I cheat a bit by sashing with a bright floral?

And why am I even entertaining this idea? So many other projects to work on….

Or, rather, tie. If I could bind a quilt with a bit of yarn, I would have a lot more time on my hands. Or a lot more quilts!

It’s been a rough couple of weeks for Hambone and me. Nothing worth talking about, but if you’ve ever been in that unique, particularly married situation when both the Mister and the Missus have had a string of bad days at work, you’ll understand my current desire to work on something soul-satisfying.

And so I’m determined to tie my Summer Breeze Quilt this week.

I was actually determined to tie it Monday or Tuesday, but, guess what I’m learning? It takes some time to tie a quilt!

First, there’s the marking:

Oh, marking. I guess we’ll have to add you to the list of things that are not difficult, but I still don’t want to have to do.

Then, the tying.

Let’s add the tying to the list of things that are difficult, but only because I have a cat.

All told, marking and tying a row - of which I need maybe 8 - is taking about 20-25 minutes each. No big deal, although I do have to spend that time on my hands and needs. (Soul-satisfying, back-tiring work, this.) So, all told, it’s faster than hand-quilting, and doable in a couple of evenings, if I hadn’t been going out a lot, which I have.

On the bright side, the project comes from Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts, which has great tips for tying. For my first effort, it’s been longer and a bit more physically taxing than I’d have guests, but it’s happening.

Maybe I should also mention that I made the quilt much larger than the instructions suggested? But more on that later - I have some loose ends, still.

Way, way behind in the stat quilt-along. Don’t even know when I made this block, actually, just that I made it imperfectly, and needed to fix it. I found it on my camera, and decided to plaster it up here, as a little reminder to myself, to keep at it, and keep at it, and keep at it till it’s done.

When we have to work on a project in a short amount of time, or if it’s a special gift for family, everyone needs to help out.

So Gus sews:

Hatbox watches….

and tells me all about what he’s doing wrong!

When we finish the top,

Jenn bastes,

Gus bastes,

and Hatbox tells us we are doing it wrong!

A vintage sheet for the back, I think.

Do I encourage bad behavior in Hatbox by taking pictures of all her antics? I’m just looking through some photos of the past 6 or 8 months, and seeing a lot of shocking behavior:

She’s moving quickly here, because she knows she’s not supposed to be on the mantle, chomping away at the flowers.

These are earrings, on a card. She got hold of them somehow, and started carrying them around in her mouth for like, three days straight. This seemed bad, but I thought it was cute, so I let it go. Bad Cat Mom!

Here is Hatbox, making a bed out of an application to submit a piece to an art show. It was accepted; no thanks to little miss.

At least, this time, she had the decency to pose….

Now with handmade pillowcases!

Goodnight!