This year marks the 40th anniversary of our guild, so every month the social committee is doing something fun at our meetings. This past week, we were treated to cupcakes, well, fabric ones. These were such a cute idea, a rolled up fat quarter ‘served’ in a cupcake liner with a little triangle of yellow paper to simulate a candle burning. We sang Happy Birthday to us and wore party hats. It was such a fun way to start a meeting.

Back home, I began to pull and consider quilts to enter in the show this year. Registration is open now, and we have until April 1 to enter. The limit is 5 quilts, so I have to decide which to show. Quilts made between June of 2019 up to now are eligible, and that is a lot of quilts for me. Between the mystery quilt alongs, special projects for the blog, quilts made for Fat Quarter Shop blog hops, and my magazine pattern, I have plenty to choose from. So, I began looking at the categories. There are only three for pieced quilts, all based on size. There is a miniature quilts category, so I can enter that one, too. The only other category is special techniques, and that includes wholecloth. I wanted to enter the dahlia quilt with all the free motion longarm quilting designs. But, they don’t take ‘panel’ quilts. I asked for a ruling from the committee as I consider this a wholecloth, not a panel. I think of a panel as something with a cute scene on it, like the red truck and Christmas tree one I did for a table topper. But, they said it was a panel so not eligible for judging, only for display, but it would count as one of the five. Oh, well. I would have liked to see it compete in longarm quilting.

I only have one quilt large enough for the ‘large quilts’ category which has to be over 75 inches wide. Scrap Dance Twist is 83 inches wide. I was delighted to see that I still had the hanging sleeve on it, until I measured the length. It is 94 inches long, and the sleeve has to be no more than 90 inches from the bottom of the quilt. This means I have to remove the sleeve, and resew it four inches lower on the back. Dang! But at least I have plenty of time to get that done.

Chilly days have brought the resident squirrels by frequently. Oliver got his sandwich late one day.

Jack was here at the same time, so he went to the driveway to chow down.

In the sewing room, I began work on the last quilt repair I plan to do. From here on, I’ll be referring out all new inquiries. This one looked like it was going to be a challenge from the start. The edges were a bit of a mess. Part of this was because the client washed the quilt in a machine with the frayed fabric, so the batting became matted up. However, she told me that the quilt was very dirty, and she thought it better to bring it to me clean. I did appreciate that.

She brought teal and muslin fabric to use for the repair, and at first look we both thought the borders on two sides would need to be reconstructed. The other two sides actually didn’t have damage, and she wanted them to match rather than just cut off the damage and rebind.

But as I began to work on the quilt, I found that the outermost teal strip actually was still all there, just bunched up from being washed. I turned on my iron and spread the quilt over the board so I could press it flat. Carefully working from one end to the other, it took almost an hour to press both ends. But the good news was the teal was intact on both sides of the border, and on both ends of the quilt. This means I don’t have to reconstruct the entire border which will be a much easier repair and save her some money.

I added a piece of muslin to the backside as it was deteriorating. I needed a more stable backing to add the top strips. The little strip of grosgrain ribbon was stitched on by the client to cover a small tear. Laying the piece of muslin on the back, I sewed from the top to keep the stitches in the ditch. On the back, the muslin will be folded to the edge of the quilt to encase the muslin’s raw edge and provide a base.

Then, I made a muslin strip to go over the one that is deteriorating, and top stitched it into place.

One end done, now I need to do the same thing on the other end. Then, there are two patches to make and sew. I’ll treat any weak areas I can find with Fray Block, and then bind the whole quilt with new muslin binding. The original binding was muslin simply turned over the top side from the backing, but I’ll make a proper binding and put it on by machine. I hope to finish this week, and get it back to the client. Then I am done!

Out in the meadow, the deer were grazing early one morning. When we opened the shade over the kitchen window, they must have seen that movement, and froze. I had time to fire up the good camera and use the zoom lens through the window to get a photo of them. There were five again, but I could only get three in the picture before they moved off into the woods.

Friday night I made my Veal Meatballs in Basil Cream Sauce again. Yes, veal is expensive, but occasionally I find it on sale and I’ll grab a pound. If you don’t like veal, or need a protein that is a bit more affordable, the recipe works fine with ground chicken or turkey too.

Back to the show, I have to decide if I am going to put two quilts into one category. To have five in the show, I may have to do that. My dilemma is that after this show, none of my current quilts will qualify for the next one due to finish date. As the categories are by size, both Pachanga and Twinkle Twinkle Pumpkin Star would be competing against each other. Pachanga is dramatic with the brights and black…

while Twinkle Twinkle Pumpkin Star (or the magazine published as Evening Harvest) is larger and also has a dark background. I want to show both of them, so there we are. Thankfully, both still have their sleeves.

I realized this week that I need to figure out when to start my seeds inside. Usually, I start them too soon, and this year I decided to wait until March, as our last frost date is in April. I wait until May to buy plants for the veranda. I looked up the moon phases, and around the 10th should be good days to start seeds. First quarter is the 10th, with the next full moon on the 18th. I need to get some peat pots like these, as they work best for me for transplanting seedlings.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is this weekend, and you have time to participate. Just sign up for a free account at ebird.org and report what you see. I observed the bird feeder for about 20 minutes and got seven species to report yesterday.

This house finch seemed to have a sense of humor, cocking his head this way and that.

This week will be a bit less hectic, but two trips coming up will mean getting projects finished up and out of the house. I will pick up another Safelight quilt on Tuesday which I’ll need to bind. The first car club drive is next weekend, and it should be fun if the weather cooperates.

What are your plans for the coming week?