I bet you think I am gong to say April was a whirl of a month because it went by so quickly...it did, but it came in with a big storm and a big surprise. Our neighborhood was in the path of a tornado at the start of the month which has caused the area behind our house to look completely different. We were safely in the basement with dog and cat, heard the wind go by (I even said "that sounds like a hurricane), and wandered back upstairs to find trees down in front of and behind our home. We were amazingly lucky to have no damage to our house or the car that was outside. Thankfully everything fell away from the homes that we share a common area with. There was lots of roof damage and a few chimneys blown off around the north side of our small neighborhood, but everyone seems to be getting things repaired. I am so grateful that no people were hurt. I am still surprised every time I look out our kitchen window. It will take a while to clean up (the debris covers 4 different properties), and I hope that over time, the trees will grow back.
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| The post-storm view the morning after the tornado. |
Beyond the big storm, it was a great month of stitching, quilting, and retreat. On the quilting side, I accomplished both of my goals for the month (hooray!). I finished quilting my Quarter Log Cabin quilt top and trimmed it once I took it off my quilt frame. I made the binding and it will be attached soon.
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| The back of my Quarter Log Cabin shows off the improv quilting that I did. |
On the day I finished quilting the top, I realized I had enough backing and batting to throw on the table runner which had been my leader/ender project for a while. It quilted up quickly and is also trimmed and ready for binding. My plan is to use this on my coffee table in January - the teals, blues and purples will be a nice pop of color in the grey, snowy days of January.
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| Quilted table runner |
I also finished my Flipping Out bag. The By Annie pattern had a lot of steps, but I worked through them one at a time and finished it in a few sittings. I made the smaller of the two bags from the pattern and it was quite fiddly, especially to attach the binding at the end. If I make this again, I think I will opt for the larger size, but I think it turned out well. Now to figure out what to store in it.
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| Flipping Out case - zipped up |
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| Flipping Out case - open |
On the stitching side, I had almost a record month with five finishes and two FFOs. Our Two Tall Stitchers retreat was the second weekend of the month and I was able to get a lot done while chatting with friends. I finished one project before retreat, two during, and two after, getting me down to five WIPs going into May. Two of my finishes were also quick FFOs thanks to the kits.
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| Stitching Calms the Soul by Shepherd's Needle This was a kit with all you needed to stitch and finish it and it was my exchange piece for my retreat. |
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| A big finish the first night of retreat - 324 by Works by ABC. It has 324 colors of DMC in it and I stitched mine of 32 ct. Silvery Moon Lugana |
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| Reindeer ornament stitched on wood with kit threads and fully finished with kit supplies Pattern and kit by Canadian Stitchery |
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| A post-retreat finish - this snarky litle design makes me chuckle and will be the perfect gift for one of my relatives. Stitched with called for DMC threads on 36 ct. Atomic Ranch Weathered Stone. Pattern by Solvem Probler on Etsy.
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All in all, it was a great month - lots of time for stitching, weekends at home to sew, quilt, and stitch, and some warming weather that allowed some nice weekend walks.
Here are the stats for the month:
Stash Report with Donna at quiltpaintcreate:
Fabric used this month: 3/8 yards (for binding)
Fabric added year to date: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 5 5/8 yards
Net fabric used: 5 5/8 yards
Stitching time with Kate at Life-In-Pieces: 27/30 days with crafting time = 90%
Project completion tracking:
Quilting projects: 0 new starts, 0 finishes = 7 projects waiting to be fully finished
Thanks for stopping by to see my activities for the month. May will be busy for two reasons - it's StitchMaynia and my goal will be to stitch every day, and it's the end of high school for my son. We have lots of lasts to celebrate with him ending with graduation at the end of the month. I am happy for him and he's excited to finish up his high school days and get ready for college. It will be a fun and busy month for sure!
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