quilty weekend

It was a delightful weekend, even for someone still recovering from surgery.  Let's review:

I finished the main part of my dad's Kaleidoscope quilt towards the end of the week.  I am short the amount of fabric I want for borders in that whitish-blue batik (looks solid white here) so this is as far as it has come:

My thought is to add 5" white borders all around, and then to applique onto that a curved bias-cut strip of fabric, kind of like a vine, in a color that really pops.  I didn't love anything in my stash, though, so it was on my shopping list.

On Thursday night, my Honey's dad came by with a little sewing project for me that I did on Friday.  When my Honey's mom was sick with cancer last year, his aunt made her this beautiful watercolor quilt.  My Honey's mom was an amazing gardener and it was perfect for her.  She passed away last September and since then his dad has moved to a new place and wanted to hang the quilt.  I sewed a sleeve on the back of it so that he could do so.  We took it down to him Saturday morning and later this weekend he emailed me a photo in thanks.  I've never done a watercolor quilt and I find Kathy's work beautiful and wanted to share.

He lives outside of Blacksburg, so after dropping it off with him, we went to Sew Biz in Radford, where I thought I could find some fabric for the bias strip for the Kaleidoscope quilt, but I wasn't finding anything I loved.  We decided to head to Floyd, where there was a quilt show happening.  On the way there, we hit Schoolhouse Fabrics in Floyd and made some good finds.  I bought not only the red for the quilt, but a nice 108" wide dark blue paisley to back the quilt with.

I'll stop back at Patchwork Plus in Dayton on my next drive north to see if I can find more of the batik which I originally bought there ... if not, I'll have to find something close and be okay with it.

I took a nap on the ride home so I had energy to sew that evening.  I was working on a whole different project that I'll blog about in a separate post, but it was fast and easy and is almost finished.

I sewed for much of Sunday, too, with football on in the background.  My son, who is 11, was having a lazy day and was texting me.  I've been feeling guilty because I've finished quilts for both my Honey's daughters, but for well over two years have been making only sluggish progress on my son's quilt (lesson learned:  do not allow anyone to choose their own pattern when making them a quilt).  So I'd recently resolved to work at least an hour a day on his, regardless of what else had brought me into the sewing room.  When I texted him that I was working on his quilt he replied, "Yay!  Thank you!" which added a little pang to my guilt accumulation.  This is my setup, with some finished blocks in front:

He chose the fabric and the pattern (from Carol Doak's 50 Fabulous Paper Pieced Stars, this is "Ohio").  Each star is paper pieced using eight sections, and yes, it takes a while.  I managed to make an entire star yesterday and picked out the paper while watching the Ravens beat the Jets last night.  I think I now have three finished.  I'm calling it "Dark Star" (although maybe I should call it "Bright Star Dark Sky") and although I've long since determined that the quilt will have to be made up of more than just these 12" blocks, I have no idea how many I will make or what the finished quilt will look like. 

It was also a weekend of good eating.  On Friday night my Honey surprised me with dinner reservations at a new restaurant in Salem called Blue Apron.  We had an 8:30 reservation but it was jammed (parents weekend at Roanoke College) and we didn't get seated until almost 9 (and while we waited in the bar, it was tiny - room for only 3 at the bar itself, and occupied with diners).  The staff was extraordinarily apologetic, though, and made up for it in service.  I enjoyed lobster bisque and an incredible mahi dish; my Honey's choices were excellent too.  What I loved was that every dish came in a small plate option so that you could have appetizers without sacrificing your meal.  On Saturday while in Floyd we stopped in at a brick oven pizzaria in Floyd called Dogtown Pizza.  It was very busy also and the pizza was worth the wait - using only fresh, local produce - and a nice beer selection to help pass the time.  Yesterday my Honey cooked up some beer-basted bratwurst and carmelized onions to enjoy in front of football and I'm already craving the leftovers I know are in the fridge.  Good food and good sewing, what more could a weekend hold?

Tonight is quilt guild and I'll take Pink Profusion for show and tell.