Winter Project Time

Today was a fairly low-key day.  I'm trying to go along with Leah Day's Freemotion Quilting Project focus on UFO's each Sunday.  Today her FMQP blog post discusses getting negative reviews online.  I guess I'm kind of shocked.  I feel like Leah has given such a wealth of knowledge out for free and that she does a beautiful job.  Please stop by and give her some positive comments (if you haven't seen her blog before, you really need to check it out!)

Back to UFO Sunday, here is the UFO that has been on my wall without progress for 6 months.  It's a color progression with a contrasting curved piece through each block.  Although I don't normally do block-based quilts, I wanted to practice some simple curved piecing and started on these 8" squares.  I kind-of ran out of space on my design wall however and obviously haven't finished up the curves in all the blocks I have up yet.

My thought has been to sew 1-2 vertical rows together at a time and then quilt them in those rows, putting the whole quilt together after doing the quilting.  I'm still struggling a little with how you put the quilt together after quilting, but want to try it out, since I hopefully have quilted my last king-sized quilt on my home machine after it was all pieced!  I'm thinking that using Leah Day's "Mesh Curtain" pattern for the long vertical rows.

So, my commitment is to make some progress this week with this quilt, before the next UFO Sunday!

The other piece I've worked on today is my second week's 5 x 7 Challenge piece.  I completed the paper piecing and now need to aapplique the center circle and rungs of the windmill blades, before I can start quilting it.

Beyond my indoor projects, my husband Randy and I, along with our two boys Ryan and Coleman and our dog Dexter, went for a winter's walk at Marymoor Park in Redmond.  It was about 30 degrees and the frost twinkled on the trees and shrubs.

Reflections on the water

Partially frozen stream through the marshlands

Ice and frost in marsh grasses

Beautiful winter light and reflections

Christina with sons Ryan (left) and Coleman
(right) and Dexter (with the long ears)

Husband Randy with Dexter

Golden Hour at Penn Cove 
& Monet's Haystacks

What I Want My Children 
To Know

Sunshine and Sand 
Design Inspiration