B IS FOR BLUE

My goodness, it seems that everything I'm doing lately is blue!

Well, that's partly because I'm trying to discipline myself to work on whatever is first in line in my scrap stash drawer.  Easier said than done!  But I'm trying.

 This one was a bit of a challenge as some of the prints were a knit fabric.  But once someone donates something to me for my charity quilts, I feel obliged to use it -- unless it is just absolutely horrible fabric.
So I decided if I put the knit blocks between decent woven fabric, I'd be OK.  It seemed to work out and I was able to match up my seams pretty well.









This one is all flannel (not the best quilters' flannel, by a long shot) but it will have to do.

Oh my there was more blue in my next stack.  The most fabric is the little blue and yellow print in the lower center.  I'll add some of the other more plain blues and some yellow.

Those scraps up top will just have to wait for another time -- perhaps in a REALLY scrappy quilt!

And as if blue fabric isn't enough, the sweater I'm working on for my grandson is also blue.  He tells me blue is his favorite color, so why not more blue?  I really like this stitch pattern.  Easy to do without much thought, but yet not as boring as stockinette.

So I'll just keep working with the blue for a while and let you know when I move on to some less boring colors!

TA DA . . .

So here is my tulip quilt top.  

Now just to decide on the backing.  Hmmmmmm.

TIP TOE THROUGH THE TULIPS

So these are the tulip blocks I have been working on.

I used the pattern:  http://www.quilterscache.com/T/TulipNinePatchBlock.html

The fabric is from daughter Anna Maria's "Chocolate Lollipop" and "Bohemian" lines.

Admittedly, I started on in it a couple years ago and this was as far as I got.  So I decided since spring was coming, it was time to tiptoe through the tulips once again.  I am happy to say that all of the blocks are assembled and "squared up" and I have only to do the sashing to have the top completed. 

There will be a total of 6 of these block combos:

My points are nowhere near perfect, but they will suffice for me.  Good thing I'm not in any county fair 4-H competition, though.  (Ahhhh, the memories!)

I did, however, come up with a trick to mark the leaf fabric pieces which were to be sewn only a designated length on the triangles.  My hands were just too clumsy to try to hold the template and fabric and get the pins in place.
So I taped my templates (with sewing dot marks up) on my sewing table right in front of my machine.

 Then I lined up the fabric pieces, and pinned the fabric at the corresponding spot on the fabric.

Lined up fabric pieces, pinned and sewed.

Ah, so much easier than juggling it all in midair!

Hoping to get the sashing done today.

 And then to find just the perfect backing.  Hmmmmm, I guess I'll just have to make a trip to the quilt shop.  Oh the horrors!  ;-)

NEW GOODIES

So a bit about our trip.

We started by driving to New York,  Believe it or not:  we actually drove through Manhattan at 9 PM on New Year's Eve on the way to our son's home on Long Island so we could fly our of Kennedy to Greece on Jan 1.

This lovely little knitting notion set was a very thoughtful gift from my daughter-in-law.  I transfered all my knitting tools for the trip in to these handy little bags and put the pattern for my granddaughter's sweater in the fold up pattern holder.  

And I did manage to finish the sweater while we were there.  I even found the buttons (that I was afraid were lost for good) when I got home.  So it's all ready now to pack up and send to her for her birthday --a special day we share--later this month.

Oh, I did do lots more than knitting.  We spent time with my husband's family; my husband spent a LOT

of time getting paper work arranged for our property there, and we spent quite a bit of time in the olive grove and OF COURSE, brought home some of the very best olive oil in the world!

Oh, and the pillow cases I had made before we left look great with the quilt I left there a couple years ago.

On our drive home from New York after the flight back to the US, I really enjoyed the other little goodie that was the rest of my Christmas gift from my daughter-in-law.  I think I might just have enough of the yarn left from the above sweater (even after making myself a mobius) to make a pair of slippers from this great little book.

 And today, I got started back on a quilt that I began several years ago.  I also have in my head ideas for a couple more quilts to take to Greece next trip.  It's pretty cool there on winter nights so they will be quite welcome additions on the beds.

MISSING . . .

So this is where I was when you weren't finding me here in "blogland".

And apparently "blogland" doesn't remember who I am.  So I started a new post with one letter added to the address. ("mld" instead of "ml" quiltsandknits.

We spent the month of January at our little place in Greece.  Although it was pretty cool at night, sunny days did give me a great opportunity for some sittin' in the sun and knitting on our veranda. 

(Afternoon sun to bright to face while knitting, hence my shadowed face.)

Hope you all had a great January too.

I'll be back in a couple days to show you the sweater I was knitting.

• • •