Rainbow and binding

I started off with some hand stitching this weekend.  The first stage of the binding on Field of Hearts is done and I'm now working on doing the second stage by hand.  My mother-in-law had given me some wonder clips for Christmas, and I'm loving them!  I'm almost through the first long side.  Deadline: Friday!

I also tried some layouts for a few blocks I've been working on slowly here and there.  These blocks were from a mystery weekend where I never even got to the mystery!  To give you an indication of how long they've been waiting, my mother's quilt is already stitched up and gifted.

First I tried laying them out similar to how my mother laid hers out.  With my rainbow colors, I didn't think that was going to work.  So after a little playing around I came up with the layout below, and I really like it!

It's looking like I'm going to need to make another set of blocks for each of the colors.  It's going to be way too small otherwise!  That's perfectly fine with me though.  I'm loving the relaxed nature of being able to walk through my sewing room and put two blocks together whenever I have a few minutes.  No deadlines, no rush... just playing with pretty color.   Isn't that how life is supposed to be?

Linking up with Design Wall Monday, MOP Monday, and Let's Bee Social

Basically Patrick Suds

And we're back.  I haven't been waiting all this time for a replacement iron, never fear!

I was invited to hang some photography in a public space for the month of March, so my sewing room had to remain closed while I pulled it all together.  There was much framing and matting and running around this past month... but my pictures are all up now and just waiting for people to come in.  It is an amazing opportunity.  And it was also a lot more work than I ever expected.

So this weekend was the first time I've been able to get back in the sewing room since the end of January and I made good use of my time - washing and ironing (and petting) some fabric.

Now I swear that I don't bleed all my fabric, though I'm sure it looks like I do from my blog, but in the course of all the fabric washing I've been doing recently I did have some issues.  Some of the fabrics must have been damp next to each other in the washer for too long because the orange, red, and pink suds fabrics came out looking like a toddler had drawn all over them with a pen!

I tried applying some Dawn and water, to no avail.  However, with the liberal application of Shout stain remover and another trip through the washing machine, I was able to remove most of the dark marks!

Good as New!

And now all the colors of my suds line are washed and just waiting to be made into something delightful!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social and WiP Wednesday.