June !

Wow the 6th month of the year is here. We are now using my Irish chain quilt as it has wool batting. This seems to be holding the cold at bay, but, as soon as it gets colder we are going to have to add a layer.

The temperature still warms up to an excellent temperature by about 10 in the morning.
I see that next week is going to be quite chilly. We will definitely going to be adding an extra layer. Possibly the Dear Jane can start earning her keep.

May was fun. I did something I had never thought I would do and that was enter my quilt into a festival. I was lucky enough to come second in hand made quilts and third on Viewers choice. Thanks to all who added their vote. I do appreciate it. There is even a prize which is quite exciting. The other quilt got 38 votes and that was fine seeing as it was the first quilt that I had made. 

I have made progress on my wall hanging. I have done the top of the cathedral window. I am now adding buttons. Oh the boredom of sewing on more than 100 buttons. Each button had 6 crossing strands and the a stay knot. On and on and on. I stole all of the buttons off my husband's shirts(old shirts not the ones he currently wears). Some of the buttons that come off expensive shirts are quite beautiful.

I bought some old fashioned buttons on Ebay, but, I think I will have finished this item before they arrive. I may add one or two on the border. Today I may work on the border. If I spend another whole day, stitching on buttons, it may render me incapable of ever sewing on another button on anyone's shirt and then my husband would be sad.

I have been going through Dear Jane withdrawal. I need to find the next large quilt project to do. I started the Dear Jane on the 1st of June 2012.
I want to decide today what my next large project will be.
What did you do as a follow up quilt to Dear Jane?

I don't want to end up in an endless cycle of making Dear Jane quilts.
It feels almost as bad as when you are studying. Once you have finished it takes an effort to give yourself permission to do something else. Quilting is the something else that I chose to do.
I have seen these two pictures each time I looked up a block when I was making my Dear Jane. 

I have been gathering pictures to try and spark the creative juices as it were. I thought a granny's garden may be fun. A stained glass window would be dramatic. A fully appliquéd quilt may be a challenge.  A mandala quilt would be Zennish. My husband wants me to do a fresh and original design. This would be fine if I just knew on which path my next quilt lay. I think this is the problem with hand piecing and hand quilting quilts, they take a long time and should not be entered into lightly. See I even think of quilts in the same way as I think of marriage. You should only start a quilt once you know that you can faithfully complete it. I think if everyone was committed to their projects, then no abandoned projects would exist. :D

I have been thinking of doing some mug rugs and some oven gloves. I don't know if this is considered a project as they should not take me too long to do. Maybe inter-project tasks are a good idea.

Hope all in the north are enjoying their summer and that all of us in the south are enjoying the cool weather.

Have a good one.