I called a Russell Family Snow Day yesterday when I saw the state of my driveway as we were getting ready for school. The kids didn’t complain too much. They got to play outside and build snowmen and I got to spend a lot of time in my studio.
I finally brought down the embroidery unit for my sewing machine (it was still upstairs, the migration the basement has been a slow process!) I was trying to organize my digital files as I am working very hard on getting my website up and running. That reminded me of all the cute embroidery files that I’ve been collecting. I’m always drawn to the chickens, of course, and stitched up this one to send to my sister who has just become a chicken mama.
Then I dabbled with some In-The-Hoop files, particularly this owl Valentine’s Day treat bag. They are so fun to make! These will be for teacher gifts for each of the kids’ teachers. I can’t express how much I love that Designs by JuJu site. They give you tons of free files with your orders. And I love their step-by-step instructions with photos. I almost spent all day Monday playing with the embroidery, so I made sure that Tuesday I would get some quilting done.
The avocado quilts were next on my list. And I’m proud of my frugal side, I used half a wide back and got 2 quilts done! Easily done since they were both using the same fabrics. I used navy thread on the first and was going to use the Summer Veggie pattern that I used last year on my vegetable tree, but decided there were too many fruits in my avocado fabric and it just didn’t seem right. So I decided a new pantograph was in order and couldn’t help myself when I saw this one named Guacamole on Urban Elementz. Avocados just make me happy.
The second avocado quilt will be another baby quilt donation, so I switched thread to see how it would look with a colorful thread to contrast the dark areas of the fabric. I used a new(ish) pantograph that I hadn’t used before. I’ll be honest, not sure I love it…but done is better than perfect, or that’s what they try to tell me anyway! I’m looking forward to binding both of these, I cut and prepared the binding back at the retreat so it’s just been sitting here waiting. I just love a good diagonal striped binding!
