Finally Sewing

 I carved out some time to sew this past weekend. Besides stitching some bindings to the front of quilts, I haven't been in my sewing room since the first week of December. I really needed to start this quilt for a friend. I'm starting with the Branded collection from Sweetwater and pulled numerous prints from my stash to scrap things up a bit.

 I hemmed and hawed for weeks over a pattern. I wanted something masculine and simple and finally settled on a design. I've seen this called many things like Framed Squares or Square Dance. Here's a tutorial using a Layer Cake that I used as a starting point

                                                                        Square Dance

I'd forgotten how much fun it is to start a new project

Blocks come together fast

Then I pulled this pattern from my binder 

and thought it might be fun to pop in some hourglass blocks in the center of some of the squares. 

The blocks finish at 9" and I think I'll shoot for a 10 x 11 block layout. I made 42 blocks, using the Layer Cake I had and now I'm cutting into the FQ Bundle and the other fabrics I pulled from my stash.  I'm so glad I've finally settled on a plan. I think this might work! 

Fabric Mail

 Saturday evening I drug the ironing board out into the living room and pressed fat quarters.

There are 40 different prints in this collection and it took me a couple of days to get everything pressed. This is the Branded Collection that I'm using for our rancher friend who asked DH if I would make him a quilt. I just love these prints. It's a western collection, but it's subtle and understated. 

Previously I mentioned that I was loath to cut into this bundle because I had my heart set on making us a quilt from it, but I knew it was the perfect fabric for M's quilt. The other FQ bundle I ordered arrived on Friday. I laughed when I opened it up because there was an envelope with DH's name on it. I hadn't realized that I used the address with his name instead of mine when I placed the order. I read the note and then handed it to him saying, "You received a Thank You note"

He said, "For what"?

I grinned, "For placing a fabric order. And you got extra goodies"

He replied, "What'd I get?" I let him open the gifts wrapped in pretty tissue paper

Isn't that sweet? And now I can say I didn't order all this fabric. He did! I should have thought of that years ago! 😂