Singing the Blues on Mardi Gras

 One of my favorite songs over the years has been Sing the Blues Mama Lou as sung by Rita Coolidge here.  

So when gathering up my blue scraps it seemed entirely appropriate that the resulting quilt should be named for this old favorite, newly finished as of last night!

Sing the Blues was the first to be started of the three quilts I've made for Lori's (Humble Quilts) Stringalong Challenge in 2019, but is the last to be finished.  All were hand quilted.  The other two were Joseph's Coat and Joseph's Coat II, both finished in 2020.

After my last post showing some of the hand quilting a couple commenters asked about the quilting design in the white areas.  The entire time I was quilting the blue string areas I'd planned to make some sort of fern-like template for the white parts, but in the end decided on this simple design, made with these two now-well-worn pieces of cardboard.

Thinking these might go into the cardboard template tin for possible future use in the event I ever decide to make another string quilt using Marit's Spiderweb tutorial.  

I'm really loving this quilt!  Many many hours stitching all the string blocks, and many more hours after the decision to hand quilt it.  And every time I look at the wide variety of scraps I'm reminded of the many quilters who contributed scraps over the years that ended up stitched together with love, including blogging friends Janet of Rogue Quilter, Lizzy at Gone to the Beach, Cynthia at Wabi-Sabi Quilts, quilting friends from our ministry group, and I'm sure there are others I've forgotten at the moment.

And this being Mardi Gras it seems perfect that Angie at Quilting on the Crescent contributed that wonderful electric blue binding fabric!  My thanks to all of you!

Backing fabric is a 2019 print from Connecting Threads.  Quilted with Aurifil 12 wt. in three shades of grayish-blue, silver, and a deeper blue in the string areas.

A few close-ups follow.  Our weather is just too awful to attempt an outdoor photo shoot.  I'd hoped for a bright blue sky on fresh-fallen snow to showcase the quilt.  Well, we have the falling snow but no bright blue skies and temperatures are falling fast.  

Moving Sing the Blues toward the finish line was my One Monthly Goal for February so I'll be linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts when her OMG progress post goes live toward the end of the month.

Some days we go out to the mailbox expecting bills or tax notices, but find unexpected treasures in the mailbox.  Last month one afternoon this arrived, a beautiful gift from a special friend, Debbie at Stitchin' Therapy, that now hangs in my bedroom.  

And a couple weeks later this rustic beauty, a suncatcher from Lizzy at Gone to the Beach, now patiently awaiting better weather so it can hang on my back porch catching the early morning light through the kitchen window on summer days.

Thank you both so much for brightening our home on these bleak midwinter days!

And now I'd best be posting this while it's still Mardi Gras and before the falling snow completely covers the satellite dish and obliterates our internet for the rest of the evening!

Til next time, happy stitching!

P.S.  Today (Wednesday) dawned bright and clear and -8 degrees.  But the sunny skies persisted and when the temps moderated a bit Gibbs and I headed out to attempt some snow pictures.  Yay! The snow was too deep and treacherous to risk standing on a stool to hang the quilt on the dog run, so some railing shots had to suffice.

Hoping the sun is shining in your neck of the woods!

Jacob's Roses is Finished

Earlier this week I finished this lap quilt that I'm calling Jacob's Roses.  It will be on its way to the recipient as soon as I can get it boxed and taken to the post office. The recipient is the widow of my husband's best friend growing up, who is recovering from severe injuries sustained in an auto accident last fall and just recently was able to return home from the hospital and rehab center.

The Jacobs Ladder blocks came to me via Julie in Georgia from an orphan quilt giveaway.  She had completed several blocks and the remainder were under construction.  Finishing the blocks became my leader and ender project during the fall.  Luckily there were a couple pieces of 1990s Jinny Beyer fabric in the stash just enough to complete the border and binding.

I had plenty of help all through the entire construction and quilting and binding process.

"M-o-m, what about me?"

A couple more finish photos:

Reminds me of that old song "Wherever we go, whatever we do, we're going to go through it - together!"

Happy quilting!

One Monthly Goal for February

 February already (or at last - depending on how much snow is falling) and time to set a One Monthly Goal for the month.  

I've been hand quilting Sing the Blues Mama Lou for several months and as of today the four-inch borders need to be marked and quilted and binding added for a finish.  Here's what it looked like when I took a photo last week:

My hope is to completely finish this quilt in February, but knowing how slowly I hand quilt, my One Monthly Goal will be to finish quilting at least two sides of the outer border.  Anything more will be icing on the cake!

Linking with Patty at Elm Street Quilts where you can visit to see many other projects in progress and set your own goal for this month. Thanks Patty for hosting this goal setting party each month.