One finish – two updates!

Now that the holidays are over I’ve been trying to catch up.  I finished hand quilting this house quilt and even got the binding on!  The big stitch quilting went really fast – well, faster than regular hand quilting.

I call this quilt “A House of my Own”.  It’s a scrap quilt with lots of black and white touches.  I quilted it with big stitches in a baptist fan design with thick Aurifil 12 weight thread in a grey color.

I just happened to see this thread on my visit to Hancock Fabrics last fall and I liked the color.  I didn’t realize that I had picked up the perfect thread to do this “big stitch” technique.  This will definitely be my go-to thread for this type of project.  It was thick but not too thick and was a joy to sew with – it just glided through the layers nicely.  I only bought one spool and was worried that I might run out but there’s a lot of thread on that spool!

Anyway, I’m so happy to have this fun project done and guess what – that was my last unfinished quilt top!

I think I’m caught up with my “Long Time Gone” block of the month.

However, I’m wondering if I missed a package or what because I still need to make one more block for section 5 before I can put it together (in addition to 6 more pineapple blocks).  And there are maybe 2 more blocks in section 6 before I can put it together.  I’m getting close to the end so I’ll just be patient.

And for my “40 Shades of Grey” block of the month; it was my worst nightmare – so much applique!

I’ve gotten this far and now I need to applique everything onto the block and add the border.  Apparently, when I fell in love with the quilt, I didn’t notice how much applique there was involved!  I’m just gritting my teeth and doing it although it might take me all month.  We’re making a million (maybe not quite a million) half square triangles this month as well.  They’re sewn together and will be fillers in various parts of the quilt.

I’m really trying to get caught up because I received a quilt kit for Christmas that I can’t wait to start!