Limited Progress

I'm afraid that I don't have much quilt progress to report this week.   I did, however, get most of the Christmas gifts wrapped this morning. (Don't adjust your computer monitor...it really is Magenta, Lime & Hot Pink. ) Earlier in the week I made homemade pretzels for a gift exchange, then figured out how to use the same dough to make crackers (a result of sheer laziness...I got tired of twisting little sticks).   I need to psych up to make another batch for neighbor gifts.

I was using some antique hot pads while I was cooking the pretzels / crackers, and remembered that I'd bought this pattern at an antique shop.  And I bought the lime and raspberry crochet cotton last year thinking that I'd crochet a border on some pillow cases.  As you can see, I'm easily distracted.    I need to finish the second doily then it will be combined with lime to be the sunflower pattern from the cover.

I've spent this evening drafting patterns for the blocks for the USA quilt.  You would think that it would be easy with thousands of traditional blocks to chose from...but often the ones I want to use are far too complex for a 6 inch block.  I'm currently stumped on both North and South Carolina. (Update:  I've decided on Propeller for NC and a variation of Carolina Lilly for SC.) However, tomorrow I can get cutting out both Dakotas, Colorado, Washington, Arizona, Vermont, Rhode Island, Mass, Oklahoma, and Georgia.  I managed to cut out Minnesota before the movie watchers took over the living room.

I have continued to slog away at the hand quilting on the Josephs Coat.  I'm now about 47% finished.  I've taken to tracking petals and triangles finished in an attempt to stay motivated and feel like I'm making progress.  I have a full schedule at work this week, then next weekend a friend has promised to coach and assist me through the process of custom fitting a pants pattern.