February - how my year is progressing

It's been a full-on February
Many birthdays in the month to celebrate, and preparation for a new Grandchild who may show up early (due on 20 March) 

To this end, I've been stitching a quilt - mostly on weekends. 

I selected a free quilt pattern - Ahoy Sailor - online from Suzy Quilts and started with the blocks, these ended up 8" square    
I changed the shoulder blocks and the size of the 'water' blocks under the sailboats, added a strip of sky and found a great border print.   I even made up a buoy block. 

I have therefore titled this one "It's a Buoy!"  So have hung it out on the clothes line (as you do), to take a picture which really serves to show all the seams up well.  When it is quilted, it should be a better photo.  One of the strips of 'water' is full of sharks.

Stitching today, I've been watching you-tube channels and am picking up some great tips to try out - have binge-watched Just Do It Quilts and now that the top is done, (and because I cannot learn to stop before I make quilts too big - its a 60" cot quilt) I"m making an after-quilt for the back - using up as much of the scraps as I can.   I plan to make a prairie point border after watching Sew Very Easy tutorial.
Cutting the border fabric here I am using a vintage hot iron to weigh down the other end of my template - This idea came from watching Donna at Jordan Fabrics

I've been so busy that I now need a new iron!  The teflon coating has given way and is peeling off.  Allan tells me that I can use his, so it's not all that bad.

Embroidery Update for February

I've got my new fabric for Harriet Salt and have so far, only gridded it out ready to start stitching.  

However, due to my plan for the year, tomorrow, I will be back to stitching on the English Floral sampler - I've made a plan and it's only fair that I try to keep to it

• First Week is English Sampler
• Second Week it my TOL mystery Sampler (so I can have it ready for the 20th)
• Third week is Christmas stitching... hmm 2 months down and no Xmas stitching in progress.
• Fourth week is Harriet Salt.
• Weekends and daylight is left for Quilting