Wind Chill Quilting

What a great day to quilt! Wind chills between 25 and 30 below zero
now through Tuesday, so between trips to the barn to give the horse-and-a-half (as my husband lovingly refers to them) some extra hay, I should be able to get a lot of sewing done this weekend.



Working on several projects at the moment, which seems to be the way I do things. I know I would drive other quilting friends crazy who have to complete one project at a time. Right now I have completed the tops for two of the four baby quilts I need for babies being born in our family. Two are for the babies of twin cousins, one in Chicago and one in Dublin. They are both Bessie Pease panels that I've added some nine blocks to go in between. Both families have dogs, so the darling children with their dogs pictured in the panels are perfect.

I found fabric in my stash for the third quilt I want to do. It's called Dainty, by Nancy Odom.

The fourth baby will also be born in Dublin, but I haven't quite decided on that pattern yet.






House on Willow Hill>(http://www.willowhillquilts.net/) was a series in McCalls Quilting 2005. The designer has a pattern available at her website too. I am doing it with my local quilt guild as a long-term project, adding a bit more of the design, pieced and appliqued borders each month.







I am also working on a colorful rooster wall hanging called Sun Up! by Jeri Kelly (11 x 21) for my brothers February birthday (Whoops, looks like it's Sun Sideways!)My brother must have every variety of chicken known to man, so this will be a great gift for him.
I love doing fusible applique projects. I stayed away from them for a long time, but kept being drawn back to them. They are not as intimidating as i thought, and machine applique goes very quickly.
My first was one of McKenna Ryan's from Storybook Farm. It had a horse and rooster in it. I was lucky enough to grow up with horses, and when I was in about fifth grade I had a chicken venture with four friends. We used a chicken coop on one of the girl's uncle's farm and took turns feeding the chickens and collecting eggs.