Elephant Parade and Giveaway Winners

Let’s just start right off with the winner of last week’s giveaway for a copy of Sew Preeti’s new pattern, A Fishy Story.  Mr. Random Generator chose:

Grandma Judy B

Congratulations, Judy! Preeti will contact you to get your information and get you squared away. For the rest of you, thanks so much for taking the time to drop by last week and enter the drawing. Be sure to stop by Preeti’s Etsy Shop to pick up a copy of this delightful pattern! 

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We had another crazy week here at Chez Kizerian. Bruce’s vertigo is finally abating, although he had to postpone his driver’s license review (an annual meeting required in Utah for amputees) until May. I had a Most Dreaded Procedure done this week. You know, the one where the prep is a hundred times worse than the procedure itself (which they knock you out for). Anyway, all is peachy-keen, and I don’t have to do that again for 10 years. And who knows, maybe the 2-day fasting will help me shed a pound or two. Although I would rather not lose it like that!

But the procedure - plus rain one day and working out in the yard hauling soil and digging grass out of flower beds - limited my sewing room time. First, let me show you the last of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for Purple April. I’m going to link this post up to Scrappy Saturday at Angela’s blog.

This week, being the last week of purple scraps, meant I was dealing with crumbs. So I made 8 - 8” (finished size) crumb candy blocks. 

They won’t be laid out like that in a quilt, but it was fun to try it for a picture. The only other color I plan to make of these candies is orange, then I’ll be able to assemble a quilt top.

The rest of the crumbs went into two 6.5” crumb blocks.....

... which in turn have been added to my Purple Creature Quilt (as in creature like Frankenstein’s monster). I have fun using old orphan blocks, scraps, chunks and such to put together something in the color of the month. 

Obviously, this is only pinned to the design board at the moment. I plan to get it sewn into a top over the weekend. Then I can quilt it AND the green one and two donated community quilts in the next week. I’ll show whatever I finish next week.

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ELEPHANT TRUNK SHOW!!

And now it’s time for the Elephant Trunk Show!!  Grab your coffee and a comfortable seat and let’s get started!

Late in 2021, I bought the pattern Stomping Ground by Wendy Shepard. I love elephants, especially after having spent time in Kenya in 2018. I tried making a few and really liked the pattern. So all throughout 2022, and part of this year as well, I made elephants in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month. And as the months went by, I began assembling them into what would end up as 7 quilts - all donated to Quilts for Kids here in Salt Lake City.

I think that for many of you, like me, this will be a fun stroll down memory lane. At least I hope so!

These first two quilts were finished in June. I absolutely loved that blue and green border fabric and ordered it from two different places. Since I had a ton of green and blue scraps, I decided to double the fun! These Jungle Elephants definitely loved their time browsing in the lush greenery!

Both of these quilts ended up at 42x47” - perfect for a child.

The next quilt to reach the finish line was this little number, Pink and Green Elephants. As with all these elephant quilts, the elephant colors were determined by the yardage or scraps that I wanted to use for the border and/or backing. Finished in August, this one measures 40x48”. The fabric came from some yardage I found at a thrift store.

Rainbow Elephants, finished in November, was the fourth finish.  It measures 40x47”. That adorable elephant border fabric (also used on the back) was given to me by Nann. 

In December I finished Wild Elephants, which was the largest of any of the quilts. It measures 43x54”. 

As usual, in this quilt the elephant colors were (generally) derived from the colors in the backing. There wasn’t enough of this delightful fabric (also from Nann) to use for borders. so I just added more elephants!

And that brings us to this year’s finishes. This bright Happy Elephants quilt was finished in February. It measures 39.5 x 49.5”.  This was a favorite of so many visitors to the blog.

And finally, here is Bubbly Elephants.  The inspirational border fabric was a piece I acquired from one of my Quilts for Kids friends. The picture below shows it basted and ready to be quilted.

I did manage to quilt it last night. Here is a closeup of the simple loop quilting. I still have to bind it, and it’ll the first order of business when I get back in the sewing room this weekend. It measures 38 x 48.5”. I’ll show a full completed picture next week.

So, there’s my trunk show.... er, I mean, the elephants’ trunk show. Which one is your favorite?

We’re expecting a beautiful sunny day today, so I plan to get out in the yard and work in the flower beds while Bruce works on getting the drip irrigation set up for the vegetable garden beds. A trip to the big box hardware store is probably in order, which is always fun. And usually followed by a Barnes & Noble coffee date!  Sometime next week - on a weekday, definitely not on a weekend - we’ll head to a garden nursery or two to begin buying new perennials and annuals. I can’t wait!

Have a great week!

April Fools’ Day

OK, who knew that there is properly an apostrophe after “fools” in April Fools’ (plural possessive) Day?  Not me! I just thought it was a day in celebration of the Fools of April, without any possessive rights. But grammar aside, it also means that Angela at So Scrappy will be announcing a new Rainbow Scrap color of the month for April. Personally, I was rooting for yellow because I’ve kinda-sorta forgotten what yellow sunshine is like. But, it’s Purple!

On Wednesday, the rain and/or snow kindly paused just long enough for Grass Masters to come in and rip out the grass/sod in the east side yard and the front yard between the walkway (that leads from the driveway to the front porch) and the house. They capped off the old sprinklers, installed new drip lines and valves so I have plenty places to tee-off drip lines to my front walk flower pots. The grass was replaced with a weed barrier and small rocks that match the front parkway. It’s all so neat and tidy, and the remaining flower beds are almost ready for planting. We have a load of soil coming next week to even out the grade along the front flower beds. It’s something I’ve needed to do for a couple years. But do I have a picture? NO! It has snowed every day since Wednesday, and you can’t see anything under the snow! So stay tuned as I play with this new project this spring!

Wet weather outside means sewing time inside. I knocked back a lot of my smaller green scraps by constructing ten candy blocks measuring 8.5”, unfinished size.

They were followed by fifteen 6.5” crumb blocks.

I also finished assembling the green scrappy “creature” quilt (so named because my Creature Quilts, like Frankenstein’s monster, are assembled from scraps and bits and leftover and then “reanimated” into a quilt). In the case of this green Creature from the ???, I also had to assemble a backing from scrap strips and chunks. (No picture). It’ll be pin-basted and quilted next week, fingers crossed.

But I did manage to quilt, bind and label two Community quilts (pictures coming when I finish the other two of this batch) and baste my batik jelly roll race quilt. Oh, I love these colors!

And finally, the elephant blocks have a turn on the design board. The quilt will have Kona Snow vertical sashing between the elephants in a row and between each row itself. But I’ve decided to make the perimeter stop border in magenta - or whatever you want to call it - before adding the final gray print border. See the pinned-only sample, below. How do you think it will look?

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Three miscellaneous things; two good and a rant.

1.  Celebrating: I hit the 45 pounds-lost mark this week at Weight Watchers! I’ve started riding the exercise bike indoors 3 days per week too. I’ll add walking outdoors to the routine for 2-3 days per week once the snowy and icy weather passes.

2.  Pleased: Former President Donald Trump has been indicted! And although these hush money payment charges are the least grave of all the pending investigations and alleged crimes being investigated, we are ever hopeful that the other DA’s and Special Prosecutors will be following through with their charges later in the year. 

3. Rant: Old El Paso taco shells. They didn’t change their packaging, the item count, the contents net weight or the nutritional information of their crispy taco shells, but look what I discovered when I put a shell from an older box (on the right) next to a shell from the new box (left)…

How is it possible that twelve of the new smaller shells are EXACTLY the same as the larger, older shells? I know it’s just a devious way to screw the customer - give less for the same price, a perverse price increase. Yeah, I know, I know…. First world problems….

Have a great week!

More Quilt Finishes and the Rest of the Fabric Tour

Usually when Blogger goes berserk on me, it at least lets me know that there are unsaved changes to a post. But last week? No...... So the last part of my studio fabric storage “tour” flew off into the ether, never to be seen again. (Like a Chinese spy balloon?)  

So let’s quickly dispatch with that and then move on to this week’s Rainbow Scrap (pink!) progress and the quilt finishes for the week.

These are the bottom two shelves of the leftmost (of three) bookshelves. The upper shelf holds two WIP quilts (another Zip quilt to be sewn - FOR ME THIS TIME! LOL) and the Red Ribbons quilt that needs to be finished. The rest are fabric pulls for three more personal quilts and several pillowcases, also personal.

The bottom shelf is my autumn and Halloween fabric for a quilt or two I never even got started last year. I think there’s also some Independence Day fabric there. And on the floor is my plastic tote of Framed Four Patch blocks from RSC 2022. There is a line through the label meaning it’s ready to be assembled.

This is what we’ll dissect next (the right two bookshelves):

Left Bookshelf (top down): 

Purple scrap tote on purple yardage, Kaffe Fassett fabrics

Aqua scrap tote on aqua/teal fabrics; Yellow scrap tote on yellow/gold fabrics

Solid scraps and yardage

The remainder of that are the Cubbies of Shame. I’ll come back to those in a moment.

Right Bookshelf (top down):

Red scrap tote and red yardage

Black/Gray/Brown yardage; Light Blue scrap tote on light blue yardage

Pink scrap tote on pink yardage; Orange scrap tote on orange yardage

Dark blue yardage and scraps

All the Greens - scraps and yardage

Bottom shelf; Christmas fabrics and scraps; shirtings

On floor in front: another group of quilt tops sent from Jo Kramer in IA (Jo’s Country Junction) as I’m one 

     of her quilt finishers. These will be added to the Cubbies of Shame

Cubbies of Shame:

Kids and Novelty yardage, paired and unpaired with like colors/themes.

Quilt tops to have a backing made, then to be layered, quilted and bound.

In baggies and plastic tote: groupings of like-themed or like-colored scraps - quilt “kits” that I pull out to sew on, a few at a time each month. 

Yes, I’ve got a backlog here to last me well into next year and beyond. Or maybe into next decade, LOL. Therefore, with a grateful heart and humble apologies, I have to ask my generous friends and donors to hold off sending things for awhile. Now, if you’re OK with sending larger fabric pieces that can be used as backings and/or passed directly on to Quilts for Kids, that would be awesome. I just cannot sew them all, and I’m not sure if that was ever expected or not. But everything intended for Quilts for Kids goes to Quilts for Kids, whether it’s in the form of a quilt or fabric to be made into quilts by one of our hard workers.  

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Now, let’s get to the fun stuff - pink, girly February in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

First, I made 12 Split Nine blocks.

And then I started working on little crumb blocks, but I’ll save those for next week. Instead, I’ll show you the three quilts I was able to quilt, bind and label this week. Just in time for our monthly QFK workshop tomorrow!

Pink Checkerboard blocks (donated by Catherine in NJ) supplemented with some 4-patch blocks and one pink orphan block from my stash. Finished size: 40x50”. The backing was the last of an old sheet, the first half of which backed a pink quilt from last year!

This next one has a bit of a history to share. The two circus border strips (a J. Wecker Frisch fabric) were a gift to me from Nann; they actually came from her friend Dorothy (how appropriate! The lion in the panel reminds me of The Cowardly Lion. But I digress....).  The wild pink and red diamonds, which really should be turned the other way in a perfect world, seemed to scream Circus to me. So this Tula Pink fabric (from her Tabby Road collection) was included, along with some dark pink and white stripe fabric. Four quick seams, and two side strips later, and an outrageous circus quilt was born. 

The backing used the last chunks of these Kaffe and Kaffe Collective fabrics. I would’ve felt bad doing that, but with the solid designers of the front fabric to keep the Kaffes company, I figured the Quilt Police would turn a blind eye. 

This little quilt, which took next to no time, finished at 39.5 x 44.5”.

And here come the elephants! This penultimate elephant quilt is finished! The last one will be done in March, but for now, isn’t this just the cutest quilt ever? 

Happy Elephants finished at 39.5 x 44.5”.  I sure wish I had lots more of that border fabric!! 

So, what do you do when you have really enjoyed your week sewing pink circus quilts and elephant quilts? You make one more to keep the fun going!  Here is my pink “Creature” quilt in progress. It named itself  The Creature From the Pink Circus.

At this point, only the central portion between the hot pink starred width-of-fabric strips is sewn. I started with a vintage elephant appliqué (also from Dorothy’s stash, courtesy of Nann) and machine appliquéd it down to a cute trimmed fat quarter - designed by Tamara Kate, one of my all-time fave designers and purchased from her Spoonflower shop. I added a polka-dot balloon appliqué too. 

The rest is just cobbled together, medallion-style, with leftover blocks of strings, waffles, Twin Sisters, Bullseye Courthouse Steps, and Chaser blocks. I think I’ll probably replace that ugly top strip with some 6” scrap blocks. That’s on the agenda for the coming week. Also coming are two adorable quilts from my friend McGill in South Carolina. One of hers is already basted, and the other has the backing made and will be basted, along with the Creature from the Pink Circus this week. I can’t wait!

Have a great week, friends!

Hiding From the Heat

This past week was hot as Hell, probably literally. Most days were in the nineties (F), with at least one day hitting 100 degrees. The yardwork now gets done early in the morning or it isn’t done at all. But we’re all in this together, so it’s not like we’re the only ones with yellow-green lawn. The landscaping companies are booked through the year for xeriscape conversions. Ask me how I know. So nothing will change in our yard until 2023. 

But the scariest part is the weather forecast for this Independence Day long weekend. Our temps will be in the nineties, breezes and gusts in the 25-35 mph range, and humidity down to 8-12%. All the mountains and foothills have fireworks bans, as do most of the parks and river parkways. But, there’s always *that person* who doesn’t follow the rules. So we’ll stay indoors on the 4th of July and try to keep our pets (and ourselves) calm.

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for July is purple. I started with the usual easy blocks first.

Two Antique Tile Blocks (12.5”)

Twelve Framed Nine-Patches (8.5”)

I also finished up my dark and bright blue Bear Paws from June before month end -  6 at 6.5” and 1 at 9”

And of course I had to finish up those two green and blue elephant quilts before month end! All six of my quilt finishes for June are in the “2022 Quilts” tab at the top of the blog. But let’s check out the ellies!

Both little quilts finished at 42x47”. They each have one blue and green floral elephant that matches the border. The rest of the elephant blocks are a mix of various blue and green critters. There is a 1.5” sashing between blocks and rows, and both quilts were quilted with a simple loopy design. 

Both backings are identical - that cheery green and blue fabric that I’m in love with, 

In fact, I love this fabric so much that I’ll be making pillowcases out of the (planned) leftover yardage! 

With all the devastating decisions that have been coming out of the Supreme Court these last couple weeks, our country seems headed in the wrong direction, courtesy of the Radical Right. Loss of women’s bodily autonomy (and a constitutional right) with the overturning of Roe v Wade. Blurring lines between the separation of church and state. Weakening the regulatory powers of the Environmental Protection Agency. I wish I could give proper attribution to the picture below, which sums up the views of what I believe is a majority of rational Americans. (If you know, please leave a comment).  

But I’ll leave you with a happy picture of one corner of our backyard that was bursting with blooms this week. 

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Here Come the Elephants - Now Where is the Sun??

It’s green March for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but there is nothing but gray clouds and white snow outside. And rain. Apparently the weather can’t make up its mind, which is a sure sign that spring is almost here. And since nothing is greening up outside yet, it seems a good time to play with our green fabric scraps indoors. Join me and the other RSC scrappy playmates with our green show and tell for the week over at Angela’s Scrappy Saturday. 

I like to start out my month by working with the selvages. These are my four 4-patch selvage blocks. I do sew them together into one big block, but as you can see, one is turned wrong. Actually, it was pieced wrong. Should I leave it wonky or fix it?? 

And then I did my row of green tumblers, alternating selvage tumblers with a solid piece of fabric in various green prints. Since green follows yellow in the rainbow, these two rows will actually go together in the actual little quilt.

And next I like to get the crackers out of the way, since they take 5” squares. Those are the biggest component parts for all my RSC blocks this year, so I do them before I really start cutting into the chunks for other things.  I had enough green to get 12 cracker blocks. They measure 7.75” unfinished.

And then it was time to knock out those two elephant donation quilts. They are both made from the 10” Happy Blocks I  sewed while on vacation last month. The first quilt, creatively named Elephants I (my imagination is as dull as the weather these days) was quilted with a loopy design. As in all these pictures, the wonkiness is from how I pin these quilts up on the design board. Maybe I should learn to photograph them on the floor.....

Three leftover blocks were sewn into the back. It was fun to put all these random chunks and strips of fabrics together to come up with some sort of  passable backing. Those two horizontal orangey strips are leftovers from the Saguaro Sunset quilt ombre fabric.

And here is Elephants II. The quilting is a simple stipple.

The backing on this also contains, in addition to the blah tan that I can’t wait to be rid of, three more elephant blocks. This completes Goal #5 on my Finish-Along list for the 1st quarter of this year. You can see my list HERE.  The two quilts together were also my March goal for OMG - One Monthly Goal (two monthly goals? LOL)  I’ll link up to that finish post when it goes live at the end of the month. (Edited to add: OK - it’s live now. HERE is the March finish link-up for One Monthly Goal).

The two elephant quilts will both be for donation. Wouldn’t it be great if they went to two siblings who both love elephants? I figure the colors and theme are gender neutral.  My stack of donation quilts is getting pretty big, so I’m glad that Hands2Help and the charity opportunities are just around the corner! 

A Busy Week

If the first week of March is any indication, then it’s going to be a busy month! This was Bruce’s first full week of retirement (or re-retirement as we call it. He retired once about 9 years ago, was home for 3-4 months, began volunteering at The Leonardo Museum, then they hired him part-time, then full-time, etc etc. He worked there for 8 years!)



We ran all sorts of errands this week between continual rain showers. Not complaining about the rain; it’s better than drought. And at least it’s rain and not snow, although I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of the snow this season. I’m hoping it warms up for next week, which is my birthday week. Last year I got a bicycle and was out riding it in shirtsleeves.... We did treat ourselves to some cut flowers to brighten things up a bit. I had another pic that was a better view of these tulips and daffodils (bought from Trader Joe’s), but it wouldn’t upload. Oh well. I’m also preparing for a joint birthday party for my older son Ryan and me this weekend, reading two very good books, and just generally enjoying having Bruce home these days!

And another cool thing - I already have my Lattice Birds quilt back from the quilter! I sent it to Diane Knott of Butterfly Threads Quilting and apparently caught her at a good time (between Quiltcon and a family vacation) when she had nothing in the pipeline. I sent it off on a Thursday (a week ago today), from Utah to Georgia. She got it Saturday and sent it back to me on Monday. I had it yesterday, Wednesday. How cool is that? But the best part, of course, was the amazing quilting she did.  I will get the binding on in the next couple days, but I’m going to have to wait for some decent weather to take some glamour shots.

In the meantime, though, I do have the two elephant quilts basted. The one on the left is spray basted, the right one is pin basted. I’m not at all happy at how wrinkled the back gets when you spray baste the quilt layer by layer. But we’ll see how the quilting goes. Yesterday I quilted the pin-based one and will start on the spray basted one today. I’ll show completed pictures when they’re done.

And I bought another sewing machine!!  This one has actually been planned for at least 2-3 months. Meet Sofie, the Singer Featherweight!

Sofie was born sometime in 1968-1969 in Kilbowie, Scotland, UK (She is a 221K, with the K referring to Kilbowie).  She has all her parts, a case and foot pedal, a light, and is in excellent condition. I got a screaming deal on her ($350) from a friend at Weight Watchers (yes, I still go - I’ve maintained my current weight for a year after losing 30-35 pounds, and am now gearing up to  lose the next 30). Anyway, this machine is not for me - I bought it for Cousin Kim. Her old Kenmore is dying a slow death, just like my Kenmore is. Both of our Kens still work, but their motors are weary and have lost most of their power. So Kim’s been using my Brother Innova (“Bob”) when she sews here. But I wanted her to have a nice machine for her home, and she prefers solid vintage machines, so Sofie will be hers.

Now, our next sewing machine project is to get my Singer treadle up and running. That is a project for later in the year. Then I can sew if there’s no power! I also have an old 1951 electric (don’t remember the brand offhand) that is a tank that I need to pass on to someone. I don’t think that Bruce or the repair shop are up to the task of fixing it. Have I ever shown that one? I don’t think so.....   but I digress....

And then I got a wild hair this week to piece a quilt from some of the blocks in the Parts Department. This is what I came up with.

I had hoped to get something out of just all the blue blocks, but there weren’t enough. So I added four green ones (quarter log cabins); one in each corner. That still wasn’t quite enough, so the bottom center block is actually 4 multi-colored quarter logs in warmer hues. And the block above that is just made up of random pieces and squares. I love how the upper right part of that, pieced from a couple different things, looks like a men’s tie. Anyway, this one is also basted and will be quilted soon. It’ll finish at about 44x54”. I’ve got a white with gray swiss dot fabric as sashing, also a scrap, but there wasn’t enough to add a final border to the top or bottom.

So that’s what I’ve been up to this week. I’ve also been sewing on my green scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and will be showing some of my green blocks in Saturday’s post and linky party. But between the blue flimsy above, plus the elephants and birds quilts, I will have four finishes in the next week. But I’m not going to think farther ahead than that until I get them done, photographed and blogged.

Setting a Goal for March

Today Angela at So Scrappy quilts announced the March color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge - GREEN! I look forward to digging out my large drawerful of scraps and getting started, but that’s not what today’s post is about.

Instead, I’m setting my One Monthly Goal (OMG) for March, and linking up to Patty at Elm Street Quilts. 

Last month, I sewed up a bunch (66 to be exact) 10” Happy Blocks with some cute elephant fabric in the center. I was able to get two flimsies sewn before the end of February, each with 30 blocks. So, the 5x6 setting for each quilt top measures 50x60”, which is a great size for a donation quilt.  My goal for March is to finish these two flimsies into quilts.  I only have a taken a picture of one, so here it is.

I’ve already sewn up the two backs, using three leftover elephant blocks in each, along with lots of yardage pieces that have been in my stash for too long. So, both tops are ready to be layered and quilted. I’ll be doing that myself on Bernadette, my Bernina 550. I have no idea (yet) what the binding will be.  

When they are finished, I will post pictures of both quilts, front and back. :-)  

Since I didn’t have any quilt finishes in February, I will be shooting for 4 finishes in March. Given that I finished an entire flimsy today from the Parts Department (for another post), that the 2 elephant tops are ready to be basted, and that Lattice Birds will only need to have binding sewn on when it gets home from the quilter, I think it should be totally doable!

Sewing More Sunshine

February is always short. But this month, with a trip to Arizona to visit family and seek out warmth and sunshine, it seemed even shorter than usual. I had to get my sewing game on and finish whipping my yellow scraps into shape this last week.

To that end, I sewed six 6.5” crumb blocks. Then I added them to the six from last year and made three Crumbcakes blocks for one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts for this year. 

I only need 9 more small (6.5”) blocks in varying colors to finish up all the Crumbcakes large blocks. This one will probably finish out sometime mid-year.

And then I made some bitcoin blocks in yellow and in gold.  I’m keeping these only two columns wide because I’m thinking I may eventually use them for a rainbow border.  Then again, maybe not. Time will tell.

That completed my RSC scrap work for the month, YAY!! Here are all my yellow blocks.

6    9.5” strip blocks

4    selvage four-patch blocks

12  nine-patch variation blocks

1    row of yellow selvage tumblers (shown with the red row from last month)

7    Crackers blocks at 7.5”

8    Anvil blocks at 8.5”

3    Crumbcakes blocks 

4     Bitcoin blocks

My yellow scraps aren’t gone, but they are definitely decimated!! Come see what others have done with their yellow scraps at our weekly Rainbow Scrap Challenge linkup. 

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While on vacation, I sewed together some Happy Blocks with some elephant fabric I found on a steep clearance last summer. I thought I had 75 blocks, but it turns out there were only 65. So, I’m making two quilts with 30 blocks each and will use the leftover blocks on the back. I sewed up this top yesterday. The other one uses the same fabrics but will have a slightly different block placement. With the blocks measuring 10”, both quilts will finish at 50x60” and be for donation. I’d like to get them done next week so I can have a couple February finishes.

And speaking of vacation, my vacation post is HERE and includes a picture of Saguaro Sunset in the wild. It also includes lots of cool pictures of the house we stayed in courtesy of Bruce’s sister Annette and her husband Glenn (who we just found out yesterday lost their adult son a couple days ago. Don’t even know details yet). 

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The bulk of my work this week has been on assembling the Lattice Birds top. And after all the deliberation over color placement, I can see I accidentally switched a couple rows (rows 7 and 9 should be reversed) near the bottom and there are some unintended clusters of color. But oh well. Don’t they say that birds of a feather flock together?!?

Now I need to make some final decisions about borders. It will definitely have about a 4-5” dark blue floral border of the focus fabric (seen on a lot of the birds and the center patch of every Irish Chain block). But I think it may also need a stop border in white or bright green. Or one in green AND one in white before adding the wide blue border.

Since these are also 10” blocks, the top currently measures 70x90”. So it could tentatively end up at around 84x104”. I’ve got to get crackin’ on this because it’s my OMG (One Monthly Goal) to get the top finished up in February. That only leaves me a few days to make up my mind and finish sewing it (and press and snip loose threads yet again!).