When the going gets tough...

...the tough get sewing. We are finally underway toward Key West after a much longer stay in Fort Lauderdale than expected. We were supposed to have been in the Bahamas a month ago but too many boat problems slowed us way down. If you're interested in the details, you can read our travel log, but suffice it to say that I've had plenty of time to sew while the clock went tick tock tick tock in the boatyard.



After my big push to get a bunch of quilts completely finished and shipped out before we left the country, what bubbled up to the surface in my studio was a bunch of little stuff.

First I stitched up some purple scraps for the February Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC). I made string blocks on muslin foundations to go with January's light blue ones.



Then I made a couple of square spiral blocks, one with light neutral around the outside and one with purple. If I make a pair of these in each color, the colors and neutrals should alternate nicely in the final layout.



Next I pieced some 3.5" purple squares into 12"x15" blocks. These will be the backgrounds for this simple cat applique.



The cats this month will be in bright yellows and my plan is to do each month's RSC color as the background with the cats the opposite on the color wheel. I'm going to try the Crafted Applique method for this, but haven't gotten that far yet. We had no running water in the boat for a while so I had no good way to clean up the Modge Podge used in Crafted Applique.



I recently joined the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild and they had a little challenge during the Olympics: sew some blocks in the colors of the Olympic rings.



I pulled out red, yellow, blue, green and black scraps and put together this fast and simple I-spy flimsy.



Since I don't have a lot of black fabric, I used more cheerful yellow. I just love this chicken fabric! This piece will eventually go to Wrap A Smile.



This mini featuring two cat panels was pieced ages ago and keeps getting buried under other projects. I finally sandwiched and quilted it. I FMQ outlined the kitties and did a bit of thread painting on their fur. The border got a simple stipple in variegated thread. A spring green binding finished it up.



It was designed to fit on the small counter right under the toilet paper roll in our bathroom. That surface collects a weird amount of dust, so this mini should hide that. Glamorous, huh? Keepin' it real, here.



And finally, this horizontal wall hanging was made from three leftover blocks from O, Star! I made that quilt for my Mom back in September from the Night Sky pattern by Jaybird Quilts. I just love the saturated brights against black.



Three Stars hangs in our pilot house, directly above the settee and under the air conditioner. I sit on the settee when we are underway. The odd piece of white plastic hanging above the quilt is an air diverter to keep the cold air from blowing on the back of my neck. The string holds it up so the air flows toward the ceiling. It can be removed when not needed. Normally this sort of a/c unit would be much higher, near the 8-10 foot ceilings of a house. But our ceilings are low and the settee is high so I need the diverter. The plastic is ugly, but I'm happy to have the cool air.

I quilted Three Stars similarly to my Mom's piece, with a loopy point to point design in the stars and a couple of FMQ fillers in the black. They are invisible since I used black thread. Oh well, it was good practice and I'm happy with this little finish. It adds a little spark to the room and reminds me of my Mom at the same time!