Settling In

After a few months of travel (I think we were home for 20 days total in August and September) we are home and settling back in.  We've spent the last few weeks doing some stuff around the house - those mundane things that make being a responsible adult so much fun.  I haven't gotten a lot of stitching done, but I have to keep my hands busy in the evenings, so I've done some.

I finished my second block of Ladies of the Sea.  They are challenging blocks, but I am enjoying the process.  Once I had finished the first block, I decided to do the rest in order. This was an interesting choice since the first block was the Bluenose and we had seen her in our travels.  I still haven't decided if I will put the names of the ships on each of the blocks.  I think I probably will, but I don't know if I will ink or embroider them.  That decision can be made later.

I have a few tops that are awaiting their turn to be quilted.  I started on my Quilt-In-A-Box.  This will be a heavy quilt.  I am being frugal here and used a batting that I found in my stash.  I don't remember where it came from or when I got it.  It is very dense.  I am also using a damask on the back.  This fabric was given to me recently by a friend who bought too much for the drapes she made for her house.  This is also a heavy fabric.  I'm machine quilting each block with a different random fill pattern for practice.  I'm about half done with this.

My guild is running a star block exchange this season and this is my sample block.  It't a Carol Doak paper pieced star that I really like.  I haven't done paper piecing in quite some time because I really don't enjoy it.  I still don't.  I would much rather hand piece a complicated block than paper piece.  But, I still like the block.