a couple of finishes

My Sweetling and I went to Mississippi for the weekend.  Her high-school has a tradition of inviting the previous year's seniors back for a Senior Tribute event.  Her event fell on the second Saturday of the month, which is also the Saturday that the Possum Town Quilters guild meets. It was a fantastic happenstance! I was looking forward to seeing some of my quilting buddies.

... and then the meeting was cancelled due to weather alerts for flash floods and tornadoes...😭

My quilting friend Judy hosted us for the two nights we were there.  Driving all day Friday and leaving early on Sunday morning meant we were really only there for Saturday. It was a very short visit.

Judy is an accomplished quilter. I wrote about one of her achievements in my blog post Mountain Quiltfest 2019. Judy's Bonnie Hunter quilts were presented as a special exhibition!
Spending this time with her now was inspiring, regenerating, and uplifting.  Sometimes seeing how someone else does things gives us permission to try something different. I know that's a vague statement, I'll get more specific if I go forth with the idea.
But for now, I am feeling a renewed determination!

And my first finish for 2020 was completed at Judy's house!

Butterfly Whimsy (I may rename at a later date.)

19" x 32"

made for the 2020 Mountain Quiltfest Guild Challenge.

PTQ chose a butterfly theme.

Go to my blog update Butterflies!! to see the start of this project.

I stitched and stitched and stitched every spare minute I had on Saturday. I hand turned the binding, attached the hanging sleeve, and put a (temporary) label. The last thread was clipped at 11:30 p.m. I just barely got it done!

I added a little bit of black embroidery down the left inner border seam. 

It's very subtle but it seemed to help balance the piece.

oh yes! looking at the close up of Butterfly Whimsy reminded me of the quilting!

I had so much fun getting reacquainted with the "George." (before our trip to MS.)

And I was proud of myself for being brave enough to free motion quilt butterflies!

I think they're rather sweet myself.

I had forgotten to turn off the desk light when I finished quilting.

This was a comforting sight when I walked back into the room...

"George" patiently waits until next time.

Now we are back home and today I went to the Quilts of Valor Sit and Sew group in Carrollton, TX. They meet on the 2nd Tuesday of the month from 10 - 4 at the The Old Craft Store in Carrollton, TX. 

I consider this my second finish this year even though it's just the quilt top.  The top will be passed to a long arm quilter. It may or may not come back to me to get bound.

I started this top on November 12, 2019 (Quilts of Valor group in Carrollton, TX)

It feels good to have contributed to this amazing organization. I plan to continue with this group.

The next presentation of quilts to veterans may be in March. I'll keep you updated when I hear more.

Gosh! Two finishes in January! While it's not a "great accomplishment" I'd say that's a good start considering all things going on around here!

Actually, there's still 2 more weeks of January to go! How about that?!?