Walking the Plank

Wow, I can't believe I got as far as I did today.  It's been a whirlwind of activity on projects yesterday and today!  First of all, I cut all my vines for the AotH border and sewed them on yesterday.  Last night and this morning I stitched the vines around the corners.  Then, after making a yummy Sunday breakfast for the family, I sprinted upstairs to my sewing room and got busy lapping the seams in place and - Viola!  Here is my totally finished (stitching wise) Anniversaries of the Heart Sampler -

 

The border pattern I used comes from the July (Swan Lake) booklet.  I picked that one because it was not used in any of the other designs and because that block happened to be in the center - using that border, it would not be outside of itself, if you know what I mean.

Yesterday I worked for 3 hours cutting the fabric strips to make my new grandson's quilt.  Today, starting at 10AM I got busy sewing it.

 I've decided to call it Walking the Plank - because it's a pirate quilt.  I have a feeling that ya'll are just kinda goin' ugh - huh; like my husband and son did, but you'll see.

At left, all the pieces are cut out and labeled.

After the Cheeze-its, I've had to cut back to just water.

 This is the first step, getting the yellow centers surrounded by the next colors.

 This is where I have realized that somewhere along the way, I made a measurement mis-calculation.  But, not time to fiddle with figuring that out, I just forged ahead and trimmed up my blocks as I finished them.

 Here I've gotten the pokey-dotted blocks and the red ones done - I'm all ready for the black strips - closing in on the finish line! 

 Ugh - Houston, we have a problem.  Unfortunately, I forgot to cut the black strips that go at the top and bottom of the polka-dot blocks.  Oh Frazzle! 

So, had to take a few minutes to cut those strips and then sew them on.

I've been working very hard and deserve some chocolate to go with my water after this set back.

 Ah, this is much better.  On to joining the rows.

 First row done.  Three more to go.

Like I said, three hours to cut yesterday and I started today at 10AM.  I was finished at 3PM which makes this an 8 hour quilt top!

Just one eensy-weensy little problem.  I did not count on the double rows of black in between the colored block rows.  Oops!  So now I want to figure something out to go there because it's just a little more black than I was counting on.

Above, the finished quilt top Walking the Plank.  Just ignore the hands and feet; there's no one behind that quilt, no one at all.  Now, doesn't that quilt look Piratey?  Stop looking at me that way!

Here is the picture that my son posted today on his Facebook page.  He called me this morning to tell me that he'd just finished decorating for the baby yesterday.

At left is his picture of the crib.  Turns out there are a lot of pieces (o' eight) to this set.  You can't see the mobile too well in his picture, so I went to the website and got . . .

 

This one - you can see that it too is pirate themed.  I went shopping at Baby Gap a few weeks ago and found this really cut pair of jammies.  Also got another set of jammies and a onesie, but they don't have them on the site anymore.  Anyhoo, I've already sent those out, along with the baby towels, so they're getting all stocked up.  His arrival is two months away now!

Finally, I got a giftie here recently and I thought all you frog collectors out there might enjoy seeing it - 

It's ORANGE - I think that's unusual - what do you think?  Hope you enjoyed!