4 X 7 Sewing Challenge - Final Week & Bee, Myself and I

Ok to be honest there is still one more day left in February, and I plan on sewing, but my goal is to start quilting my tic tac toe quilt and I'm pretty sure I won't finish it in one day. Now this week/month has been very successful for me. I felt several times that 30 minutes a day wouldn't add up to much, but let me tell you it does. I fought having a hurt knee, sickness in the house, lots of doctor appointments, work, exhaustion, and yet I finished lots and lots. I'm combining my 4 X 7 Challenge with Bee, Myself and I because they are both about sewing for yourself.

First let me recap this past week, in a quick manner and then we will go on to a recap of the whole month. This week has been all about the crosses. I did an inventory of what I had, and calculated what I needed. I spent time cutting the last few I needed, sewed, ironed and sewed some more. Most days I only put in 30 minutes, and that was enough for me to finish the all the crosses I needed.

So let's look at what I got done this month. I finished 9 tic tac toe blocks, which gave me enough to finish the top. It is a 5 x 6 layout and measures 60 x 72. I normally like larger quilts, but this one is going to be my chair quilt. I will keep it by my chair to throw over my legs when I get cold. So it doesn't need to be quite as long. I'm spending my 30 minutes tonight ironing the top and back so I can get them loaded onto the long-arm tomorrow.

Next I finished 19 geese blocks, which is what I needed to finish. I still have to get all the blocks up onto my design wall. The flying geese quilt will be a little larger, because it will be in a 6 x 7 layout, which means it will be 72 x 84. I want this one to be one of my "snuggle quilts". I am a little weird and don't like to sleep under lots of sheets/blankets, so I will often sleep on top of my bed with just a "snuggle" quilt. If it is really cold I will crawl under everything, but since I live in Texas, it doesn't get really cold too often. I did make quite a few purple geese, because purple is my favorite color. I love how they look.

And last but not least I finished 38 cross blocks. These have been so much fun to make, and I've made a lot of them. I need 289 because I want this to be a large queen size. The plan is for it to be 17 x 17 blocks or 102 x 102 inches. It is going to take me some time to assemble it, since the blocks are small. My plan is to work in groups of 5 x 5 blocks then make 1 x 5 sections to connect them.  This project has been several years in the making, so I'm not going to rush, but I'm so happy to be able to move to the next step.  Here are the last few blocks I make this month. A funny story about one of these crosses...the dark blue Cotton & Steel at the top, uses a background fabric that says "Texas". What is fun about that, besides that I'm from Texas, is that these crosses started as my turn as Queen in the Compass Bee group. I tried to put something that represented Texas in all the blocks I sent to my bee mates, so I thought it was important that something be in my blocks as well.

So that is my month of selfish sewing for the 4 X 7 Sewing Challenge and at the same time my Bee, Myself and I blocks. I just realized I'm going to have to figure out what I'm going to do next on Bee, Myself and I, because I've finished all of the blocks I needed.  I will have to think about that. I will be linking up with Sarah @ Berry Barns Designs. And if you want to follow Bee, Myself and I, check out Granny Maud's Girl blog.