WIP: March NewFO - You Must Be Croaking! and baby binding

Sunday was March 24th - totally Spring, right?

Well, I woke up to this!!

Perfect Christmas flocking, don't ya think?

And opened the back door to this:

And it kept snowing All Day Long, giving us a good 10" overall of nice, heavier-than-usual snow, so that 3 times I had to go out and do this:

Shoveling snow is a terrific calorie burner when you're working on losing weight!

That was actually the left-overs on the 25th, and only about 1 1/2" that time. But our drive does not get direct sun and it ices over nastily if you don't just go out there and clear it off. Plus, nobody wanted to boot up on the snowing day just to take a pic for me of the real shoveling, and the one time Scott was out with me, we and a neighbor were far too busy clearing the uphill road into our cul-de-sac. Plows refuse to do our communal drive. Usually I use the broom for this much here, but I didn't have a pic with the shovel.  ;D



So, if you recall, I participate in Barbara's NewFO fun by pulling something from my staggering storage of NETYs (kits/sets from the Never Even Touched Yet case).  I'd planned on doing a twister project with my HOOT layer cake and yardage, but 10" of snow on the day I was going to pull the NewFO - March 24! - made me laugh out loud for real when I went to that shelf and saw the kit for 

You Must Be Croaking.

Definitely the ticket!  The name is oh-so-apropos and an added bonus: NOT BLUE!  So tired right now of looking at my favorite color.








The fabric colors even look like they're trying to bring spring into my world! Don't gardens need tulips right now? 

Hmm - need to turn the bunny bench around so the base bunnies are facing people instead of the landscape wall. Probably ought to do that before Easter. ;D  

There is actually a good 5" layer on the bench under the fabric, although the camera flattened that dimension out.


Toodlin' away on the frogs.

I am really, REALLY enjoying the bright colors (although they're by no means neon). There are 6 different belly batiks and 4 different background yellows. I'm really disappointed in the kit's border fabric choices - very bad value pairings, nothing at all like the pattern picture, and not even a nice play with each other - but the frog and background fabrics are delectable, so I'm happy for now. I'll get them all made, then box it all up until I've finished a few other projects. When I come back to this one later in the year, I'm pretty sure I'll find substitutes in my stash for the border options I'm not happy with.


Update 3/30/13:

I finished the frog blocks as far as I want them to go at this point.  When I pull them back out for their priority turn later in the year, I think I'll embroider flies on some of them, and I'm also thinking I'll make their eyes be looking toward the nearest fly. So I'm not putting those on just yet.  :)

That was a super fun diversion from the "have to" sewing of the month!

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When I finish the frog blocks, it'll be time to put on the walking foot and bind this baby quilt!!  WOOHOO  :D  

 I am sooooo thrilled with how the quilting played out. 

Looks as awesome on the back as it does on the front, and that minky is divine to snuggle with.

And Thank You, Scott! for changing the two burned-out bulbs so I can see better in the evenings when I'm stitching on the hand-work Dear Jane blocks.  :)

Not an easy task with those crazy-high ceilings!

Hope you're having a good week!

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Linking up at

Pat Sloan's Show and Tell

Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday

Lee's WIP

Esther's WOW

Barbara's NewFO