...and May's projects are done!

I'm finally on a roll!  Didn't get my January ALYoF project completed, and cut it kind of close in Feb. and Mar., but this month, my quilt was finished a day ahead of time!  It felt so good - and I just may try for that feeling again next month!
I was hoping to do the quilting and binding on my charm pack Twister quilt - and it's done - not without some drama, but done!  I had the quilting finished a few days ago, but I couldn't find the binding fabric ANYWHERE!  You may recall that my quilt room was relocated in January - well, most of it got moved; some of it ended up in the living room, and, seeing as that room is more of a catch-all space than a room that is used to entertain, it really doesn't matter if there are 5 or 6 large boxes dumped there.  I was pretty sure that I'd seen the fabric in there a week or so ago, so that was my first place to check, but to no avail.  Guess what - it had actually made the trip down to the sewing room! but something else got set on top of it, and it was almost invisible.  (I don't know about your sewing space, but mine looks like those "magazine" rooms only when I'm planning to take a picture in there).
Long story short - I finally found the fabric, cut my strips, sewed them on, and wore out my middle finger after repeatedly using it to advance my needle when hand-stitching the binding down in the back - but it's DONE!
Ta-da:

The binding is the same brown fabric as in the center section - I thought it needed a dark "frame" after those pale colours in the borders.  Will I do another Twister quilt?  The answer is YES!  Cutting all the blocks is time-consuming, but I love the effect of the blocks!

I also have another May finish - it's the last day for the colour green over on soscrappy - and I have my Technicolor Braid strips to show - here they are: 

My green fabrics are very diverse - and I still have a lot of green scraps that haven't been touched.  June's colour is yellow - should be fun!

May's latest green RSC post

Well, today is the 4th Saturday in May, so I have the opportunity to share my scrappy green blocks for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.  I missed posting my green blocks on the 2nd Saturday, and it's thrown me completely off kilter!
I came across a pile of pre-cut strips for my Kickin' Stash blocks - which is odd, because I cut and made my KS blocks last week already, and I have no idea why I cut more pieces - or did I cut these at the beginning of the month and then forget about them?  Anything's possible!

I'll post my braid segments next week - and I'm already wondering which colour Angela will choose for June!

A quick RSC post

I was almost ready to go to bed, and then I remembered that I didn't do my RSC post last week, and now I have only a few minutes to spare, so this will be a really short post.  The colour for this month is green, and I have a kazillion green scraps, so these blocks are really scrappy (although a few fabrics repeat)!  These are my 2 Kickin' Stash blocks (designed by Beth Helfter of Eva Paige Quilt Designs):
 I could probably do another 2 blocks using only lime-y greens, and another 2 with bright, grass green fabrics - I'll have to think about that before next week's post!
I'm off to bed now - good night!

On my needles May 16th

I think that I really should change my blog name to "Quilting, Knitting and Cardmaking", because I'm definitely spending more time knitting (and crocheting!) than I do making cards lately!  It's actually rather funny, because making a card takes far less time than any other project that I do, yet I so rarely get around to making cards lately. This post has a few cards in it though - just so I don't really have to change my blog's name!
But first - my "on the needles" report:  I have managed to get quite a bit of knitting done on my sweater / shrug - the sleeves are finished, and I'm now working on the fronts.  When they're finished, I still have to pick up and knit the borders all along the front edge from the cast on to the back of the neck, but that will be the end of the knitting.  I purchased the button that I'll need for the closure, so the end of this project is in sight!  Let's see, that means that I'll only have about 9 knitting projects on the go...
So, the pictures:  first, the completed (unblocked) sleeves, and then the start of the fronts.  It's interesting that the sleeve stripe pattern doesn't match at all, but the fronts, knitted from the same 2 balls of yarn, are very close!  I didn't do anything to try matching the fronts, and I'm SO happy that they'll line up well together.
  I mentioned that I had a few cards to post - there are a few birthdays coming up, and my birthday card section is depleted, so I managed to pull together a couple designs (thanks to Pinterest!  What would I do without Pinterest?), and these are the cards that resulted:

  I just realized that one of these cards was meant to go to a regular reader of my blog, so I just may have to make another card for her - and I'll save one of these for a birthday next week.  That sounds like a plan to me!

May's "ALYoF" project

You'd think that with all of the different quilt-y projects I've started recently, it would be easy to choose a project to finish, but that isn't the case!  I went through my stack of tops earlier this morning, and finally picked my Twister quilt.  I'm not sure that I've even shared the top here!
I cut the pieces for this more than a year ago, and tucked it away for another time - which may have ended up being January of this year...  The pattern uses up almost a whole charm pack, and some yardage.  You sew 4 strips of charms, sew fabric all the way around the strips, and then get out your Twister template to cut out the pinwheels.  Once they've been cut up, they're sewn together again, and the "border" fabric becomes part of the strip.  When that step is done, you sash the strips, sew them into a larger section; it then has 2 more borders and 4 cornerstone blocks added to it - and VOILA! your top is finished!
Now I'm going to have to find a backing fabric - or maybe I'll make a patched back from whatever left-over fabrics I have from assembling the top.
This is also a UFO that I need to finish completely for our guild challenge, so I'd better get working on it!

 It's going to need a good pressing first of all!

On my needles, and some RSC blocks...

I can't believe that it's already been a month since I last posted pics of my knitting progress!  I posted that I was hoping to be able to finish the sleeves of my sweater / shrug by month's end - and I don't think that I even picked up that project again until just 2 days ago.  NOT the way to finish this sweater before summer hits!
I have since put some inches onto the sleeves though - and I'm now at the first decrease stage.  I probably still have to knit another 7" or so, but that should be doable - maybe by mid-month?  At any rate, I'm linking up to Judy's site:

As well, with the beginning of a new month, the colour has changed for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge, and Angela has chosen green for May!  I cut my 2 Japanese x and + blocks, and got them pieced together, so they get posted to Angela's site:

I don't have to repeat ANY fabrics for May's blocks - I have a HUGE scrap basket of every shade of green known to man!  (Please don't point out that I have repeated a few fabrics here - I love those fabrics and I just need to see them more than once!)  

That's it for today's works-in-progress - check in later this week for the next update.