January was cold, snowy, cold, and depressing.  We had a few good snow storms.   Spent a lot of time inside, watching it snow.  In December I pulled this selection of fabric to make yet another Cats&Dogs quilt.   I don’t remember if this was my 3rd or 4th.  I donate them and they are really well liked.

 

Joann’s announced it is in bankruptcy again.  They have debt issues and haven’t been keeping customers happy for a while now.  The shelves are half empty, and they have a lot of christmas and halloween stuff still out for sale, instead of new stock.  I got an email from Viking saying hey would be closing their sewing centers inside Joann.  I guess I need to figure out where I can get my machine serviced in the future.

The weather was decent at one point and I found some good buys in the 75% off clearance aisle.  Was tempted to buy more, the cutter even asked if “that was all” I was getting.  I guess some people were buying a lot more, but I don’t need more.

I got half yards of these three reds, and bigger pieces of the green and the useful brown.

In addition to the animal appliques, which I am in no hurry to finish, I became intrigued by this scrappy strip quilt from Donna Jordan.  She has a youtube video which explains it’s construction.

 

 

 

 

I immediately went to my scrap pile and started pulling out all my strips, and separated them into darks and lights.  I decided to do the first  attempt in darks.

 

 

 

The pattern is so easy to follow. It wasn’t long before I had a pile of strips ready to go together.

 

 

 

Sewing all the long seams took a while longer.  With short winter days I was only able to work on it during the middle of the afternoon on days when the weather was good.   Pairs of sections went together in rows, then I had long rows to sew each time.