I hate thinking of post titles

It's time to link up with Melissa and Shanna again for March's ALYoF goal setting. I've left it till the last minute again, mainly as I just couldn't decide what to set as my goal. I could have settled on one of the three birthday cushions I started last week or the nursing cushion for Benji which I really would like to make before I finish breastfeeding but something's been nagging me.

I have this really, really strong urge to quilt. I haven't touched the frame since the end of September/early October (that's nearly SIX months ago!!!!) when I finished quilting Millie's quilt. As soon as I'd finished Millie's quilt I loaded my Kaffe Snowball quilt.

I've just realised that I never took a picture of this as a completed quilt top with borders attached so instead you can have an insight into what my kitchen looks like when I'm sewing.

I already had a quilting pattern in mind and was raring to go but somehow never got around to it.

So this month I'm going to ignore the bee blocks (at least until this is done) and some kids will have to wait a little longer for their birthday pressies and whilst I just enjoy getting reacquainted with my frame.

Hopefully I'll manage to get the quilting finished before the end of the month as I might decide to give this to my brother on his thirtieth next month - I have the binding ready to go - surely nineteen days is enough to bind a quilt?

Linking as usual

Scrappy log finish (maybe?)

Yeah! I managed a second ALYoF finish!

Back at the start of the month I set my goal of finishing Mali's cushion before the end of the month and yesterday I did the last little bit of quilting, inserted a zip and sewed the cushion together. Unfortunately I wasn't home during daylight hours today so I only have a night time picture to show you.

I quilted the front with a variegated pink Coti thread that I bought at festival last year since I couldn't find an Aurifil one anywhere (I've since bought some from the lovely Cindy).

The crosshatch with the lines around 1/4" apart does take time but I love the texture that it gives. I find that marking the lines with a Clover Hera marker makes things a lot easier and my lines end up being so much straighter than if I tried to 'wing it'!

I decided that I was going to back the cushion with a FQ of a green floral from Posy but couldn't decide if I should quilt it with the same pink thread as the front or a variegated green Aurifil so I put it to the masses on Instagram...

...and the answer was a definite green. On the front of the cushion the variegation in the thread isn't obvious but on the back I really like the extra something that it adds to the overall effect.

Unfortunately the night time picture doesn't show the quilting as well as it should.

 Whilst I was basting the front and back for the cushion I forgot that I usually prefer to add the zip to the back of the cushion. By the time I remembered I'd already cut the fabric and the batting so it was too late so I just added the zip to the bottom of the cover.

I can't say that I'm 100% happy with this finish. I can't quite put my finger on it. It might be that it doesn't have any white in it, which I do like in my quilts, or it could be the absence of Mali's name on the front. I must admit that I'm toying with the idea of adding it to the blue fabric......

But for now I'm calling it finished and linking up with Melissa and Shanna.