What's new on the quilt front

My brother-in-law has started driving east from Seattle. He has sold his house and stored or disposed of furniture, and is ready to resettle near his birthplace. We will see him in a week or so, or however long it takes him to circumnavigate the snowy places in the Rockies. I'm sure there's still plenty of snow in the western states. His quilt is complete and waiting for him. I am so anxious to see if he likes it. I sewed the name label on the back last night. Now, it's well and truly not mine.

I need to start binding my brother's quilt today. Next month I will drive north to visit my Mom. My brother lives in the same town, so it will be a chance to take the quilt home to him (I never trust mailing them, after than one was lost/stolen/whatever). It is for his birthday, but will be a little early. I'm going to talk to Mom about whether she wants to hide it for a few months. However, I'd rather he open it when I'm there. I have given too many quilts as gifts and never been present to see the recipient's face. That's half the fun!

Saturday, February 16th, was Project Linus' Make a Blanket Day. Since my chapter didn't have any plans, I decided that the week around the 16th would be my personal quilt-fest. Here is what I did: I have four more tops pieced and ready to quilt.

The first is Wild Thing, the top I had to re-border.

The second is called Trains Trains Trains. The backing has trains, too, on a yellow background.

The third I have named Give A Hoot!. The backing also has owls. It's from a great collection called The Wise Old Owl by Kristen Powers.

The fourth is a traditional Churn Dash pattern and re-used the bunny border from Wild Thing. It doesn't photograph very well; the colors are more vibrant in person. I threw in the orange because it looked too tame and washed out with the pink I was originally going to use.

As soon as the binding's on my brother's quilt, I need to rev up the Juki and get these machine quilted. Even though I have not ventured into deep waters in the machine quilting (stippling is just beyond me at this point, even though I love it) and only do geometrics and in-the-ditch type things, it causes a lot of mental angst. Hopefully, it will get easier. I also need to dig out the scrap batting and spray baste, and practice free-motion. My machine came with a free motion foot, and I had forgotten! It was stored in the box of accessories for years.

Well, I think I know what will occupy the rest of the month. These four, with the Bow Ties baby quilt already completed, will bring my Project Linus total to 10 for the year. If I get them done by the end of the first quarter, I can take a breath for a few months and work on some of my WIPs and UFOs - I have a ton of them.