Well, first, Happy Belated Valentine’s Day!
(card is from my husband)

And I made some cookies (recipe *here*) for the occasion.

But in amongst the papers that had to be graded and the handouts that had to be written, I wanted some form of Olympic quilt.  Something. . . somehow.

So I laid out some snips from some recent projects in circles, playing with this layout and the other.

So, here it is.  Olympic Geese.  Little triangles flying around in circles.

While free motion quilting, I decided to try different ways of tackling the quilting.  I figured out about twenty different ways to quilt a triangle.  A little self-tutoring while goofing around.

Then I quilted lines radiating out from the center, close together.

While at Road to California, I found a pattern for a bag I’ve wanted to make for just about forever.

So it starts out with lots of squares, with batting and backing, then stitched around. This is the interior.  I used heavy thread, like a sashiko thread, to create the stitched lines.  I then stitched it in rows, then the rows together.  Of course, all done while watching the Olympics and cheering on Noelle Pikus-Pace.

I then stitched the sides together, which about broke my already burdened brain (remember?  the grading?  the handouts?).

And here’s a picture of the interior.  It has woven faux leather handles, which I zig-zagged onto the bag, and will cover the cut ends of the handles with more fabric. It’s kind of an odd shape, but it intrigues me.  I’ve got to find a way to put it together more easily–this hand-stitching of all the squares together is for the birds. And I think I’d like to try it in bright colors, and smaller squares. And I’d also like to fly around the world, too.

Okay, back to grading tomorrow.  Then to do our taxes.  Who says it’s a holiday?