Why is February fabulous? Well, Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow last Saturday, Groundhog Day, thus predicting an early spring. Here in Portland, Oregon — about 3,000 miles from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania — we are already seeing signs of spring. The tulips are pushing up out front, and my next door neighbor Dolores has roses in bloom. I’m looking forward to the first unexpected whiff of daphne, my own personal harbinger of spring. It usually happens in March but maybe it will happen this year in Fabulous February.

I feel good about what I got accomplished in January, and February is already shaping up to be a good month. I’ve pieced two baby quilts using the same fabrics but in different combinations. The pattern is BQ by Maple Island Quilts. First up is Baby Nemo’s quilt top . . .

. . . followed by Baby Gregory’s quilt top:

The robot focus fabric and the royal blue circuit board print are from the Mechanical Genius line by Mo Bedell for Timeless Treasures. (Mo, also a Portlander, designs for Andover Fabrics now, and I am eagerly awaiting her new line,  Full Moon Lagoon.)

The blocks in these baby quilts are 16″ square so they went together very quickly. With borders the quilt tops measure 50″ square. I plan to piece the backs tomorrow. Then I’ll take the tops and backs to Nancy Stovall of Just Quilting — not to quilt them for me but to sandwich them. I learned recently that one of the services Nancy provides at Just Quilting is basting quilt layers together using her longarm equipment. She uses a very large stitch in a giant stipple design. I usually baste my quilt sandwiches with safety pins; it will be interesting to see if the quilting process goes more smoothly when I don’t have to stop and remove pins. Of course I’ll  have to remove the basting stitches later but I understand they come out easily.

I’ve also been working on a few other fun projects and will be posting pictures soon. I hope you’ll stop back by for a look!