Lullaby...

Way back in January 2011, at the last Summer School hosted by Susan Smith in Wodonga, one of the quilts started with Karen Cunningham was "Lullaby".  It had been ages since I'd opened that box, thinking I had an issue with one of the triangle borders to figure out and a heap to do to finish the centre.  Getting ready for Scrub Stitching I opened its box to find it not so far off to finish that centre - the two cactus (which were ready to be appliqued) and the circles.  Right, get it ready to take on holiday and maybe get it a little closer to being finished.

 

After laying the cactus pieces out, I was pinning away and huh! one of pieces had gone missing - I have no idea where it went and it hasn't been seen since (I actually lost two pieces, from separate projects, that day and the other one turned up in a really weird place but this piece never has)...a frantic rummage through every box and project and miraculously I found a piece of the fabric and could re-cut the applique piece..whew!...

 

It didn't get finished at Barradine, it went to quilting group a few times but it didn't go back on the shelf...plugged away and eventually a couple of months ago...ta dah!...a finished top...

Karen used a plain white for the background and heavily quilted border...I didn't want white or the heavily quilted plain border.  The border is the fabric the centre square was fussy cut out of, the width determined by the piece of fabric (which was missing a corner square).  To bring it up to size needed a spacer...I was going to use the blue background fabric - it didn't look right...OK, make it smaller and ditch the spacer...nope too busy...needs a spacer but what colour...rummage through the scraps and find the perfect pink, of course nowhere near big enough to do anything with...that scrap took a trip to the shops for the closest to it pink homespun I could find...

 

Entirely hand sewn, borders as well...it is only a wee quilt a metre square-ish (very roughly measured - it is supposed to be 39" x 39").

 

No idea how to quilt it...that's a ponder for another time...for now, wahoo it's a finished top and a project box emptied...

 

Happy Stitching...

The First Week of May...

On the board for this week were some repeats and a new addition...

Returning for repeat performances - Lullaby; 'Tis The Season - Elf and Chilly Penguin stitcheries; Happy Pails; Bumb'le Bee and introducing....my project for the upcoming Daylesford Craft Experience at the beginning of June...

This morning the board revealed...

*Lullaby has progressed...all four outer borders appliqued, two out of four sides of the second border appliqued...centre bird panel surrounded by triangles appliqued...definitely assisted by spending my time at 6-12 group on Friday night working away on this project...

*'Tis the Season...Elfin Sleigh stitchery done...

*Happy Pails...finished!! yay!!!...

*Bumb'le Bee...top left quadrant stitched together...I love how this medallion changes ever so slightly with every addition...

*Daylesford Craft Experience project...not started...I must trace the design on it so I can stitch it, it won't take long once that is done...

OK...not too shabby for the week...two large projects progressed...on track with the number of stitcheries due for 'Tis The Season, two done for May, have until end June for the next two...small project finished and off the board...DCE project decision made even if no actual stitching accomplished so I'm counting that...

What will I put up on the board this week?...I need a replacement small project UFO to take the place of the Happy Pails...sure that won't be too hard to find, the hard part will be which one to choose!!!

Hope your week was productive too...

Happy Stitching...

A Fortnight's Progress...

My plan was to note each week Sunday to Sunday on progress of the projects pinned to the design board...the first week I started the plan on a Wednesday so that one was short...Wednesday to Sunday...now I went and made the second week a fortnight!  Jindi & I went camping for Easter up the Kiewa River and came home on Monday so I figured, well, Sunday had come and gone so I might as well just keep on going until today...maybe this coming week I can get the actual plan up and running...

So, here is what the design wall looked like two Sundays ago...

Lullaby for applique; Just Darling panels to become?; 'Tis The Season Chilly Penquins stitchery; Happy Pails stitcheries waiting for pails; Bumb'le Bee medallion waiting for sashing hexies...very concerned about my fabric choices for those diamonds, this could be a disaster in the making...

And now, here is what it looks like this morning...

 Progress on each project...

Lullaby: hard to tell but applique pieces have been ironed and pinned and some have even been stitched down...

Just Darling Bucket Bag: completed!

'Tis the Season:  Angel stitchery completed, Elf stitchery started, Chilly Penguins was supposed to be stitched after Angel but I forgot to take it up to the river and started Elf instead...oops, a little detour along the Stitch-A-Long road but easily rectified...Elf is a June stitchery so I just figure I'm a bit ahead for June and I have all of May to get Chilly Penguins stitched...

Happy Pails: second stitchery stitched...there are actually three in the Sugar, Spice and All Things Nice set but the All Things Nice stitchery isn't speaking to me so I'm reducing the set of three to a pair...

Bumb'le Bee: now loving the whole look as the pink sashing hexies have pulled it all together, it matches the picture in my head when I first set out on this bright scrappy journey...there are still "internal" seams to stitch before sashing the whole medallion with a round of pink hexies and attaching it to the background fabric.  On a happy note while showing a friend the pattern etc in the project box yesterday I discovered I have already cut the background square...got to be happy about that!

So that is this week's fortnight's progress...now to decide what will be on the board for the coming week...

Happy Stitching...