WIP FRIDAY - and catchup

The first tea towel came this week for a tea towel swap I am in. Blue and white with these wonderful Americana motifs. I cannot complete a french knot for anything, so I am in awe of those who can and there are bunches on this towel . My kitchen is white and the blue and white will be perfect. Thank you Ms. BattyBoredButterfly. I have finished the embroidery on my three towels and will wash, starch, and iron them this weekend for their trips to new homes. I can't wait for my others to get here too.



Another swap I am participating in was the scene in a matchbox. I chose to complete mine in a "snow" theme. The illustration is a reduced copy of a calendar page that I had. I copied and colored with oil crayons, the tree being pulled by the boy is raised with the tiniest popdots I have ever seen (aggravating to work with), then I painted glue around and used clear glitter to create the glistening "snow". The exterior is covered in a frosted paper and the snowflakes added are sequins and sew on trims. I do hope the new owner of this will be happy with it. I actually did this twice - I was not happy at all with the first one, it was all greys and you just could not see it as well.


Sorry for the shadowed photo. This is on the floor at work.

Now for my most exciting project. I have wanted to learn to quilt for years. I have done whole cloth quilting, but never any piecing. I was always afraid. Afraid that I would measure wrong or something would not align exactly right. I sew - so that was not the problem - really I do not know what the problem was.

A friend of mine is having a baby girl (yes - another girl) and her name is to be Maggie. I can show you this because mom is not a blog reader. I wanted her gift to be really special - something she might use and then keep for the next generation.

I have a ton of fabric. ( I'm a fabric junkie) So I used what I had, and came up with this wonderful red and antique white toile. The solid squares are not solid. They are white with a tiny tiny cream starburst printed on them. The edge framing is a check in the dark red and cream. I have enough of the red toile for that to be the backing. Fussy cutting the toile squares was the most challenging part. Not having all the "proper" quilting tools, I improvised and used a square cut from inkjet transparency paper cut to the size I wanted to use. I laid this on the fabric and centered the picture like I wanted. Then marked and cut them out. I cut all the white squares, then worked the design on my bed. Moving things around until I was happy.

This project took tons of walking - the squares were arranged on the bed, the sewing machine is on the computer table in the living room, and the iron was in the laundry room. This is even more evidence that I need the studio to progress. Of course, the walking did not hurt me.

Okay, confession time. When I finished the piecing, I jumped up and down, got the girls to look at it, and generally squealed - "look what I did." Now I am asking myself why did I keep waiting to do this. I can see much more of this in my future.

I will be hand quilting this. I am going out of town next weekend and this is the handwork I will be taking with me.

We have a busy weekend ahead. More work on the studio. Start cleaning the house - top to bottom. There is a refinancing appraisal involved here.

Remember - keep looking for the 100th post contest. The time is drawing very near.

I do hope you all have a wonderful weekend.