and Buggy Stars is done too.

It is surprising how much can get down when you just sit down and start the process.

Lots of hemming and hawing about the borders and the quilting itself so I just did straight lines - mainly stitch in the ditch.

Wall Hanging Foxglove at Night

Ta Da!

More Gone Fishin'

Progress is being made.  These shapes are pretty cute and I am having good success at getting each fish to finish up at 2 1/2" by 6 1/2".

Quite a pile of trimmings though.

Now for the borders...

Taking a break to make a Fishy project...

Stop the presses, or rather I am voluntarily stopping my current projects to make this one for someone special.  Content warning...there are fish....

Here's the cutting piles,

These are the carcasses of the fish.  Stitch and flip to make the fishy shapes.  The pattern by Four

And I am pressing seams open because that is what I do.  They are wonderfully flat and non-bulky.

Sparrow Wall Hanging

As you might know, I am a fan of Jenny over at Elefantz.  She makes lovely embroidery patterns.  They are simple yet profound and I admire them a lot.

Now look what I made:

Jenny offered this Sparrow quote embroidery for free on her Craftsy page.  (These are the lyrics of a hymn from my childhood.)

So I followed her tutorial on how to add fabric to your embroideries. ( You can find it under tutorials on her home page at Elefantz.)

Every time I look at it I have to hum the song....I can hardly wait to see how it will look on my mother's wall.... She may even sing out loud...I hope so.

Coffee Cup Wall Hanging

You saw the dishes with the orange stripe.  I had to make another wall hanging using orange as the main colour.  This is going much more quickly than the applique one.

This pattern is from American Patchwork and Quilting (April 1996)  Yes I still have that issue.  I loved this pattern from the first time I saw it.  Finally it's coming to life.

Not all the blocks can be orange, right?

More Letter Organizer

I added my own twist to Ayumi Takahashi's You've Got Mail Wall Pocket by making a large pocket on the back.

My experience with these things is that I always put too much stuff in them and then they distort.  Once distorted they don't seem to come back to their original shape.  So I slid a piece of the super thick interfacing into the back pocket....

It adds a bit of thickness and even weight but I got the largest rare earth magnets from Lee Valley and stuck them in the back so I could make it stay on the fridge.

Voila,
Thank you Ayumi for a great pattern.

Ok, I probably didn't need one more photo on this post but what the hey?

Letter Organizer

So here I am using Ayumi's design again.  This is her You've Got Mail Wall Pocket from her Patchwork Please! Book.  You may already realize that I like her ideas as this is the third thing I have made from this book.

The paper pieced envelopes were really quick to do and with the paper very perfect. Who doesn't like perfect?

I followed her advice and left two of the bottom pockets available for larger pieces of paper...

Lil Twister Tool

So we made a detour on our way home through South Dakota and visited Quilt-tiques in Rapid City.  Sure there were other sights there but this one sticks out in my mind. (Oh, yeah, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse,...)

I bought a kit with the Lil Twister Tool that makes these cool pinwheels.
It went together in a day and here is the small top

Cute and christmas-y
I liked it just this way but the pattern recommends the addition of some ribbon...

What do you think?  This is what they recommend.  But is it necessary??

Blue Christmas progress

I have been working most afternoons for a bit on this hand quilting project.  I am kind of torn when I hand applique something - and I usually think I should hand quilt it too.  This was an easy choice as it is relatively small.

I love the feathers especially when hand quilting...

Pinwheel Wall Hanging

This main colour fabric was picked out by my DH at Shirley's in Moosomin, Saskatchewan.  

This was lots of fun to make and I'm really pleased with the result.