accent pieces

After making the first squares of Ella's blankie, I decided to make the other three squares accent pieces with other images from the transfer patterns. Here is the first, which I finished this morning.

I think it turned out pretty well, except that the embroidery on the green mushroom looks like a face. I guess that could be considered cool. I'm not tearing it out, so I guess on some level I think it actually is somewhat nice looking.

Ella's blankie

I must admit that I'm hooked on applique. After my cheat on the wall hanging didn't work and I had to figure out the real way to do it, I found I liked all the tiny stitches that are applique. As I was knitting an afghan square, I remembered that I had a bunch of iron-on transfers stashed away somewhere. I dug them out and picked my favorite to use as a repeating pattern on a child's quilt. I went about making a pattern and all that, and made a prototype. Sadly, I had misjudged the size of the layout and had to scrap it. Today I redid the pattern and made the first square. I'm quite happy with it, though I think it will need some embroidered embellishment at some point. Let me know what you think. This picture was taken when I had the pieces pinned down but not sewn yet.
(And, no, they aren't "magic" mushrooms! Just regular ol' cutie-pie ones that would be appropriate for a child's blanket.)

carolyn's hat

I made a hat for Carolyn to match the scarf I made a while back. Here it be:







Now on to the next project...

craft purse!

As a break from my quilting projects, I did a little knitting. I finally felted the purse I made, after fashioning some handles that would work for the width of the piece. I'm happy with the results, and look forward to toting it around with me!

I'm done!

Perdy.

yay!

My wall hanging it turning out nicely. I'm almost done with the quilting, then to fix the oopsies, and finish the edges, and I'm done!

the craft purse!

So I finished knitting and felting my new craft purse! It ended up a little too wide for the handles I had on hand, so it will have to wait a little to be finished. But, you can get the idea from the picture of what it looks like. Now back to quilting...

knit break

So I've been knitting a bag to hold my knitting. I'm going to felt the bag when it's constructed, but here's how it looks so far.

gettin' started

I've been working... I cheated the applique a little with the upper color layer by using iron-on fusing. I'm about to begin the real applique now. I may take a "break" and knit a little.

i got distracted

I tend to get distracted, which is what I'm doing right now. I decided to put the blue and red quilt on hold to make a wall hanging for my house. And, thanks to my big bro, I could buy the rest of the materials I need to it. I haven't really started, but here's a shot of the pattern I am trying to recreate.




I'm doing it on a black background that is 3-inch squares of black geometric pattern fabric with the fish appliqued on the top. I'm going to try hand quilting the background first using concentric circles made with this cool varigated thread I found at the store.

We'll see how it turns out. I'll be using lots of skills I haven't used in a long, long time, as well as a few I've only seen and never done myself. Should be fun!

the quilt to come

and so it begins... Please note the uber-cool flannel sock monkey sheet I will be using for the backing. I rock.

my throw quilt (if there is such a thing)

I made a new throw quilt! I don't know if that is a real thing. Maybe quilts aren't made for throwing, but this one is! I tried a more complex pattern than I have before, which was fun. It still went too fast, so I guess I need to try something even harder...