Let me see if I can get back in the groove with my blog - still dealing with lingering Lupus flare issues after the fire stress, but I've almost got my days back to normal operating mode. :)Love Barbara's NewFO parties each month, and they're really helping me get these kits pulled out of stone-cold status and on their way to becoming quilts before my youngest is out of high school. ;D Lots of other fun projects emerging, so take a fun breakfast stroll through the other links.
My planned NewFO for June was to do something with one of the fabrics my daughter gave me for Mother's Day. I developed this design on my EQ6, and have made decent progress on it.
The center is finished. Everything other than the fun Owls Devon gave me comes out of stash for this project. It's fun to meet the challenge this year of only working with what I already have.
And I have the plumes appliqued on one border strip. I just hate this method - ha!! I wanted turned-under edges, but have too much hand-stitching lined up right now, so I wanted to run these through the machine. So I'm doing the freezer-paper thing where you starch and iron under the seam allowance. Gahhhh!!!! It's so slow and cumbersome. I know many folks love this method, and that's super cool - I'm just a dyed-in-the-wool true-blue back-baster, and all this fussy prep drives me nuts. ;D I like the end result, though, so I'll push through the muck until I have this finished to flimsy stage.
Heather and I had - what - - 5 days of sitting at Flee Status, anticipating evacuation orders and holding our breath while we watched the daily winds blow at us from the fire. That was far too stressful a time to do any of the intense FMQ work that was my priority job for the month, and my hands were way too micro-jittery to hand stitch. So I pulled two more NewFO's out of deep storage, washed and dried their fabrics, and once we were out of real danger but still too stressed to do close work, I cut them all out and kitted them up for later attention.
Chubby Chicks wasn't blue (sick of working with it so much lately), wasn't hard to do, and Heather and I fused the bodies to the blocks. This is as far as it went, and it'll be many months, I'm sure, before I pull this back out.
Another one intended to long-term marinate: Tuscany Terrace, so we'll have a second quilt large enough for our bed. Whenever I get to it for actual sewing, it'll feel like it's flying through the piecing - despite being king size - since it's already all cut out. :)
Oh so cute! You, too, have such cute projects new to us. Hope the Lupus goes back into remission!
ReplyDeleteGreat NewFo's! Chubby Chicks is a fun quilt. I've made one and plan at least one more. It's a good "go to" quilt when you need something bright and fun. I like the term "long-term marinate" must remember that one! some of my NewFo's must be pickled by now:-)
ReplyDeleteI find the applique pieces prep tedious beyond words, also. But the finished result will make it worthwhile. Mostly you'll be glad it's all over with :^) Hope you're feeling much better and the danger of fire passes. So terrible to see the loss of homes to fires. My son lives in Colorado, he was very close to last year's fires south of Denver.
ReplyDeleteHope you are in a better place with your health soon. Nature can be a very savage thing!
ReplyDeleteAlways amazed by the great projects you have on the go :)
You manage to accomplish so much, in spite of not feeling at your best. I'm quite impressed at your determination. I'm vacillating about which appliqué technique to use on my latest project: "Bloom," an Emma Jansen design. Sadly, I DID resort to raw edged appliqué, and now can't decide which edge finish to use. What would you do? Straight-line? Decorative stitch? Zig-zag? Or appli-quilt where you wait to applique and quilt in one pass, after the layers are basted together? I'm at a stand-still right now!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're feeling better, even just a little. I love that owl fabric and have looked at it so many times and wondered what I would do with it, your's is looking good.
ReplyDeleteVery cute, Lyn. Love your fabrics. Hope you are feeling better soon.
ReplyDeleteBarbara's NewFO parties really keep me going each month too. I don't blame you at all for being too stressed to do any intense FMQ when you're sitting there waiting to know if you have to run for your life. I'm still pretty much a beginner at quilting and haven't tried doing any applique yet. But, there are so many things that I see that I just love that are applique. Your chubby chicks are cute!
ReplyDeleteAll your projects are really cute. So glad you were feeling up to doing some sewing.
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