New Applique Beginnings

 As per usual, the lure of the applique trips me up. No matter which projects are supposed to be 'next' in line, you can guarantee there'll always be time found for applique prep. Gotta make sure the hand work bag stays full!

The start of Orphan Annie

Orphan Annie, the pink tulip blocks {above} are one of those impulse things that I so love to do. The tulip shapes were cut-outs from the AHIQHourglass/Tulips quilt and I just can't bear to throw them away. Ughh! Can you even imagine? So I sewed up some scrappy backgrounds {20 in all}, in odd, random greens and green blues just to change things up. I'm using darker olive green fabrics for the leaves and a dark teal blue for the stems. They look fun to me even though the tulips are going to be very short, shallow blooms!

A Tisket, A Tasket

Then there's the 'A Tisket, A Tasket' project starting to take shape. I wanted to make basket blocks, but not really. Maybe something that tricks you into thinking it's a basket? After dithering over free cut triangles or the wedges for the base of the basket, I finally fell down on the side of the wedges. So much easier. And then of course I had to go ahead and add applique handles because why not? And now it's definitely a basket. 13 of them if you care about the total. Yeah. Color me surprised. Mostly, I've just been hankering to give that dark greenish/brown fabric a play. While not a huge fan of yellow and blue quilts, this is one challenge that doesn't scare me. All you have to do is add a basket or flower element and I'm all in!

The start of Country Stars

Next up is the quilt project that I will be calling 'Country Stars' because I can't really call it by its real name {Mrs. X's quilt}. I don't think she reads my blog, but just to be sure we'll keep it anonymous. And yep. It's brown.... Lots and lots of brown and oldish, sweet, sappy colors and prints. That's what she prefers so I'm gonna rise to the challenge and smile while I'm doing it. Reminds me soooo much of my older quilts. Wait? Didn't I make these stars once before? lol  

Uh huh. I've seen her roam around my living room where all the older quilts live and ooh and ahh. Okay. I give up. Apparently the newer quilts are just too bright and boring. Thankfully there are only 5 of the stars to sew as this is not something I'm terribly good at. In case you think that I've totally lost my mind, bear in mind that there will most definitely be some applique added on to the border surround. Maybe I can spice things up there in that area?

Ring Around

Another project lurking in the background forever has been these Melon Patch background blocks. After getting rid of the original backgrounds {and going in a different direction}, these little medallion 'starts' have been haunting me. 20 of them. Just too intriguing not to do something worthwhile with them! So I gathered some lovely fabrics together and conjured up a plan to make some wedge unit arches. This one is called 'Ring Around', loosely based on a quilt in a Kathy Doughty book, 'Adding Layers'. All the inspiration for the wedges is from the book, but the end result should look a little bit different. The fabrics looked much more interesting before I cut them out than they do now.*sigh  This might be the biggest flop of the year, we'll see.

Lillabelle blocks

Then there is 'Lillabelle'. This is part of a new series I've started with larger circle cut-outs because I just cannot resist the challenge. The siren call is pulling me in no matter how much I try to go do something else! When Gold Crossroads quilt top was finished up, there they were and who am I to say no? Absolutely no will power when it comes to these sorts of projects. And so you can see that this series will just sort of self generate. After these flowers are sewn on, the back side will be cut out and wallah! That will be the start of the next in the series, only this time they will be in the cheddar range instead of cream. And then the next, and then the next. Right now these blocks are quite large, 20" or so, but we'll see what happens as the series continues.

Spring Flowers getting sandwiched and pinned

With the hand stitching on Petra's quilt winding down, it was time to get another top ready for the hoop. Spring Flowers caught my fancy and so that is that. Decision made!

Sweet flowers

I don't think there will be any attempt at fussy stitching, just echo quilting etc. I'm looking forward to having a quilt in the hoop without a deadline, self-imposed or otherwise. Still wondering what in the world happened to make me want this wavy, striped fabric on the outside of this very calm and peaceful quilt. There are times that I make my own eyeballs twitch. Can't even imagine how the rest of you feel following along with all my odd and somewhat unexpected tangents!