Not My Normal Way of Working

This has been one of those 'what was I thinking' sort of quilts. All the time I am sewing parts together, my mind is wandering and it's so very hard to stay on track.

The largest chunk of my Straight & Narrow quilt sewn together

I can't say there is any real regret as this quilt will be very easy to give away and the time involved is not extreme. Even including the seam ripper time caused by random strips joining up in an unfortunate way! The picture below shows how it should look after the final rows are joined. As usual, the applique work needs to be finished first.

Looking at it with the next two panels

At this time, those chunky crosses are just pinned down and those last two panels aren't sewn onto the rest of the quilt. The original pattern had 12 crosses, but alas they were pieced. That just seemed like a lot more work to me and would also ruin the directional look to my background fabric. So now there are only 9 chunky crosses in which I went totally wild with and free cut with scissors. Wow. I. Am. So. Clever. Maybe I can get that stitching done this weekend though?

Free-cut crosses still need stitched down

And yes, I warned you this would be a bland quilt! Of course I couldn't handle keeping the crosses to one fabric so had to dig around and find some fabrics that would play nicely together, but more importantly add a bit of spark. Just a teeny, tiny bit of spark. This is why I don't like making quilts especially for somebody! There is just not enough freedom to properly play.....

An impulsive make

Not surprising then that last night found me pushing that quilt aside and impulsively making a little pillow. Just because I could! It will be a gift for our annual secret sister thing we do at our church. Every year the ladies {who are currently interesting in being involved} draw/exchange names and then throughout the year we give a 'thinking of you' gift--once a month. Next week is the reveal party and this will make a nice little addition to what I already have prepared.

Fun to play with fabric!

And I don't usually enjoy making things like this. Not really. But compared to working on the bland quilt? So much fun!

A Hand Stitching Post

Sometimes the hand work gets lost in the shuffle. We spend innumerable hours on it, but then hesitate to show off our progress. {It doesn't magically happen overnight people!} This weekend finds me finishing up with not only the petals to my huge Folksy Flower, but also, getting the bias strip stitched down on the wobbly looking center.

Folksy Flower

The whole thing shifted on me more than I care to admit to, but should, in the end, work out just fine. I just had to try the basting method when I was adamantly assured that basting takes care of any wonky shifting issues. Uh huh. Not with with me. Or apparently not with this large of a piece? But then I probably did the basting incorrectly and caused the problems! lol  I measured my flower for those that seem curious and now I've already forgotten. It's either 44 or 48" square? Quite a large piece to work with. I just need to cut out the fabric from behind each petal and then figure out where to go next. There are lots of ideas percolating so it shouldn't be long.

I also started making a throw pillow for a friend this weekend. The center block was one that got left out of a previous quilting attempt and was begging to be used.

Starting a pillow

I added a youngish, sweet fabric and then went more 'modern' with the rest. It seemed fitting for a gal in her early 20's who is independent, but still very sweet and girly.

A finish!

The back of the pillow was fun to put together and I'm hoping the cowboy fabric (on the right) will be a personal touch for someone who loves her horses etc. This will go into my end of the year 'revealing' gift bag, part of a year-long gift exchange some of us ladies do in our church. So glad to get the bottom of the pillow hand stitched together and all ready to go!

Interesting back...

I've also been busy stitching down the circles for my Lil' Red Riding Hood blocks. First the quarter circles onto the larger light colored circles and then, stitching those onto the light green background squares. I am absolutely loving working with these calm, pretty fabrics. It makes me wonder why I ever avoid these sorts of colors as being too boring? There is something to be said for sewing together relaxing/calming fabrics once in awhile and of course taking the time {by hand stitching} to actually enjoy working with them!

Lil' Red Riding Hood applique...

Also, I received this little package of Quilters Dream Batting from the Fabric N Quilts Scrap Quilt Challenge 5. Thanks to the sponsors for all the fun giveaway prizes! I am itching to try this poly bat out as I've never used it before.

Something new to try!

My Old Fashioned Strings quilt was one of the many winners in the Scrap Quilt Challenge, something that was kind of a sweet little thrill. How fun to enter a quilt made from little bits of leftover scraps and then actually win a very usable prize! I'm wondering how it will do with hand quilting or if I should save it for a machine quilting project. Does anyone have experience with this type of bat?

Once again I'm linking up with Kathys Slow Sunday Stitching. Love her thoughtful post today!