New & Old

I was lucky to have the opportunity to spend a few hours here and there sewing at a friend's house last week.  Although I wasn't able to devote a lot of time to "retreating", I did make a bit of progress on a couple of blocks.  I tried my hand at back-basting on one of the Applique Affair blocks:

While I am happy with how the block turned out, I have pretty much convinced myself that back-basting is not for me!  It took far longer to trace the pattern onto the back of the fabric and baste everything than it would have to just trace freeer paper templates and trace the patterns onto my fabric.  And I didn't find that I could follow the thread holes (I had to "connect the dots" with a pencil), and I also didn't find that the fabric turned any better.  I'm glad that I gave it a serious try, but I think I will go back to my old way.

I also had a chance to finish up block one and prep block two of this year's BOW. It's a lot more involved than the little blocks were last year, but I am very happy with how it is turning out:

I also had a chance to spend time in the sewing room over the weekend, and even hooked with a friend on Saturday night.  More on that progress later...

Teri Tope Workshop

I am still struggling to get used to the new blog design...I decided to give the new Blogger design tool a try and now can't figure out how to get rid of it!

Teri Henderson-Tope spoke at our guild meeting on Tuesday and I was able to sneak away from work for part of the day yesterday to attend her "Doodle in Reverse" workshop.  Her reverse applique is phenomenal!  I loved the workshop and can't wait to work on my project.  It's certainly a lot of work, though!  It took an hour and a half just to trace the pattern onto the background.  Teri had lots of great applique tips to share, and looking at her projects gave me all kinds of ideas.  I love reverse applique!  Here's a shot of Teri demonstrating how to reverse applique perfect circles:

I also managed to finally finish my Applique Affair block assignment for June.  It was such a relief to finally have it done!  Now it's time to work on the last My Garden Album block.  I am so excited about nearly having that one finished!

I plan to spend what little time is left this evening working on week two of the summer BOM.  I'm  so far behind - but what else is new?!?

Finished With Time to Spare!

I managed to finish this month's Applique Affair block with 12 hours left in the month.  I'm not completely happy with my berries, but one of the worst is the one I made using Perfect Circles.  I was so happy to finally get them all finished...and so disappointed when I saw that there were 8 berries on the next My Garden Album block!

Catching Up!

I'm spending the weekend - half of it, anyway - at the lake.  I headed down here after Wool Club yesterday and will return home tomorrow afternoon.  I spent all of last night and most of today hooking and doing applique.  I finally finished Applique Affair block five (my April assignment):

My pictures aren't the best tonight - both were taken with the cell phone since I don't have my other computer to download from the camera.  And the fabric bled (again!) so I will have to soak it in Syntrapol when I get home, but I couldn't wait to get it posted.  It seems like it has taken forever to finish, even if it has only been a couple of weeks!

I also hooked my May flowers last night.  The new flowers are the red one (looks pink in this shot) on the upper right and the yellow one.  This month's theme was flowers and I was oh-so-tempted to start another project to explore the theme a bit, but I resisted.  I think it would be fun to make something with small proddy flowers with standing wool circles for centers.  A clay flower pot with a few flowers in it would be fun.  I should design something that would fit that frame I purchased from Anita White.  I also need to hook the pumpkin pattern that goes with that frame one of these days.

I received my first block of the month from Ewe-nique Creations on Friday.  I had completely forgotten that I signed up for that one!  It is really wonderful - wool applique on linen.  I was considering starting another project when I finished the next My Garden Album block, possibly Wildflowers or one of the other new patterns I picked up at Chicago or Paducah, but now I am anxious to start that one!  I hope I am able to spend a lot of time sewing while on vacation in June.  My "wanna do" list just keeps growing!

First Accomplishment for February

I'm happy to report that I am now able to cross the first item off of my "to do" list for February! I completed this month's Applique Affair block (okay, so I had to substitute one since I don't have the assigned one yet, but it's my block for the month!) in less than 24 hours. I did the prep work on Thursday night, but didn't start stitching until after work yesterday. Granted, it isn't the most complicated block in the world, but it's FINISHED! Now on to another item from the list...

Another Goal Achieved!

I managed to stay on track - even be ahead of schedule - for the first month of my Applique Affair BOM "challenge". I'm hoping that working on this one along with others in the Applique_Cafe group will motivate me to keep at it. I actually have four or five of the blocks finished, but sadly just received block 18 in the mail. You could say that I'm just a little behind...

I steamed the Vintage Illinois Postcard rug yesterday and hope to get to work binding it this week. Next thing on my "to do" list today is to figure out if I have any yarn to bind it with. If so, I hope to post a picture before the end of the week. I'm on a roll!