more great work progress

the applique work on the Hawaii piece is finished

since I'd been concentrating on the Hoffman piece for the last few weeks in order to get it done before the deadline, I didn't realize how close to finished the stitching on this was

I really like the way it looks so far

so now its time to pull out the water color pencils and do the "painting" that I plan to do as the first embellishment

looks like this one will be finished soon


worked on the zebra bracelet for a while yesterday afternoon

it's about half finished now

zebra is looking good (listen, you can hear it saying "cooooool")

the Christmas sock that I started for Mr. Cute is 20% complete!

this pattern has been pretty easy so far

the next section that I'll be doing will be a row of penguins around the sock

now that should be a fun section to work on, but I don't think I'll be finishing that section on one evening like I did the lettering

yesterday I finished the stitching of the label and the sleeve on the Hoffman Challenge piece -- today I hope to get some photos taken and of course there is paperwork to do -- I want to have the box all packaged up and ready to go to the post office next Wednesday

since I knew I was so close to having the Hoffman piece finished, a couple of weeks ago I ordered the challenge fabric from Keepsake Quilting

this is a competition I've not done before, but the theme sounded interesting, so I decided to have a go at it

this is the challenge fabric



along with the challenge fabric were some coordinates

the rules are pretty simple -- create a quilt that is 30 inches square, use at least four of the fabrics from the package (you're allowed to add two more fabrics) and get it back to them by August 15

after fiddling with the fabric for a while yesterday I did this sketch

and this morning I used the "poster" print capabilities of my printer to enlarge that drawing from the 4 1/2 inch square of the original to a multi-page print out that I can tape together to get that 30 inch square pattern I need

this giant cone flower is the "background" (some influence of Georgia O'Keefe here) and then birds and butterflies will be appliqued over it

looking forward to getting into this project!


I also cut the strips for a charity quilt yesterday, so I need to get the machine set up for that project in the next day or so

this morning I need to get the back yard mowed before it gets too hot, then I can get back into the studio and get to work!