I realized recently that I hadn't posted anything in a while so I figured I'd best get to it. Since my last post before Christmas I've been working on a lot of things, none of which are finished yet. Thus is the life of a quilter ... many PHDs (Projects Half Done). I usually have a few things on the go at varying points of completion ... usually a large quilt, some applique, and a smaller quilt.
The large quilt I'm doing now is one for my niece's upcoming wedding in September. I can't show it here yet in case she decides to peek at my website, don't want her seeing it before it's done! I have finished quilting the body of it, doing the borders now, so when it's done there will be photos.
Appliqué .... I LOVE APPLIQUE! I tried machine appliqué once and that was enough. I much prefer hand appliqué. I have more control over how it turns out, I can tote it along with me when I go to appointments and things that I know there will be waiting involved. So here are a few of the PHDs I've got going at the moment.
I love red and yellow together. I finally decided I want to make a red and yellow quilt for my bed. I'm using multiple scrappy yellows for the background, scrappy reds for the applique. Each block will be unique with a theme of hearts and/or feathers throughout. As you can see in this block, it'll be kind of heart shaped made from feathers (I love love love feathers), then there'll be a heart thingie at the top between the ends.
Besides feathers lately I've also been into trees. Funky twisty trees in particular. I had forgotten about this gorgeous green and gold print I had in my stash until one day I was digging for something else. Right away I knew it was what I needed for a new tree. It's going pretty slowly because this is usually the one I take along with me to meetings and stuff. Not sure what I'll quilt in the background yet, but whatever I do it'll probably be with green variegated thread.
This pale one is again hearts and feathers. This is the centre of it where 4 feathered hearts meet. I have no idea what I'll put beyond them yet but obviously I have a while before I have to think about that anyhow.
And this is my Hoffman Challenge entry for 2013. It's actually quite far along, probably another week of appliqué and then it'll be ready to quilt. Sorry, not showing any more of it than this little section until it's done and off to Colorado for judging.Last week I did a talk at the Blue Mountain Quilters Guild in Port Coquitlam. I showed some of my quilts, then talked about Quilts of Valour. They all seemed to enjoy it (nobody left halfway through lol) and I had a great time. It's funny how you can walk into a room full of quilters in a place you've never been with people you've never met and feel right at home.
I'm approaching the one year mark since I started volunteering at Canuck Place Children's Hospice. Every Saturday evening from 5-9 I get to hang out with the kids ... we make crafts, paint, watch movies, play games, go for walks or play basketball in the yard ... always something different and always lots of fun.
In between all of this other stuff I'm also researching my family tree. It's so easy to get lost in reading all the old stories, diaries, wills, lists upon lists of names, I lose all track of time. Gradually I'm filling in names and dates here and there, lots of fun when I get going down one particular branch of the tree and a name will pop up that I know I've seen before. I take a closer look and lo and behold, that branch is now connected to another branch. Lots of fun stuff.
