Friday already?

I feel like spring is rushing by, so much to do. I have accomplished some stitching this week which surprises me because my schedule is full!

My April UFO finish is ...

Pumpkin Peel from the book Small Pieces, Spectacular Quilts 

written by Mary Elizabeth Kinch and Biz Storms. I used blue bias binding which I don't think you can see very well in the photo.

 Here are some photos of the machine quilting done by Jan Hutchison.

This is a large wall quilt, nearly 80" square. For now, I plan to store it on a spare bed because I'm already seeing fold lines just from having it folded since getting it back from the machine quilter.

After seeing another blogger's progress, (Quilts...etc.), on her Love Entwined quilt, I was inspired to get mine out and start appliqueing the stems for Part 6.

I had previously taken off the heart wreath on the left in the photo to try to make the points sharper. Not sure I'm making a major improvement but it looks better to me.

 Serengeti Oaks is at the machine quilter and I should be able to share it with you next month.

I also continue to big stitch quilt on my Jubilee+5 quilt. I can only manage to stitch a few blocks before my fingers are too sore to continue so its going slower than I'd like. You'll notice the bird is still there. Embroidery starting soon!

Until next time, Mayleen

This past week

 "Mustard & Ketchup"

Because of guild stuff and Easter preparations this past week, it was difficult to motivate myself to work on my UFO's so I tried once again to master the first border of "Mustard & Ketchup". This is the closest I've come to getting the pieced diamonds fussy cut and the diamonds to actually look right. However, the camera doesn't lie and I see some rework needs to happen. 

One thing I've been challenging myself to work on lately is to become more spontaneous in quilting. In other words, don't drive myself and others crazy by over thinking fabric and design choices!

  I'm trying to do that on this quilt guild BOM and am not sure I like this approach at all. I'm reserving judgement until the project is finished but that's at least 5 months in the future. I would love to go back and make every thing match, fix mistakes, choose better fabrics, etc. Guess I want to be in control and not be surprised!

For some reason, I also can't motivate myself to finish binding Pumpkin Peel. I'm about half done and think I'm going to have to make myself do a little every day. And then there's the sleeve...

The bird is still in the quilt. No decision on my part yet and I think I'm avoiding it. If I don't do something soon, this project will go back into the UFO box.

 Why I thought I needed to get another UFO out, I don't know but here's another one. All I need to do is finish hand quilting the border and tack down the binding. Is that all, lol? I admire hand quilting but because I don't choose to do it very often, I'm not proficient or very fast at it.

When I began this project I don't know how long ago, I hadn't discovered reproduction fabrics yet so this wall hanging has a little bit of most everything in my stash at that time. I'm surprised I used so much yellow which is a color I don't use very often. It has quite a few creases from being folded and put away so for now, I've pinned it up on my design wall hoping that the creases relax.

As you can see, my quilting this week has been a little of this and that. I feel like I'm jumping from one project to the next making little progress. I'm looking forward to more productive quilting time this coming week!

Have a happy and meaningful Easter, Mayleen