Making The Miles Count

Swiss Baskets ~ 53" X 53"

I carried along this long-abandoned UFO on our recent road trip. Being a passenger in the car for that many miles translates into lots of time to finish handwork; several of these basket handles needed to be appliqued and most of the channel-applique words needed completing. I'm happy to report that this has been accomplished and this now full-fledged flimsy is next in line for a quilting session with Snowbird.  This one dates back to 1999 and was originally planned to serve as a display piece for the nine handkerchiefs collected when we lived in Switzerland from 1996-1999.  The bottom border identifies the country of origin and represents it in the three languages (French, English, German)that I heard on a daily basis while living there. I had taken a class on channel applique from Diedre McElroy while stateside during that period of time and chose that as the method for conveying the wording. I was really rusty on the technique, fifteen years later, but managed somehow to get back in the groove and get the lettering done. 

My plans for the background quilting are a basketweave fill in the white areas.

The handkerchiefs are all whisper-light Swiss batiste and will remain hanging
free from the basket edges above the quilted surface. My hopes are for some
quilted eidelweiss motifs in the outer borders too... wish me luck,
I have some ideas down on paper.  It's great to be this far along!
Life is Good!

The Power Of Persuasion

It all started innocently enough; I was doing well staying on task and adhering to my  Christmas "to do" lists; I never saw it coming. I was blindsided by this folded fabric star and powerless to fight off the urge to drop everything and make one. Call it the power of persuasion, the strength of suggestion or the danger of distraction; whatever it was, it attacked me. Last week, while attending my monthly applique workshop a fellow student pulled two of these stars out of her bag for "show and tell"; another class member offered a website with this online tutorial, that's all it took. I am weak; I plan to work on my resolve, later. This is now hanging on my tree! (I substituted fabric strips, bonded to poster board, for the book pages in the above referenced tutorial. My strips are 1/2" wide and 7" in length.)

Our instructor then showed this incredibly gorgeous Wandering Foot quilt, 
hand appliqued and hand quilted! This time I had to hold onto the table top in front of me, 
I was swooning. "No, no, no" I told myself. "It can wait!"
It will have to wait, I've already veered too far from the path and am losing all focus.
I did look up this pattern for it though, there was satisfaction in doing that much... for now!
Life is Good!