Friday, September 2, 2011

Happy Birthday Dad!  It has been an incredible past couple of weeks for my parents.  First the 5.8 earth quake that's pretty much unheard of in Maryland.  Second hurricane turned Tropical Storm Irene hits the eastern coast; putting them without power/phone/cable/
Internet for nearly two full days.  Mom's Birthday and their Anniversary on Monday.  Finally today celebrating his Birthday.  Wishing you many, many more Dad.

I am happy to have Komet done.  This is Bonnie Hunter's Star-Struck design taken at a Road to California workshop with her in late January of this year.  The fabric choice for the binding was a bit difficult, but I think it has worked out perfectly.  It's quilted in a stars and swirls pattern called Moonbeam with a variegated blue and yellow thread by Kerry's Quilting.

Today is my OFF Friday...YIPPEE!  Monday is also Labor Day (one of the rare company holidays).  This of course all means a FOUR DAY WEEKEND!  Hope you have a great sewing weekend as I plan to have.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Pansy (UFO#11) September 2011

Judy at Patchwork Times selected #11 for September's UFO Challenge.  My #11 is the Pansy flower block, which happens to be my most favorite flower.  This is the ninth block of my animal theme exotic flowers project that will be called Kourageous.  There are 23 Sections and 232 pieces OMG!  Do you remember these are 6" finished blocks?  One Section has 25 pieces in it alone (the yellow/purple petal at the 4 o'clock position near the two leaves at the bottom).  This is another of Linda Causee's designs from her book 24 Flower Quilt Blocks.


I'm starting to think of what colors need to be in the remaining flowers.  What do you think?  (Most of the fabrics I'm working with can be found on the Kourageous link.)  Since there are two blossoms in this one block...what are your thoughts on making them two colors instead of one color?  At the moment I'm thinking to stay with one color bringing out the lighter fabrics for one blossom and darker for the other, very much like what the designer did with the yellows and purples.  I also think I need to add more of the brown red fabrics into the project similar to the Cranesbill (February) and Larkspur (June) blocks.  I'd love to hear what you think. 

If you have a September UFO do get done this month I hope it's one you are excited to see finished.  Check back again to see my progress.

2011 UFO #7 Kourageous Iris, September 1, 2011

Let's start by saying I was sweating the completion of my August BOM with Patchwork Times this month.  I had quite a lot to accomplish today, but...I finished in time (thank you Bonnie for thinking of me during your services tonight) and with only one major redo that happened on Monday night.  I really like the flower design results with Linda Causee, but it would have been much better had she given a "key" to the fabrics.  I've had a terrible time with what fabrics go where.  I sew mostly in the evenings when the light isn't the best, which ends up with lots of difficulty in determining what fabrics go where.  Okay enough, I've gotten through it and I'm leaving the paper removal to Bonnie tomorrow at lunchtime!  I'll need to square it up after that of course.

IRIS (UFO#7) August 2011

So I'm finished with all eight UFOs to date.  Judy...I'm ready for September!  Here's what Kourageous looks like so far.  I've skewed the photo a bit so the Meadow Clary block isn't as skewed as it looks here and the Iris block still needs Bonnie and squaring up!

Check out other UFO completions for this month at Patchwork Times.