I bought this jungle animal print early last year thinking would be a good feature fabric for a baby quilt. I started to pull solid scraps that matched it from my solid stash. Then I remembered a quilt idea had seen recently at See Kim Sew , she calls it a Low Volume Baby Quilt. Its pretty, with grays and a splash of color that coordinates with the print on the backing. I thought about replicating it, but then I remembered my gray stash fabrics are in a holding pattern for Grassy Creek. I decided to just do a “Postcards from Sweden” front – assorted bright HSTs and the print on the backing. I used the accuquilt to cut all the triangles, I needed about 300, and chain pieced them together. Now they are covering the design wall, waiting for shuffling and balancing.

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I got the Holiday Square BOM block done. It was a little fiddly, I really had to pay attention to the wood graining on the fabric. I don’t like the way the embellishments that came with the block look. They are inkjet printed, and just look flat, a bit blurry. I’m also not a big fan of raw edge appliqué with wonder-under. It reminds me of the raw edge that we used to do in the 80’s, when it was held on to the background with puffy paint (shudder). I am going to add my own embellishments with embroidery and turned edge appliqué. I also have a whole bunch of snow flake buttons that I bought for a different quilt project and didn’t use. I did finish the Halloween figs block the other night too.

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I recently watched a few Floss Tube videos about total coverage Cross stitching. I am fascinated by this technique of working on the diagonal and “parking” the threads while using a different color. I have spent some time looking at Heaven and Earth Designs a lot of time, dreaming about making one of their designs. But in real life, I doubt I would finish one of their beautiful masterpieces. I have to finish the Cat first, and then the Teresa Kogut sampler is next. The ‘Pet all the Dogs’ sampler that started the resurgence of the cross stitching around here.

The 6th Clue for Grassy Creek was released today, lots of gray and neutrals, sigh. I am caught up with the clues though, so maybe these will be the last of the gray. We finished using the gold, and a lot of green and red, we shall see. I’m thinking one or two more clues, maybe some more sub-blocks. I need to dig through the stash to find some more variety for the string blocks.

Be Kind