Last night I finished the appliqué in the lower section of the Tilda Anniversary quilt. I was so happy to have it done. I went into the studio, and got the other two pieces out to put on the design wall and admire. I was thinking that I could sew it all together in the morning and have it ready to quilt next week ( I need to piece the backing). I noticed the big red flower in the center, it was only basted, sigh, one more flower to do. When I looked over the pattern, I also noted that there are two leaves that span the center and top piece that need to be added too. I am inspired to finish the appliqué on the Message in a Bottle BOM now. I have been needle turning at night instead of cross stitching this past week. I think another week of this routine will finish up that bunch of blocks too. I am afraid to look though, as I may find more than one more to do.

The land of appliqué has been well visited this past week. I finished the sixth block of the Ahoy quilt, now I have to decide on the sashings. I have this bright blue print that I want to use, but I don’t want to do a checkered sash. I am leaning towards plain strips, maybe corner stones, red might be a nice pop.

I was able to finish the I spy quilt, binding and all. It came out really cute, I used some quilting designs that were included in my initial package that came with the machine. Funny thing is, I have always seen these letter blocks as useless. They are ten inches square, and boring, not really suited for an ABC kids quilt. Too big for monograms, so they just sat. The American Jane pattern calls for appliquéd letters in the top five blank blocks. I sort of forgot about them until I got the top on the frame. I had an idea, and tried it out on the sideline of the mounted quilt. I reduced the size of the quilted letter block to 4 inches. I thought it would be too dense, but no, the computer was able to rescale it to a good size and density. I stitched them ( I,S,P,Y) out and realized that there was supposed to be a blank space in between the I and the S. Darn! (insert colorful language) I stitched the last one with the recipients initial. I then went on to block/mask those squares out of the ABC panto graph I had picked. It was a bit tedious, all the stops and starts, worth it in the end.

I found two more cute forest-y animal pantos for the last two Woodland friends tops. Got the first one done (bound too) and the second one is on the frame now. I got all the pieces cut for the next halloween quilt, a Pumpkin patch pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew. I have made three of these, sold two last year, and have one to quilt in the TBQ pile. I like this fabric line, its was on sale for less than 5.00 a yard and it has cats and cute halloween themed prints. Pink and orange, not my favorite color combo, but it works for this. I also got the fabric I ordered for the other Halloween quilt, the Witching hour, I want to make.

I’m going to have a Homeside retreat, starting in two days, for ten days. I’m planning on doing a few things that have been on my to-do list for a while, and catching up on Etsy things. I want to be in good shape for the fall/winter seasons of shopping. I think will be a nice way to end August and cruise into September and the fourth quarter.

Be Kind.