Dala horse mini

Just a little mini-fabric wall hanging of a Dala horse (aka Swedish horse) that I made for my son's room.  It's fusible web applique with a straight stitch around the perimeter and some quick free motion quilting.

I've been given odd pieces of fabric of dubious quality -- it's probably from JoAnn or Walmart, and it just doesn't look as substantial as the quilt shop quality cottons I like working with.  Little pieces like this one are a great place to use those sub par fabrics.  I also can use up the tinyest bits of favorite fabrics --- the framing blues on the piece above are from Summer House -- one of my favorite fabric lines ever.

Just another day or so

I spent a month and 3 days in the hospital with my son as he recovered from a spinal fusion surgery and complications. My sewing project during that time was doing the hand applique on these Dresden Plate blocks.

They're very scrappy blocks, with portions of a pack of charm squares from "Vintage Modern" by Bonnie and Camille, together with all the scrappy bits in my stash that remotely go with the dominant floral print. I didn't spend a lot of time with placement of individual blades in these blocks, preferring to go with a very scrappy and informal look.

I appliqued the 12 blocks in 14 days, each day thinking, maybe we go home soon.  But then D had a bunch of complications which lengthened our stay, for "just another day or so". I had to wait until I had a few hours at home to make the center circles, which I completed during the last week we were in-patient.  My little trick for applique circles is to use water soluble interfacing to back the circles-- it disappears after the first washing, leaving perfect (or as close to perfect as I get) circles with a uniform turned edge.

Here they all are-- just need to decide on a sashing and cornerstone blocks. I have a grey print I plan to use for the back and binding. And there is enough to use it for sashing too, if I decide to go that route.

Quilting Bees -- 2014 style

As a little challenge to myself to work outside my own comfort zone, I joined an online quilting bee.  The idea is that each member takes a turn as the Queen of the hive and picks a block, colorway, and style for the blocks which each member will make and then send to her. Each of us (theoretically) will make a block for every other member, and will in turn receive 10 blocks from other hive members.  I've been in online swap groups before, so I know the potential for disappointment and failures, but it's still fun, and a good way to force myself to try something new.

For January, we made these strip pieced star blocks with a pallette of black and white, grey, navy, aqua and salmon/peach.

Pretty, yes?

For February, the block requires paper piecing and curved seams-- a  New York Beauty pattern.

These blocks just about did me in. There's a reason I've sworn I would never do curved piecing ever again, as these blocks reminded me.

I'm mailing them untrimmed, leaving it to the queen bee of the month to figure out how to trim to uniform or at least usable sizes.