Promised Projects

I seem to be having a slight problem with my computer lately, so my computer time has been kind of spotty - but here are some promised pictures of more completed blocks for a fabric alphabet book I am making for my granddaughter. I showed the other completed blocks in this post. Please excuse the poor quality of the pictures - right after I took them, my camera battery died.

I have had so much fun making these blocks. They come together quite easily and so far I have been able to use all of the fabrics from my stash instead of having to go out and buy more for this project. The blurry little dog that you see here has little spots drawn on him in perma marker and then I did an outline stitch with embroidery floss around each spot. I am using a blanket stitch and french knots with embroidery floss for texture, but the pattern only has you ironing the fabric on the felt using fusible webbing and then using fabric paint for dimension. I like it much better this way - don't you? I think it will hold up under little fussy fingers better.

This cute little guy was very quick to make! The next block will be a little more challenging as I have to make a flag for my "F" Block and blanket stitch around each small stripe.

When I find myself getting bored with this project, I put it away for a bit and take out a baby quilt that I am desperately trying to finish before my granddaughter turns thirty :) I started this quilt before we knew the sex of the baby. She is now two years old. I suffer from being a perfectionist. If I can't complete a project perfectly, I have a hard time finishing it. I got all the way through the quilt process - I even machine quilted most of it. Where I got stuck was at the point of trying to machine quilt around all of the little lambs. I am not the greatest at machine quilting, and didn't want it to look shakey so I put it back in the drawer - for two years! It is made out of the softest flannel material, and the little lambs are made out of fleece. It is really hard to get a good picture - but hopefully you get the idea. Here is a close up. Can you see the little lambs peeking out in the little blocks? I was fortunate to find some cute lamb flannel fabric to go into this quilt.

I have decided that it does no good for my granddaughter to have this quilt sitting tucked away in a drawer. It is time to finish it! As part of my new outlook in this new year, I am DETERMINED to finish all of the little projects left undone. It it doesn't come out perfect - so be it! At least she can enjoy it for a time before she is too big to appreciate it. I am going to handquilt around all of the little lambies. Around the border there will be little lambs jumping and chasing each other. I have never done a large handquilting project before. It is kind of hard trying to push the needle through the flannel fabric. If there are any quilters out there reading this - Do you have any suggestions for me? I tried to use quilting thread but it was didn't seem sturdy enough so I will try to use perle cotton instead. I think it will look better too. I also will be using a "depression stitch" (or a big stitch as it is more commonly called now) so that my beginner stitches will look a little bit better.

So there you have it! Now let's see YOUR projects you are working on this week!

I am going to end this post now- even though I have two new awards that were given to me that I want to acknowledge. I have tried to write about them in this post, but my computer keeps crashing so I will try again later.

Blessings on your day,

Kymber