Design Wall Monday - 6/27/16

On my wall today - a Halloween panel -
Hallows Eve - #5028 - 100% Cotton - by Kelly Panacci - for Northcott -
according to the information on the selvedge - ;))

Yeah - I know it's a Halloween panel - but I've been working on some Christmas and Thanksgiving stuff and Halloween is coming up before both of them so it might as well get added to the pile. Besides - it's a cute panel for FMQ practice - after I do some "stitch-in-the-ditch" between the sections - to define the "blocks" - and for extra stability - ;))

I was going to get fancy and use some of the Halloween fat quarters in my stash to make a "creative" back but decided against it. Why waste perfectly good fat quarters when I can use a single piece of black fabric that you won't see anyway? Most of the stitching will be in black thread - so a black backing makes sense to me - and I found a piece in my stash that has that fade line down the center - you know what I mean - so it would be nice to USE it and get it out of my stash. And it might be fun to see how other colors will look on the back. I liked how the orange thread showed up on the back of my little Halloween "twister" piece. (I found the link to that post - HERE - but I don't know what Mr. Google did with the photos - UGH!!)

Anyway - since I was going to be using my walking foot and black thread - I thought that I would play with the Amish Pillow Top and try to turn it into a table runner. I cut a backing from another piece of solid black fabric and I cut a couple of solid color strips to add to the sides "quilt-as-you-go" style. The center part will have the extra layer of batting - but maybe I can make it look like "trapunto" - or I might just add some additional batting to both sides - don't know yet. The extra border strips will give me more areas to practice some FMQ "sashing/border" designs - ;))

I also cut the backing for the June Wedding Sudoku Quilt - nothing fancy - just another piece of fabric that I had in my stash that I wanted to be GONE - ;))

And I actually hand quilted a couple of lines on the Watercolor Heart Quilt - and I surprised myself - I can still do it!! My stitch count per inch isn't what it used to be - and I had to change my technique a little but I got them even and straight - and that's all that matters - ;))

These little projects helped keep me busy yesterday so that I didn't get all mopey and feeling sorry for myself on the second anniversary of the day that My Guy Stopped Loving Me. One of my friends who also lost her husband told me that the first year is hard but the second year is harder because then it's real. I think she nailed it. I also think that he'd be laughing at me trying to learn how to Free-Motion quilt. He always thought it was funny that I would take perfectly good fabric - cut it up - and then sew it back together - until I reminded him that a carpenter does the same thing with pieces of wood - and no one thinks that's the least bit strange - ;))

The Fourth of July is coming up next week so I should/could dig out my July Americana Sudoku Quilt and work on that a little. I think that it's all "cut and kitted" - and a little "piecing" might be a nice break from all of the "quilting" that I have planned for the next few weeks. And by the time I finish all of the "cheater" practice pieces - I might have enough confidence to quilt the Sudoku Quilts - and then work my way up to the bigger ones on the list - ;))

Sounds good in theory - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -