Monday Prepping

Today after putting the sewing room back in order after the weekend grandkids' visit, I spent some time prepping two projects.

First, the appliques for the Autumn Leaves quilt need to be stitched down.  Recall that when I first cut the applique pieces I discovered the tight angles and curves are way beyond my skill level for hand applique.  So, the Janome will be pressed into action and they will be satin stitched to the background.  Rather than pinning the pieces in place I'm trying Roxanne Glue Baste-It for the first time.  Here's the first applique block laid out before glueing any pieces.  As usual, the color rendering isn't great, but you get the idea:

Next up, I made a start on Quilty 365.  Audrey of Quilty Folk recently came up with a quilt-along that will take an entire year - hence the name Quilty 365.  The premise is really quite simple and fun, every day for a year choose a piece of scrappy fabric, cut it in a circle and applique to a 4 1/2 inch square.    You can see Audrey's post announcing this quilt-along here.   Why not play along and grab the button from her blog and join in the fun?  I'm planning to practice needle turn applique stitching the circles in place and by the end of a year, who knows, there might yet be hope for appliqueing more complicated shapes.

This is a project that can potentially make use of a LOT of scraps that have lingered far too long in various bins, boxes and bags.  For instance, this pile of former 10-inch, more or less, squares that make up the first 110 or so of my background squares.  Not even sure where these came from but they don't seem to be from a formal layer cake (no pinking, oddly cut, etc.)  They've been hanging around for far too long, so now they're about to find a home.

Next. some high-tech work cutting an appropriate size circle template.

That little cracker box was saved from the oblivion of the wood stove in the shop just in time to enjoy a new and higher calling.  Have always used cereal boxes in the past, but we didn't finish all the Special K this morning ...

Making the templates (including quarter and half circles made just in case, though it might be easier to just stitch fabrics together and cut from the full circle template - we'll make that determination later!)

Then it was on to a bit of hand quilting on both hooped projects, the giant hexies and The Blockade quilts.  Nearly finished with the blocks on the Blockade and hope to start the borders - finally - in another day or so.  As promised months ago, no more photos til this monster is finished.

With leftovers for supper and no big kitchen commitment, one last little project for the day-

First little slightly wonky Quilty 365 block on the design wall.  

A sweet quilty day indeed!