Tulip progress and UFO finish

I've made progress on the Tulip pillow. I've finished all of the applique - pictures below are steps in progress. I am on to the quilting of this one.

And I have also finished the Bear's Paw quilt.

Progress...

Well, I got two more of the Grandmother's flower garden blocks pieced while watching karate last night. My ankle isn't up to the stances or kicks. So I sat on the sidelines and pieced GFG blocks. I now have 29 blocks pieced.

And I've gotten a few more pieces on the stained glass. 9 more applique pieces to go and the pillow top will be done. I got some black yli handquilting thread from sew-sister's quilt shop mail order (I think I really like this company) so I'm ready to start the quilting as soon as I get the applique done.

National Quilt Day/Weekend Retreat

As Saturday was National Quilt Day I spent as much of the weekend as I could working on quilting. Strictly hand-sewing. I finished two of my grandmother's flower garden blocks (total done is now 27) and worked on the Tulip mandala. I finished the light green and started adding the gold. I put on 4 of the dark gold pieces and have since started the light gold (no picture).

The above picture was once the green was added. The basting stitches on the right are the result of the stained glass frame coming unfused from the black. The picture below is with the first part of the dark yellow pieces.

Tulip Mandala

I've started work on another UFO. It's a tulip mandala stained glass pillow. I am not fond of this particular stained glass technique. It is very fussy, which is probably why the piece became a ufo in the first place. It's kind of appropriate to be working on it now that it is spring time.

I am working in colour blocks now - I'm not certain what I was doing before as I have pieces appliqued that are 3 colours. I've basted the last of the light pink and hope to finish that colour today.

The light green patches are cut out and ready to be basted on. I think I will baste more than one at a time and then have a stretch of stitching. I think I can do eight. Then there are the dark and light gold pieces to do. Doesn't sound like much, but I think it will take a couple of weeks to finish. This one will be finished as a pillow - I don't really use wallhangings.

Almost done the green quilt. It's quilted, bound and labelled - it just needs to be washed and I will call it done done.

Labels...

Quilt labels are the bane of my existence. I usually use T-shirt transfer onto white fabric because you can get a nice clear lable.

Problem is it takes several attempts to get a good transfer. I'm trying to make labels today and I've got a mess - wasted transfer, wasted fabric because the transfer didn't work properly. Now I've got to boot the laptop, print the labels again and try it again.

I'd use permanent marker but it never looks nice on the back of the quile.

Grandmother's Flower Garden

A trip to Toronto this weekend was very productive in the GFG making. I completed 6 GFG blocks on the bus to and from Toronto.

A header down my basement stairs and the subsequent time (4 hours) spent in Emerg, to find out that my ankle is not broken but very badly sprained saw 2 more of the blocks completed.

Hawaiian Finish

I've finished the Hawaiian wall quilt. This is my second UFO finish this year. I am fairly pleased with it - still wish I could get someone to actually teach me hand applique. I'm teaching myself and admit that the points on the leaves aren't as good as they could be.

The pattern is Woodland Lei - I cannot remember the publisher/designer. It's been so long since I started this UFO that I have lost the pattern. It's somewhere in the black hole I call a sewing room.

I'm also posting an image of my first UFO finish this year. This is a giant (22 inches) pillow. The top of the pillowcase is a leftover block from a quilt I made a couple of years ago. I've had the block and borders on it - just needed to quilt and assemble the pillow. It was something that I just never got to.

I unearthed a UFO while looking for my applique needles for doing the binding on the Hawaiian quilt. It's a reverse-applique stained glass piece that I mean to make into yet another pillow. So that's one of the next UFOs to be completed. I still have the green Bear Paw that just needs binding yet.

Hawaiian update

Almost done the border quilting of the Hawaiian quilt. Hopefully I'll get it done and bind it next weekend.