June, July, August, September ... December!

Not long till Christmas and looking around my desk with the long list of Christmas shopping as well as blogland with instructions for gorgeous things, I am trying to get into the swing of things.

Have a look at this expertly done Mitten Ornament Tutorial. I might try to do a few of those and I'm pretty sure you could emulate that into a sock pattern as well.

Paying it Forward (PIF)

This should be interesting! As some know, I cannot resist things made by Kristin LaFlamme ... and when she offered a PIF, I had to open my mouth saying, I want one too ... She then asked me under the terms and conditions of her PIF whether I just wanted a fiber post card or whether I'd want the post card and PIF three items.

So, here it goes: I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Links Land

Because I was bored - a common state around here these days - I clicked through my links and found that they needed to be updated. Here are a few new ones that will eventually find their way to a more permanent home:

(moved links to more permanent home ...)

Quilt Scrapbook

What a marvelous idea! I considered making small scrap quilts or postcards from scraps stemming from quilts for special people. But I might as well turn them into a collage. Thanks, GraceeWhite!

quilt scrapbook2
Originally uploaded by graceewhite

Vlieseline has arrived ...

and I am dreading it! On second thought, I could always divert myself with starting the prairie points ... all the measuring up and fretting that will take!

All dots present

and vlieseline ordered ... we are making good progress here!



The fuzziness is awful but you can see the creature with all its spots.

Meanwhile I have made plans for a birthday quilt for my mother-in-law who turns 75 next February. I'll use one of my many Bassetti panels - see UFOs No 10 - and a jewel coloured fleece blanket. Easy and quick enough. With maximum effect hopefully, as my housewife sister-in-law will no doubt purchase a gift (insert evil grin here).

Done: one Lion with refurbished ears and highlights

Iaio aka Lion has successfully gone through ear reconstruction surgery and as a reward had his head of hair fixed.



He now comes with highlights ;-)



And this will hopefully be the temporary end to posts involving him.

How to fix a lion's ears:

My younger daughter loves chewing her lion's ears, which makes them disappear, which makes her cry. I have therefore been enlisted to fix them. For the second time. This lion has already had a new suit made and new ears. All that remains of said ears is the fabric I used on the front. The terry-cloth of the original ears has been chewed off. They are literally hanging by a thread.



I've been putting off this project - much as the repeat fixing of Entie, the Duck - for weeks, under much protest. Now I've settled on Anchor embroidery thread and crocheted two ears that will be affixed to the fabric from last year's surgery.



Lion also needs to have his hair fixed, which I will just mend using embroidery thread and needle. One of the bonusses of this project was that I had to hunt for my crocheting and embroidery needles that I had not seen since about three moves ago. And I found them!!!

Courage, she muttered ...

I have started sort of assembling the Friendly Dragon in order to see what's what. This is the dragon on its background. It seems much darker in the photo than in real life.



So far, I'm pleased with the results ... or rather, I was until I realised that I had apparently forgotten some of the creature's dots.



I'll finish those tonight. Then the plan is to steam-iron every part to within an inch of its life to safely remove the pins and paper. I'll use bondaweb to actually assemble the whole thing. Once that's done, I'll machine-quilt it all to its background. Once the whole thing is lined, I'll hand-quilt around the dragon.

The backing of the quilt will be a light blue fleece blanket with a dark blue frame for stability. The frame I still need to construct. Lots of machine-sewing in my near future!

Like I'm not distracted enough

I think I found a suitable pattern for all my Kaffe Fassett fabric: A Chinese Coin Quilt like this one:
This graphic originates from Maryquilts.com and when you click on it, this is where you will be taken.

Changed my mind again ...

So, here I am beading this flower to go onto my Turning Twenty quilt, that I already used during a quick nap yesterday and found it to be very comfy and just-warm-enough. The flower in and of itself is coming along nicely but I had second thoughts about it going with the quilt, so I unfolded it and looked at the whole thing and decided: naw!



I have now decided to apply leaves lightly adorned with beads. The leaves are made from left-overs of the fabrics used in the quilt. I may even venture into my laundry room to fiddle with bondaweb or similar to help with the fraying. Also, for the embroidery, I may indulge in some thread other than the one pictured because I'm looking for something more chunky.

What will become of the half-finished flower? I do not know!

Fretting and choking slightly

So, here it is: I'm making quite good headway prepping the individual pieces of what will become Harrison's Friendly Dragon. Most spots are finished, the head and body. Tonight I will finish the other leg and flames



Making good headway also means that I am nearing an impasse. I dread having to decide how to mount this onto its background. I fear that it will not line up properly and that the fabric will bunch and wrinkle. In short: I'm having all sorts of nightmares ... so much so that I think I'll rather move onto the spikey binding aka "prairie points".

Notice how today there are two posts labeled "random ramblings" ... oooops!

Treading water ...

I do not know what it is but whenever I go away on holiday, it really very much disrupts my quilting. Remember how I went away in late August? Well, I'm only now getting back onto the horse. It is ridiculous!



And instead of working on what I am supposed to be working, I'm embellishing, which is nice and fun and all, but will not get my project finished by late November.



What is she doing, you wonder? Above photo shows one area where I trimmed too much and now the seams are unravelling. So - much in the same way as here - I am fixing by adding encrustations:



Only that so far, I am much happier with my earlier attempt. That bloom - yes, that is what it is - will have to become a lot more bloom-like. Maybe by adding foilage? Stay tuned to find out.