A Tale of Two Circles

Well, it has been a busy old time in the All The Good Ones household.

First up, if you have read through last posts comments, you will know that I celebrated a birthday during the week, and received a very nice present from my husband.  This birthday I was determined to do a little something special for myself too - something I imagined I would have done last birthday (when it was a big one that began with a "fa" and rhymed with naughty) but somehow managed to NOT do.  So I organised a relaxing morning out being treated to a facial, eye brown shape and lash tint plus a fun reminder on how to apply makeup.

It's not every day you turn 41 and take your own photo!

Much fun was had on Saturday (visiting The Country Yard is as much about catching up with friends as visiting a patchwork shop) choosing some practical and visually non exciting items to come home with me... off white solid, a few fat quarters, a bright orange/red flannel wideback and a metre of a beige print for a background for a different project... but we'll get to that another day.

I've also been GOOD approaching my projects in a focused and organised manner.

PIECING: Good progress on the 100 Modern Blocks.  I need to double check but I think I'm up to date now.

This one needs to be spun around...

I don't really have all that many yellow scraps, so to turn a mottled yellow into more of a print - I used a text stamp and some permanent ink.  Turned out great!

And a start to the sashing application.  Check out the non exciting off white - exactly perfect for the purpose... a bit hard to see, but this forms the top left corner of the quilt.

Two for the price of one, I also finished another couple of Playground blocks as a leader/ender project while completing the above.

HAND WORK:  I completed the applique on the dresden fan block, and got two centres prepped, and one of those centres applied (this is where the post title came from...well, I had to call it something!).  I was surprised how quickly this got done, and realised, that just like painting - success is all in the preparation.

OK use your imagination... this is the one before it got finished!

MACHINE APPLIQUE: And I got two quarters completely blanket stitched on my Taupo Tiles, so just two more quarters to finish.

Right - onto the focus projects for this week.

MACHINE APPLIQUE: remember this one?  The side panels for my Bluebirds and Berries BOM...

HAND WORK: getting stuck into hand stitching the binding on the Hometown Wagon Wheels quilt.

PIECING: having a crack at the pieced backing for my Swoon quilt

These are the fabrics, and I've had an idea in my head for ages... just been waiting on the fabric

And my leader/ender project will be some more Tokyo Subway blocks... once I've decided which ones to do of course :0)

Sounds like another busy week...