Weekend Work

What did I do this weekend? Well, I worked on applique for a set of blocks to be swapped with a group from my guild--we'll swap in about a week and a half. I'll show those to you when I get them done; I had seven mostly done, but I still have two more to stitch and then I have a few last things to add to all nine blocks, time allowing. Just embellishments really.

Then I pulled a thrift store frame out of my car trunk--I bought it last week during a lunch hour expedition--and cleaned and painted it, and then I mounted Witch Wilma in the frame. I think it turned out cute!

I'm starting to get anxious to decorate for fall and Halloween, but I think I'll wait until next weekend to get started.

You know how I just mentioned I still had two of the to-be-swapped blocks to applique? Well, my finger got really sore, so I thought I should give it a rest for a couple days and do a little piecing instead. My Thimbleberries Club was given a year-long challenge: Bring 15 flying geese blocks each month to "bank," and at the end of 8 months, we'll each have 120 geese. And if we made all 120 geese, the quilt shop would give us the setting and border fabrics, I think. I'd decided I had plenty to do each month without having this additional challenge, and I wasn't all that interested, even if it DID mean free fabric. So here it is, nearly the end of the challenge with the last "deposit" due on Wednesday night, and I suddenly decided I SHOULD participate after all.

I thought I'd make my geese red and white--which would be nice for Christmas, Valentine's Day, and the 4th of July. So I pulled out some Thimbleberries fabric and started cutting. 120 geese--no sweat!

Speaking of tools, I know there's a handy ruler called Fit to Be Geese, and there's also the no-waste method of making flying geese, but for whatever reason, I still like the old school way, sewing squares on the diagonal on top of rectangles. The only problem is that there's a lot of wasted fabric cut off.

I almost always try to rescue those corners by sewing an extra seam and making them into half square triangles. Here's a small pile so far. Someday, probably when my finger is too sore from applique to go on, I'll square up these little guys and make something cute out of them. Now that I think of it, maybe that's one of the reasons why I like to make geese the old school way.

What didn't I do this weekend? Well, I just remembered I'd planned to do a little house cleaning and never quite got around to it. Probably just as well since my finger hurts, don't you think?