Closer and Closer

Slow but sure, I'm finishing up the quilting on the Gardener's Journal quilt. I'm getting soooooooo tired of this project, but the closer I get, the more I want to work on it. It's one of the things I like about quilting...the project itself propels you forward.

Here's a little bit of what I did today. This is a motif I've used on some of my other quilts. It's kind of fun to do.

Then, I just did some squiggly lines here. I'm really running out of ideas for some of these skinny little one-inch strips.

Just around the corner to the right is this section, where I kind of repeated one I did down below. This time I sort of turned it inside out.

This is my adaptation of several of the designs I saw in Angela Walters book I mentioned yesterday, entitled Shape by Shape. Good book. I'm getting lots of ideas from it.

Here's one of her square shapes, and I did a mirror image in the square next door.

For those two-inch patches around this garden tool embroidery section, I just did more squiggly lines and some more Terry Twists off to the right there. (I remembered the name!)

I'm getting a lot of practice with the Terry Twists. They'll come in handy on the checkerboard sashing for the Psycatdelic quilt.

I did a sort of elongated stipple in the embroidered section. It wasn't the best choice for this because I didn't have enough room to maneuver, and so it didn't end up looking the way I envisioned it. Still, I think it's fine. I have to keep reminding myself that viewers will be looking at the whole quilt, and not focusing in on the minutiae.

Finally...these sort of cathedral window thingies. Is that what they're called? The bottom one is sort of lop-sided because the quilt was hanging off the edge of my table.

So I had to stop there because I had an appointment to get my hair cut this afternoon...not really cut, but shaped and trimmed. Anyway...the quilt is finished except for the section inside that pink line. Oh yes, and the border, but I'll save that for last. I already know what I'm doing there, and so it should go fast.

After my haircut, Lazy Me lost the current argument with Efficient-On-the-Ball Me. She got her way, and dragged Lazy Me to do the grocery shopping for the week. I'm glad to have that out of the way because it frees me up the rest of the week, except for a few housekeeping chores.

I won the beautiful hand-dyed fabric pack from Vicki Welsh in November's Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and that came in today's mail. Aren't these beautiful? 

I don't have anything planned for them at this point, but I know they're going to look beautiful in something. I'm thinking they would be nice in one of my stained glass applique quilts.

So that's my day. Right now I have some Cranberry-Orange Bread with Grand Marnier Glaze baking in the oven. It sure makes the house smell nice. Here's a picture of some I baked last year:

The loaves are made with dried cranberries and lots of orange juice and orange zest. Shortly after it comes out of the oven, you poke holes in the top and then pour a glaze made from confectioner's sugar and Grand Marnier (or substitute orange juice if you want them alcohol-free). The glaze hardens to give them a nice little crust and the liquid that soaks down inside keeps the bread nice and moist. You can also make them with dried cherries in place of the dried cranberries, and then use amaretto in place of the Grand Marnier. Of course, I never use the real Grand Marnier...Triple Sec works just fine. Also, you can make two large loaves or six little ones, and so it's a great project for holiday gifting. You can see the recipe right here. I'm keeping one loaf for us and giving one to a friend.

It was a busy day. Now I'm ready to put my feet up for a while before Mike comes home. Fortunately, it's leftovers for dinner. Leftovers: the best reason for cooking at home.