Lotsa Stitching

Yesterday morning, I finished stitching in the background for the Sunflower Sampler. This is a project going on at The Inbox Jaunt with Lori Kennedy. We were first supposed to try doing the Starry Night motif. I practiced on the backside of a previous piece. Try to ignore those stitches in the background and look just at the variegated orange. This one was pretty easy.

That was all the practicing I did before moving onto the sampler and committing it there.

I kind of like that motif, and I might use it when I quilt the Stars & Stripes quilt...which I have not a clue about how to quilt yet.

After that, the next suggested motif was The Oyster Shell. Here's my practice piece.

Below you see the basic design.

Her tutorial includes some variations too. There's this loop-de-loop, for example. I started off in the wrong direction there on the left.

And even without the mistake, I didn't care too much for that one. However, I did like the addition of the little flower petals below.

And that's how I stitched it out on my sampler. I really like this motif. It was easy to do and easy to adapt when I needed to fill in a small space.

And that was basically all the instruction she gave, although there were still two more sections to fill in. She just said to fill in the remaining sections with zig zag quilting, which I interpreted as: I don't know what else to do, so just do whatever. Okay...well I noticed that one of her sections was filled in with her Lines and Spirals motif. After looking at the tutorial, I felt comfortable enough to commit it to the sampler.

And then I scrolled through the remaining tutorials and found her Squiggle Square motif. And I didn't practice first, nor did I want to draw in a grid. This is my adaptation ("adaptation," that's what it is) of Lori's motif.

And here's the whole thing.

There are still borders to be quilted next week, and then this piece will be ready for binding. I love stitching out these little samplers as a way to practice and learn. There is another one starting up on the Sit Down Free Motion Quilters Facebook page in January (I think), and so I'm excited to get started on that one too.

After that, I promised myself I would do some housework. Also, I'd hoped to get out for a walk, and during a rain break I did just that. The afternoon was devoted to finishing the top-stitching and embellishing on the latest Chicken Buffet block.

The only thing left to do then was to add the name at the bottom. For some unexplained reason, I have opted to do this with my sewing machine. Maybe I had in mind to learn to use the machine for lettering...I don't know. So far, through five blocks, I've had to consult the instruction book every time. This is not a task for the feeble-minded.

And that was my sewing day. When that was finished, it was time to head out and pick up my veggies. It was a good day, despite the rain. After picking up the veggies, I checked the mail and look what came!

Yay!!! Guess you know what I'll be working on today. Time to get back to the Happy Village, made even happier now that the glue has arrived.