Finishing up Some Projects

I decided to try to finish up my piece from the Round Robin competition at the quilt show.  This was the piece as it stood at the end of the show.  It is maybe 20 x 27 inches.

I whacked it apart some more to break up the green a bit as I found it to be a bit overwhelming.  I then did a "pillowcase" backing and did some quilting in the ditch to stabilize it and help me decide what to do next.

I found I really liked the piece!

I decided finally to just do parallel line quilting across the whole quilt about 3/8 in apart.  I didn't do this over the appliqued leaves.  I outlined those leaves and free hand quilted some veins so that it would show  up a bit more.  I had done this kind of quilting on another abstract piece I did a few years ago and found it kind of pulled everything together.  Just have to put a sleeve on now!



It was so nice to machine quilt on a smaller piece after spending 2 to 3 weeks quilting the monster below!

I didn't have a wall big enough to show this whole quilt and this picture was taken with my phone so not too great.  I finally finished the quilting and it is good enough to put on a bed but won't see a quilt show in its future!!  If I had it to do over, I would leave out the blocks that are set up on their corners.  They weren't great blocks to begin with and they pull your eye into a crowded (to me) center.  Oh well, lots more blocks.  I had even dyed the background for this one -- a pale yellow as white was too stark.

You can see the quilting a bit here.  I did like flower petals as that is what it looked like to me.  I like the colors but the quilt is not my favorite.   I followed the lines of the dyeing in most of the side blocks and they did look pretty good -- definitely an improvement over no quilting.  The quilt is 85 x 85 inches so will fit nicely on a queen sized bed!  I believe it is Mandala 4.

I left most of my dyed blocks in NC except for the ones that I gave to Julia for selling  I did pull this one out of the bunch as I just liked it.  Now have to decide whether it will be a pillow or a smallish wall hanging.  I am leaning to pillow.  It is 23 x 23 inches and just nicely balanced with pretty colors.

And just to make life interesting, at 6:30 in the morning they started tearing up our lawn and the street in front of our house.  We can still get out the driveway but in a few days, they will be tearing up all along the property line and we won't be able to get out our driveway or down the street.  Hope it is not for too  long.  And how do we get our mail and paper?  I feel more sorry for our next door neighbor who has these gorgeous gardens that are going to be ripped up.  I think he has already started moving some things.  Arghhh...