ugh...

putting that together was absolutely no fun

  especially since it involved the A word - i do detest doing applique 

whose bright idea was that tree in the middle?

 oh yeah, it was mine ... sheesh

close ups of the border

onward...

henry the xxviii

i gave this panel to Melissa for her half birthday in june...

since then i've been highlighting it with embroidery - plain old stem stitch,  for the most part...

after hours and hours and hours of stitching, the only way that i can see a difference is if i look at the back...

june 27

july 4

july 12

july 23

and enhance the picture with the auto feature...

anywho ... it FEELS pretty doggone cool even if it doesn't LOOK much different...

august 16

he's kinda cute, isn't he?

neigh whinny whinny buzz buzz buzz buzz

total eclipse of the heart - from many pieces into one

gotta find a backing!!!

the neighs have it

 so ... i fell for another panel

this particular one has a lotta personal meaning for me and i bought it with only a bitty bit of a plan - the phases of the moon, a lunar eclipse 

and two stars cuz you can't have a second star to the right without at least two stars...

even without two stars in the top border this layout is ... wrong

better ... but still not right

i'm thinking ... i'm thinking ... i'm thinking 

fireflies? yes, fireflies...

the phases are upside down, but it's getting there...

all together now...

working with this guy was a pleasure, lemmtellya...

choose wonder...

here there be ... thimbles

this was supposed to be Melissa's half birthday present...

but there's always a but i didn't wait till june - the easter bunny gave it to her with a box of Dr. Pepper Peeps on Easter Sunday

she is thinking that it would look waaaay cool with a border of celtic knots 

and i think that those celtic knots should be turquoise and lime green

so out came the stash's greens and blues

and the rather large stacks were winnowed down to these 

that leafy green and blue with a bit of yellow - the one under the top three - didn't want anything to do with the dragon

it whispered insistently that it wanted to be with the thimbles 

so it is

the pink fossil ferns was determined, too,  and now the thimbles are in one piece

  i knew there were that'll-do-pig fabrics hiding in the stash 

and i think it's gonna be okay 

next - gotta find fabrics in the stash for backing and binding 

eight seconds

 we used to watch bull riding

if you're familiar with bull riding, you'll know there is a lotta time between the eight-seconds-if-you're-lucky rides 

 plenty of time to stitch a few stitches 

so i embroidered these...

 a pre-printed panel from Redwork plus

and they had been waiting and waiting and waiting to be something more, but the something more had to be from the stash 

and purple can be challenging 

 last May i narrowed it down to these fabrics from the stash 

and that picture from a quilt shop's email for a starting point...

and settled on this...

the 11" x 12" finished blocks have been living in the Great Pile of Stuff cuz i haven't found enough of a that'll-do-pig fabric in the stash for the next round 

cuz purples are challenging

these close ups are so i don't forget how many stitches went into each of those thimbles...

lots and lots and lots of stitches

snowflakes

gonna need some more floss...

stop vining...

 think this is enough?

is it time for some DMC B5200 snowflakes?

we could use some H2O snowflakes,  too - we're in for an extreme drought if we don't get some of those April showers soon - just sayin' 

a closer look...

 this is for you, Patty...

there's too much ANGER in the Real World ... i solemnly swear there will be NO RAGE stitched into this guy...

what a fun guy...

stitching on this is a lotta fun

just sayin' 

aurora borealis

Melissa decided on this panel at eQuilter.com for (part of) the backing for Santa's Tree

and after it arrived i thought

 he needs to be the FRONT of a quilt... 

so i saved my pennies and tried to order it

for me!!!

but it was out of stock

 damnit...

i kept checking back 

 often... 

so often that the algorithm demons had a field day with my searches

when it was FINALLY restocked, no time was wasted getting it ordered

there was no fabric in the stash that worked with it

and there are no longer any quilt stores nearby

 trying to match those colors off a computer screen wasn't gonna happen

so it sat on top of the Great Pile of Stuff

 wait wait wait!!! lookie here!!! lookie lookie!!!

a link to this FREE pattern with a list of coordinating fabrics arrived in my email!!! 

no guessing!!! thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

so after saving my pennies 

again?!?

the suggested fabrics were ordered and sat on top of the Great Pile of Stuff cuz i was working on the gazillion flying geese for Vintage Tin 

 i can start on Northern Lights Santa as soon as Vintage Tin/Roadkill Road is ready for the To Be Quilted pile

that happened February 6 

YAY!!!

a gazillion half square triangles were sewn and trimmed 

the strips were cut and sewn to the hsts 

the inner border fabric wasn't pressed and cut yet, but i couldn't wait to see how he was gonna look

so, so close

that panel and those coordinating fabrics look awesome together and in just a few hours they could be a flimsy 

trim the center, press and cut the inner border and sew it on, meet those gazillion points, and add the outer border 

should be a happy moment, right?!?

i dunno... 

anywho, we had to stop tripping around it on the living room floor, so the strips were gathered and labeled

the inner border fabric was pressed and cut

i was about to trim the center when i thought 

i really,  really like this Santa and i don't want to be done working with him ... maybe those vines could be highlighted with some embroidery? lemme give it a try...

ooo!!! that's kinda cool!!!

ooo!!! i really, really like where this is going!!!

  the variegated flosses are gonna be DMC 4020, DMC 4025 and DMC 4030

yeah, nothing like making more work for myself

 amiright?!?

dyswis 2

 so ... do you see what i see?

wait for it ... wait for it

i see an green olive with pimento and a green ghost monster (Michael Myson says the monster is from The Nightmare Before Christmas, his name is Oogie Boogie and that he's more brown than green cuz he's a burlap bag full of bugs in the movie that i've never watched cuz it looks scary and i don't watch scary movies cuz Real Life is scary enough) 

 there are other things lurking in this panel, but i'm gonna just stitch some curves for a while - that monster is gonna give me nightmares