Drum roll, please! Accomplishments!

Y'all might have thought I have been doing a very good imitation of a slug.  A sluggardly slug, at that.  I've been talking about working on projects but not a whole lot in the way of pictures.

Well, this post is to show what I've been working on ... and in some cases .. completed!

First ... and no pictures here (because it's a Christmas present!) ... I have finished the hand-stitching for a quilt top.  Whew.  Because of household logistics, I was only able to work on this project on certain days and only during a certain window of opportunity.  At last, this one is done!  The actual quilting will be done after Christmas.

Next: Lumiere de Noel.  This is both a free pattern from Moda *and* a line of fabric.  I liked the pattern but didn't want to spring for the fabric.  Instead, I mostly used stash fabric ... the only fabric from the Lumiere de Noel line is the dark tan/red linear stripes.  I just couldn't find anything, anywhere to substitute for it.   But, the quilting for this is now FINISHED!  woo hoo!  I railroaded the top (i.e. the length of the quilt is parallel to the rails) so that I could quilt each column in one pass.   I deliberately didn't quilt into the star points because I wanted them to be poofy.  I hope they remain so after washing.

I love, love, LOVE the border ... a two-arc swag with beadboard and a 4-lobed flower inside the swag.  I *finally* learned how to do beadboard correctly!  :-) 

I even like the corner treatment!  :-)

Oh, I used Quilter's Dream Puff for the batting .. a first time for me.  I'm looking for a poofy batting that will yield a cozy quilt capable of draping nicely.  I hope that the Dream Puff will fit this requirement.

Next: Carpenter's Wheel.  When last we looked at the Carpenter's Wheel top, the 4 blocks had been sashed and to allow it to be a useable bed-sized quilt, I decided to put a border on the top & bottom.   I am now working on the top border.  This hand-appliqued scroll will be mirrored on the right side of the border.  The bottom border will look the same as the top.

Next: Dress Me Up.  This is my current Forever Project and is a collection hand embroidered quilt blocks.  This is dress #6.  I have already started dress #7.  There are 12 dresses in all.

Last: I was doing some Christmas shopping at an upscale do-dad store .. the store that has all sorts of lovely, lovely china, crystal, flatware, accessories, kitchenware .. even furniture ... that will never see the light of day in my household.  :-)  But I do so enjoy looking at their stuff. 

Whilst wandering around, admiring all the lovelies, I saw a felt pillow with a three dimensional Christmas tree on it.  Upon closer inspection, the Christmas tree was made up of lots of little felt circles that had been tacked onto the felt background but horribly bunched together so that they stood cheek-by-jowl with each other and made a wonderfully dense Christmas tree.  What an incredibly fantastic idea!

And why should I BUY it, when so clearly I could MAKE it?  :-)  Well, in retrospect, it probably would have been less expensive to buy it. :-)   Also, I was only willing to consider making it myself because I have a Sizzix machine (the original one) which would make cutting all those felt circles a snap.  Alas and alack, I don't have a circle die the right size.  To the rescue comes my neighbor, Angie, who has a Big Shot Pro Sizzix machine.  This one takes the bigger dies *and is electric*!!  which means that you do NOT have to crank a handle to get the dies through.  ::swoon:: I fell in love.  Cutting out all those circles was absolutely effortless.

If I didn't have access to a Sizzix machine & a circle die, there is NO WAY, José, that I would have EVER cut all those felt circles by hand.

I didn't have any felt, therefore I needed to buy some.  The tree was made up of LOTS of different shades of green felt.  Wool felt.  Did you know that wool felt is deadly expensive?  That was a revelation to me.  I used acrylic felt instead.  :-)  Did you know that there are not a whole lot of DIFFERENT shades of green felt available?  Joann's had 6, but 3 of the greens were so close in color as to be indistinguishable from each other.  I opted to add a yellow for a little "sparkle".

Luckily, I already had a pillow insert, otherwise, I would have had to buy that also.   

While I was examining the store pillow (without trying to LOOK like I was inspecting it), I saw how the tree was constructed but was unwilling to really take the time to count out the rows and spacing .. so I just kinda guesstimated.  Back on the home front, I cut out the felt background, made a triangular outline shape for the tree and pencilled in a grid.  One felt circle was tacked to each intersection.

Since I did only a cursory inspection of the store pillow, it turned out that I made my grid MUCH TOO DENSE and my pillow has many MORE felt circles than the store pillow!   Ah well ... better than being too sparsely populated.   And I think it turned out cute.

Now, since I have lots of green felt circles left over, I'm collecting ideas of what to do with them.  Any suggestions are gratefully requested. :-)

And that is what I've been working on lately.  :-)

Next up: 

• square up and bind Lumiere de Noel.  Take pictures. Make webpage.
• continue working on the applique border for the Carpenter's Wheel
• make webpage for the Christmas pillow
• contemplate next pieced project NO! NO! NO!   I need to load the next quilt top onto Lizzie and get some of those tops turned into QUILTS!  No starting another pieced project!