Hanging over my head

Like many other quilters (or crafters, if I might broaden the category), I have several projects being worked on at the same time.  They are in various states of completion (or non-completion, if you think in those terms).  Most of the time, I can mentally shove these works in progress to the back of my mind whilst I work on whatever the Current Obsession project is.  :-)

I just finished up a project ... quilting a client quilt, which took precedence over my own projects.  I now have the opportunity to return to the pieced project that will be my main focus, the Jane Austen quilt,  .. but first ... these are the projects that are Hanging Over My Head.  They are the ones I was working on before I got the idea to do the Jane Austen quilt.  They remain in various states of non-completion and will probably stay that way "for a while".  But, they *are* on my mind and will annoy me until I get them into a finished project.

To whit ... the "Diamond Pillows".  I started with a bunch of diamond shapes, cut from gold-toned fabrics.  I have NO idea why I cut these shapes; I don't think they were left over from a previous project.  But I cut a messload of them.

I assembled them into rectangles of various sizes (all non-standard, as it turned out), loaded them onto Lizzie and quilted them in a continuous curve design.  Using this as my blank canvas, I then used a friends electric Sizzix die cut machine to cut out a bunch of shapes, which I then fused and appliqued with monofilament thread.  They turned out ... dull.

I then embellished them with some modest hand embroidery.  Not crazy quilt stuff, just standard hand embroidery stitches. 

The blue is finished, I think.

The purple on the light background is finished.

The purple on the dark background is still being embroidered.

The blank one (above) will have pink shapes, yet to be determined.

All of them will be made into throw pillows.  Sadly, I wasn't thinking ahead because NONE of them are standard pillow sizes.  ::sigh::

Then there is the Apple Core project.  A fellow quilting buddy asked for some help from the members of About.com's Quilting Forum in making some Economy Blocks to be used in the making of a fund-making quilt to help restore her family's farmhouse.  I was at a breakpoint .. in between projects ... and in one evening, made 27 Economy Blocks for her.  She certainly didn't ask for that many!  Honest!!  But they were just so doggone easy, it was like eating popcorn ... I simply kept on making them.  :-)

As a thank-you, she sent me a bunch of apple core shapes that she cut with her Accuquilt Go cutter. 

Not wanting to have the shapes hanging over my head, I deferred whatever it was I was working on to assemble the apple cores together.  And that's as far as *this* project has gotten.  I think this is going to be a table runner for our dining room table.  I'm thinking I may put some machine applique on it.  Maybe. 

That's another project. :-)