Hello Friends! I made a little progress on Block 18 – Bee Bountiful. As you can see, I’m starting with the barn in a traditional red color. It’s so much fun seeing the design come to life!
Before
AFTER
We post an update on our own project every three weeks and encourage each other to make more progress and stay motivated. I’m looking forward to seeing how the rest of the SAL group has progressed with their projects this time around. Read along with me by clicking the blog links below:
Hello Friends! No stitchy progress this go around, but I did prep my fabric for the next block. Here’s Block 18 – Bee Bountiful. I took the liberty to do a little redesign on this barn as the original left off the roofline and I found it to look a bit incomplete. I’m much happier with the touch up! The cornstalks and the bee is teeny so I tried very hard to be soft handed with my tracing, but ultimately I’ll have to reference the paper design to ensure I stitch the corn and leaves where they should be. Loading to my q-snap and I’ll get to backstitching soon!
We post an update on our own project every three weeks and encourage each other to make more progress and stay motivated. I’m looking forward to seeing how the rest of the SAL group has progressed with their projects this time around. Read along with me by clicking the blog links below:
You guys!! I’m already missing a month of updates…I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t make any promises, but a girl can try!
Cross Stitch
The last part of the Funky Menagerie by Lindy Stitches was released at the end of March and I was able to finish at the end of April as I had run out of a few colors. I love how it turned out and I’m thinking I want to sew this into the front of a small shopping tote bag. Don’t worry, it will stay safe, I imagine the tote bag could be used when I’m cross-stitch shopping at my LNS or fabric shopping at the quilt shops.
In the month of March, I was pretty busy with custom orders for my shop and struggled to keep up with my Wipgo calls. April faired better for me Let’s see how I did:
The first call was Winter Fox by Notforgotten Farm, which had a pretty challenging goal of completing all the trees and plants (which meant everything besides the border and ground). Luckily I accomplished my goal! I spent most of my free time dedicated to meeting this goal. I love the way it’s turning out and I can’t wait for it to be called again so I can finish it!
BEFORE
AFTER – GOAL COMPLETE!
The second call was The Leaves by Hundreds Came by Alicia Paulson. The goal was to complete the bottom main section, but unfortunately I didn’t even get a chance to work on it that month. I did finally get to it in May, which you will see on the next update.
BEFORE and AFTER
On to April Wipgo! I’m happy to announce I was able to complete my April goals.
The first call was Noah’s Christmas Ark by Plum Street Samplers. My goal was to complete the doves, or the main part, excluding border. I’ve already stitched 3 of the ornaments from this series and the doves is the fourth part. It was a quick, easy, and enjoyable stitch. I did make a change to the doves. As you can see white doves are called for, but I decided my fabric was too light and I opted for mourning doves instead 🙂
BEFORE
AFTER – GOAL COMPLETE!
The second call was Things of Winter by Alicia Paulson. My goal was to complete 3 motifs. They were quick to stitch and I was able to accomplish my goal. Aren’t they cute!?
BEFORE
AFTER – GOAL COMPLETE!
Quilting
As I was completing the Frozen quilt I showed you in February, my step sister reached out to me about making a Minnie Mouse quilt for my niece and I jumped at the opportunity to make her one. I followed a similar pattern of 4 patch blocks alternating with a focus fabric block, added sashing and a thick border to increase the size. I backed it in white and grey minky fabric and quilted along the seams for a quick quilting finish.
As I shared this quilt on my instagram, a friend of mine mentioned how her son was excited to see Minnie, as Mickey is one of his favorite characters. This friend is an old coworker of mine, and I had been meaning to make a baby quilt for her first little one. So I decided to surprise them with a Mickey Mouse quilt. For this quilt I did a simple strip layout, backed in flannel, and quilted along the seams. I just love these vintage Mickey prints and the color combination I went with.
Finally, I wanted to share with you some of the fun custom orders I quilted up for my Etsy Shop. I generally make quilted project bags for needlework, but occasionally I get a request for something different. The first was a set of Rainbow coaster. I have previously made winter coasters for this customer and I’m so pleased she loved them enough to ask for another set to change out the season with. These coasters measure about 6.5″ square and I love how they turned out. One of those hard to part with orders 🙂
Another customer requested a nautical inspired large knitting bag. She wanted it to feature a log cabin design and a flat bottom. For this, I found a large 16″ log cabin pattern online and it was the perfect size to turn it into this top zip bag. As a test, I made a floral version, which quickly sold on my Etsy as well.
Gardening
In March, mom helped me weed the garden, add fresh mulch, and plant two tomato plants in my raised beds. I’ll be sure to share updates on my tomato plants soon, they are definitely getting big now. I also started growing some zinnias by seed. Zinnias are so easy to germinate and I was able to add them to the garden in April… However, we have a new resident rabbit in our yard and he’s been busily eating away at my seedlings. We’ll see if I get flowers this year!
I have some vacation time coming soon and I plan to work more in the garden. I’m looking forward to visiting the nursery and getting my hands on some new perennials and colorful annuals to fill in the flower beds. I hope you all are enjoying the spring weather!
