Kim Diehl Mini Finished!

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The Queen of Procrastination has finished a UFO!

Shouting from the rooftops and ramparts, this is a finish I am sooo happy to finally share.

Our Frankfort Girls group met for a pseudo "camp" last June at Terry's, and every day for that week, most of us worked on making the blocks for this little sew-along hosted by Kim Diehl on her IG feed. I am sure all the others had theirs finished ages ago while I was stuck in UFO land. On June 11, 2019, I posted my flimsy.

Over a year to finally finish this little gem. *smh*

The reason for my long, long delay? Well, numerous issues popped up after I marked the entire quilt with the Pounce marking tool - it just made a mess of chalk dust everywhere, and it faded off before I could get to the outer edges, and it smeared too much. A total fail, IMO.

So I put it aside for awhile (months) while I stewed on how to proceed. I finally determined that I could re-create the markings with a white pencil. I did that with decent success. I may have fudged a bit on the overall quilting design, but I didn't sweat it.

Then, daggone it, I ran out of the floss I was using to do the big-stitch quilting. The trouble there was that I had no clue as to what the color number was; it was a bit of floss without a color number; I miscalculated on having enough to do the job. Again, I set it aside for awhile (more months) deciding how to proceed.

Then one day in mid-June, I found myself in Hobby Lobby walking through the sewing section. Right there staring me in the face was all the embroidery floss. I pulled out 4 different browns figuring that I would get at least ONE of them to work well enough to finish this mini. And I did. It is really obvious in a side-by-side comparison that the original brown is different from the new one, but when you look at this mini in these pictures, I doubt very much if anyone would see the inconsistency.

I love a story with a happy ending. Even when the ending takes way too many months to unfold.

Hope you are having a great Sunday! We entertained a big bunch of extended family here today; our house was full  - as well as our hearts! I am linking with Slow Sunday Stitching over at Kathy's Quilts. Check out all the pretties when you have a moment.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Christmas Prepping

 In an effort to finish off some works in progress (WIPs) that are cluttering up my sewing room, I picked up a small project that will take just a bit of time and focus to be complete. And the bonus?? It's a small Christmas quilt, so I will have a pretty piece to add to my holiday décor as a wall hanging or table topper.

I am fuzzy on all the particulars surrounding the creation of this little quilt, but what I do recall is that I had dug into my tub of Roman Holiday/3 Sisters fabric remnants and found that I had the makings of these HSTs. I pieced them until I ran out, then used other remnants for a pieced border.

Above is an old (and poorly lit) picture of the quilt parts on the design wall. This shows the pieced border and corner blocks. This old post tells me that this little quilt had its start way back in December of '17. I wouldn't have guessed it was that far back, honestly. Just goes to show that time has a way of getting away from us. Hmm...

I have tried to be diligent and do at least some stitching every day for most of the past week - just 15 or 20 minutes - and at this rate I feel confident that I can claim this as a finish in short order. With the 'big-stitch' technique and the simple Baptist fan design, the stitching goes pretty fast.

Making the stitching even more enjoyable is the new book I have queued up on Audible - The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson. I have been hearing quite a bit about this book lately, and at just chapter 5 or 6, I am quite enthralled by the tale.

(from Google search)

Big doings in the long arm room tomorrow! We have an electrician coming to install a new ceiling light and fan! I will definitely bring updates on that as they become available!

Hope you are having a great week!
Happy Quilting, Friends!