Take It Further - January - Day 2

I spent most of my day yesterday doing machine finishing and bit of the hand-finishing. I didn't quite get my cellphone pouches completed but I'll work on those some more later today. My regular stitching time was a wee bit limited but I did manage to work one more seam on my January block:



I used one of Carol Samples Templates to mark the seam. I started with the chain stitch and then free-handed the lazy daisy stitches. Then I added the little black straight stitches. I'm thinking of adding to that seam on the top. I haven't decided what to do with it yet but I'm thinking I could make it even more interesting.

I'd like to thank Debra S. for mentioning that the point of this Challenge is to move beyond our comfort zone. Yes, that is quite true! And I very much intend to do so. That's why I chose to work with both the concept and the color scheme. On the other hand, I have to keep in mind that in the end, I want to have a nice quilt to hang on my wall. If the end of 2008 comes along and I don't like the blocks that I did, if they don't appeal to me visually and don't suit my personality and my decor, they will end up laying in a drawer and never make it into a quilt for my wall. I would find that very sad and I would feel that I have wasted my time. Escaping my comfort zone is not enough for me. Learning something new is not enough for me. In the end, I have to have a useful and beautiful quilt, something that I'm proud to display. So my intention is to make these blocks work on all levels and I know I can do that. For some blocks, I may be well outside of my comfort zone and for other blocks, I may have to walk the fence. Somehow though, I will work with both the concept and the color scheme and I will see to it that I personally find each of my blocks visually appealing and suitable for a wall-quilt.

I'll probably take about this a bit more as I work through this challenge so stay tuned.

I also want to answer a question that Dee asked of me. She asked how I go about adding lace and trim after my blocks are sewn up. I open up the seams, I tuck the ends of the lace or trim into the seams and then I take just a few tiny stitches to hold the seams down until I get my fancy stitches on there. I almost never chose my lace and trims until after the block is sewn. Thank for the question the Dee.

Before I end my post for the day, I thought you would enjoy seeing a photo of the my Kitten In A Basket Ornament:



This little one is already spoken for so I'll package it up now and ship it off to it's new owner tomorrow.

For today, I have some new beads that I want to organize. I like to keep my beads and sequins in little ziplock baggies so I have to sit down and take them out of the packaging and put them in the bags. I used to use the round, stackable plastic bead containers but they're so heavy, the weight of them put so much pressure on my roll-carts that the caster wheels broke off! My dear husband is at this moment, making wooden frames for the bottoms of the carts and attaching new casters to them. He told me that when he's done with this, I'll never have any trouble with my rolling carts again!

My stash is stored here in my computer room but when I stitch, I like to sit on the sofa in my living room so I roll my carts out there and then I have easy access to my entire bead stash!