Finished projects

I was all set to write a new post a few days ago but when I went to find the photos of the project I wanted to feature alas, there were none. Oh no, I forgot to record the finished item.

However, it was a gift for my newest great nephew and thankfully his mother sent along this photo for me.

A few years ago a friend in my quilt guild had initiated making these Scotty Dogs to give away for charity. At the time I did not make one but did listen to the others complain about how tedious they were to make. The tedious part was when the joining strip was also squares as that creates a lot of seam matching. However, I found a photo of some made where they had used a "solid" (patterned) piece of fabric for the joining strip and this seemed a great idea as it also calmed down all those different fabrics.

But I needed a gift for the baby and I knew his mother did not want a baby quilt so I thought I'd make this. The baby's room is decorated in black and white so I went to my fabric cupboard and started pulling. Since it is for a boy I wanted to avoid floral fabrics and as I was choosing I began to notice that most of the fabrics had a recognizable element to them. So the dog becomes dual purpose as it can also function as an "eye spy" game e.g. find the clock, the star, the zebra and so on.

Hopefully the baby will enjoy it and even if he does not, I really did enjoy making it (despite forgetting to take photos).

Moving on to a new project I startled myself by beginning and completing a small quilt in five days!

The quilt is small - only 12 5/8" square - but making those 2" blocks required more patience than making them at a 6" size would have needed.

The title of my piece is "There's One in Every Crowd". It was created to go into an exhibition of work by members of Great Falls Studios; the requirement was for works around 12" square that represent you.

Now, for whatever reason, I understood that to mean the piece needed to describe you. I later discover it merely meant a piece that is in your usual style. But mine was designed to say the following about me: I might take a color direction that is not the way of the crowd, I like small precise work, I rank fine detail as important, I like blue teamed with lime green, I like to work in a traditional way but with a touch of the unexpected and there are perhaps some other meanings as well. Can you find them?

Here is how my piece looks hanging alongside some of the other entries.

A different title might have been "Killing Two Birds with One Stone" as the colors chosen were deliberate; two upcoming shows I am involved in need a piece that features the color blue so I figured this would be a work that could fit in all three shows.

But the thing I like best about this piece is that it was completed in such a short time. That has been so refreshing that I really must try to do it again.

But for now, I must return to my regularly featured style which is working on projects that take months to complete. My Grandmother's Choice quilt is back from the quilter and I need to get busy with a piped binding so I can mark that quilt as another finished project for this year.