Needlework Tuesday - A Stitch too Far

Needlework Tuesday is a regular weekly post where I share the progress of my various needlework projects over the past week. I enjoy the encouragement that I receive from my readers and in return visit their blogs and cheer them on with theirs. You are welcome to grab the cute little mouse and create your own Needlework Tuesday post. Leave a comment with a link and I'll be sure to visit with you.

 

I finally found the time to start work on the "Aiming for Accuracy Quilt Along" hosted by Michelle at the Quilting Gallery.   The whole idea of this project is to work on our accuracy in piecing.  There are all sorts of hints and tips for improving and Michelle is available via email should your question not be answered in her lessons.  As with many of the ladies, I played around with the placement in block one.

I'll call these windmill blades.  I much prefer them darker as they abut with the brown which I am using as my background.

Here's my finished block.  Measures a mostly accurate 15 1/2 inches, then add the bit of sashing across the bottom.  I have the fabrics selected for block two, yet to cut though.  As an incentive to keep up to date, Michelle has prizes each week and they do look good, some fabric, patterns and more yet to be revealed.

 
the first pieced strip for my sister's afghan is complete.  it is shown at the bottom of the above photo.  It measures 61 inches and it should be 60.  I will need to add a couple of repeats to the alternate row shown above . obviously my tension isn't quite right, but I'm OK with that.  Just hope I'll have enough yarn.  I am going to weight these rows once I've made them the same length and then calculate whether I have enough. If I suspect that I don't, I'll go to the outlet right away (with my fingers crossed) and hope that they still have a ball of this colour in stock.

When my son was in high school, he did a painting that looked like stained glass.  Somehow during the course of our conversation about the painting, he ended up challenging me to make a quilt that looked like the painting.  How could I pass that up.  In the matter of a few short weeks, I had the top done and started thee quilting. He took it in to school to show the teacher, and then I put it away.  I had done all the stitch in the ditch around the colours, but it made the quilt all wavy.  It needed more quilting, but I wasn't ready for the challenge. 

I found the quilt again this past week, and decided the time was right to finish it.  So, back to Leah Day's website, The Free Motion Quilting Project for some ideas.  This second photo shows that some of the black sashing has now been re-stitched with an all over design. 

You can clearly see the stitching in this photo.  All the black is now stitched and the outside edges of the quilt are much less wavy.  Next I am going to work colour by colour using a different pattern stitch for each colours areas. I hope to have an update on this next week.

 

Each time I start a project, I really do intend to see it through to the end, but sometimes, I find that either I loose interest, something else comes along that's more interesting, or that I have reached a technique challenge that I am not up to at the moment.  This was one of those situations.  I now feel that I am at a better skill level that will allow me to finish this project and be happy with the results.  I could have finished it before, but I don't think I would have been happy with it.  What do you do when you reach a technique challenge?

Tami, at Just One More Thing, knows exactly what I am talking about.  This week she features the sample blocks that she pieced.

Marie, at Daisy's Book Journal, has posted some of her first Zentangles.  Way to go Marie.