Design Wall Monday Plus

First, the stash report - not much to report.  Used an 1/8th of a yard to do part 2 of the Happy Scrappy Orphan Block of the Month Quilt.  This is going to be fun.  You might give it a look see.

We're making a medallion quilt. I chose this 20s Sunbonnet Sue block for my center. The border is really more purple than burgundy - don't know why it came out that way.  She's on my design wall.  How about you?  What's on your design wall?  I'm linking to Judy's Patchwork Times, Lyn's BOMs Away and Anything Goes Monday. Do check them out. Stash numbers on right sidebar.

Hexagons, a Finish and Flowers

I've got a ways to go for my 8 hours (as per Hexagon Alley) this month for progress on my hexagons, but getting there:

The small hexie in the bottom right is the size of my first hexie project. The second is almost twice the size of it. I spent some time going through my stash finding a piece to use as the background.  That is a 5 1/2" square.  I'm designing this as I go.  I do know I want applique somewhere on this new quilt. Would love to see your progress on your hexies or anything you're working on. Linky below.

I also have a finish that I did some FMQ on.  This is a charity quilt that I'll give to the local Cancer Center.
Measures 44" square. This is the center quilted motif.

And here's the back:

Finally, here's a blooming cactus.  The photo doesn't do it justice.  The flowers were all that gorgeous lavender and only the very centers and stamens were white.  Big too - about 5 inches across. Stopped me in my tracks as I walked by.

I'm linking to Leah's FMQ Project, Richard's Link a Finish Friday, TGIFF,Friday Flower Fotos and Amanda Jean's Finish it up Friday.  You can find the buttons on the sidebars.  Have a great weekend!

An InLinkz Link-up

Applique Tuesday 5/20/14

My regular readers know I just spent the last three weeks making a commissioned signature quilt.  It did have some applique - the label.

I happened to have bought some time ago a panel of labels. Once I found them, I picked out this heart. Now my problem has been how to get the wording evenly distributed on the label and look just right.  Then, too, my penmanship is not that great, so I had to think about how to do this.  So I traced the inner edge of the heart and reversed it on tracing paper.  Then I went to my computer, opened up MS Word and began to  write out the words.  I tested a lot of fonts and sizes til I found one that worked and I liked. Then I printed it out, cut them apart and laid the lines on my tracing.  I had to keep fiddling with the font size to get it just right. When I did I taped the line strips together and placed it behind the heart on a light box.  Then taking a Pigma pen (.5 tip) I traced over the lines and thus got my words in place in a nice font.  Then I heat set the label and hand appliqued it on.  If I had to do it over, I would have put a thin layer of white batting under it so the fabric underneath would not have shown.

BTW:  She loved it!