Little Things

Lots of Little Things going on lately, but few Big Things or even finishes. The zigzag quilt popped a seam in the wash, so after I finished agonizing I came up with A Plan; not executed yet but decided so I'm halfway there! I think a 1/4-inch foot will be on the birthday list this year ...

I made a camera case like mine for a friend; it gave me good quilting practice and I liked playing with curved lines with the walking foot!

I also made some "stinky pinky" shoe inserts - essentially a pouch of muslin filled with black and green tea, enclosed in a prettier pouch. Supposedly the tannins in tea have natural antibiotic qualities. In any case, I do think they made a difference when we went to BeadFest and spent LONG hours in our poor abused footwear! I did make them for my own shoes but it was a bit awkward trying to give a pair to my friend without saying "I think your feet stink!" She loved them, in any case, and this is the pair I made for her Mom afterwards, on their own and being modeled by my own yes-I-colored-them-myself sneaks.

The hex-ing continues also, when I get the chance. Here's my contribution to the Aussie Quilt Challenge - I like the thought that this little flower could be part of the World's Largest Quilt!! Didn't you LOVE reading the Guinness book when you were a kid? OK, I confess, I still do, and I also still like Ripley!

And finally, here's my progress on my own GFG. After paper-piecing the above flower and the hexies for the GHQA Potluck, I've really discovered the pleasures of paper piecing. So easy, and it yields such lovely crisp corners! For my own GFG I've used plastic templates, but since I knew it was going to be all scrappy and I didn't have anywhere near enough templates I've removed them as I've gone and stiffened the fabric afterwards with glue-and-water. It works all right, but leaving the template in makes a HUGE difference in being able to grab just a few threads when whipstitching the hexies together.

As you can see there will be red rings around the scrappiness. here's hoping it won't end up loking too much like a Bullseye!