Saturday Smorgasbord

Today's post will be a true smorgasbord. First, here's my most recent completed wool applique mat. It was a wool kit,  "Winter Sheep All Around," from Shabby Fabrics, and I just fell in love with their adorable little faces and hats. :-)

I've actually been doing a lot of wool applique prep work this week as I have two upcoming quilt retreats. I've decided that I am going to leave my machine at home and spend both weekends hand stitching. There are three wool applique pieces all prepped and tucked into one of my project bags. Prepping each piece is surprisingly time consuming. Different folks prep their pieces differently. I put SF101, a Pellon product, on the back of the background piece for a bit of stability. I also use Soft Fuse on the individual pieces. Some people choose to staple the pieces to the background, some choose to pin them on with tiny applique pins, but I have found that Soft Fuse works best for me.

Besides the three pieces now prepped, I may also work on the first block of a Sue Spargo BOM . It is agreed when you sign up for the BOM that you will not post any images on social media, so you will not be seeing any of that work. I can, however, show you this organizer closure tab that I stitched this week. Just look at all of this glorious Eleganza thread, and this is only part of it!

I enjoy hand stitching while watching TV at night, and all of these prepped pieces should keep me busy at night and on any upcoming retreats. If not, I have a sashiko piece to work on, and a Yoko Saito applique piece that I would like to complete.

I'm also going to try and do some more stitched tea bag art. It has been quite a while since I have worked on any of those tiny pieces. You may see some example from last April HERE. Today I also prepped a small pile of tea bags. Instead of inserting muslin into each little piece, I decided to put SF101 on the back of each bag. Pure genius on my part! It will provide needed stability for stitching and close up the slit where I removed the tea. Will this work? I think so . . . fingers crossed . . . but only time will tell. My plan is to try and stitch one tea bag per day. What will I  do with them? Good question . . . I have an idea . . . but again only time will tell. :-)

Did I get the borders on the quilt I mentioned in my previous post? Well, no, I get easily distracted, but I hope to do that this week.

Finally, while reading some blogs earlier today, I came across a wonderful site that I know you will find interesting.  It is Elm Street Quilts Tutorials where you will find a wonderful selection of tutorials; definitely a site worth bookmarking!

Have a creative, fun, wonderful week!