What's been happening

I returned home from our son's house late last Wednesday night.  With the beginnings of a nasty cold (sorry if I already mentioned that - right now thinking takes almost more energy that I have).  Now, a week later, I'm  still trying to feel better.  It's strange - when I was a kid my colds lasted about 3 days.  Mom put us to bed and nursed us with toast points, chicken noodle soup and mustard plasters.  (Anyone else remember those?)  These days I don't stay in bed - I'm either at the computer in a congested stupor playing computer games that don't take any brain power, or I'm sitting in my sewing room doing mindless handwork.  I've not left the house since Thursday morning, when I returned the defunct red iron to Fabric depot and got the new lenses put in all three pairs of glasses - regular, close-up, and sunglasses.  (Amazing - I can really see better now, and I don't get double vision when I'm doing applique!) 

Enough already - I'll quit whining now.

I've crossed two things off my October goal list.  I bound and labeled "Angel Dance" - that's 13 quilts on my "completed quilt" list for 2013.  What a great feeling - 10 of which were UFO's from prior years.

I also finished appliqueing the first block for the "Sweet Memories" quilt.  I've very happy with how it turned out.  I'm going to do the other 8 blocks gradually, interspersing them between working on

other projects.  As you can see in this post, there are a limited number of fabrics in this quilt.  It's been YEARS since I made a quilt with so few fabrics.  I know if I tried to do the blocks one after another I would get so bored that I might never finish.  One every month or even every other month is a good goal IMHO.

The sewing room is a mess right now - stuff everywhere - as is the rest of the house.  There is no way I'm cleaning until I feel better, and there is no way I can get to the cutting table as is.  I have the applique prepared for one more small quilt on my list, so that's what I'm working on next.  Once that is done I will HAVE to find the cutting board, as I'll have quite a few applique blocks that need trimming before I can complete the two quilt tops.

The "Sweet Memories" block is the first I've done in which I used all the preparation and stitching methods I learned in Pearl P. Periera's DVD.  I first taught myself to applique in 1989, and have tried many different methods during the ensuing years.  I'm happy with my skills, but I believe I can always learn new tricks - that's why I bought the DVD.  I'm thrilled with this method, and believe anyone can learn to applique using it.  Even if you are scared witless by the very idea of applique.  Even if you've tried applique before and felt you failed.  I will eventually post a "tutorial" of what I did, but it won't be everything because I respect Pearl's copyright.  I have no relationship whatsoever with Pearl - just a very, happy, satisfied customer.  I rate this DVD as A+ - the best resourse I've ever seen for teaching applique.  I like it even better than what I learned in various expensive classes I've taken from renowned teachers through the years.  If you really, really want to do applique, then this is the method you should try.  JMHO, of course!