Friday Flaunt - First Ten in '10 Finished!

When I selected projects to include in my Ten in '10 list, I tried to be reasonable, looking ahead to life's possibilities during the upcoming 12 months. It caused me to select a few projects that were relatively do-able, and several that are more intensely demanding.

From the "do-able" side, I'm pleased to share my first completed project! It's grandson Tay's 32" X 32" Noah's Ark wall hanging. What a wonderful learning experience it was! Not only is it the first piece of stitchery I've completed in years (much of it sewn while in Sydney), but it's my first stitchery ever that has been colored with pencils. It was a delight to make and I'm looking forward to seeing it hung in his bedroom.

There was a bit of learning curve free-motion machine quilting it. I knew to straight stitch along the sashings to secure the layers, but it was a difficult to know where to quilt the rest of it. I settled for giving the animals a bit of "ground" to walk upon, and quilted close to some of the backstitches around the ark and animals on-board. You might also see where I added quilted ocean waves, and a few extra clouds in the sky.

Ever aware that I won't be around forever, I add a label to all of my quilted pieces. If you're wondering... names have been blurred "to protect the innocent."

Another big effort this week was playing catch-up on the "Season of Grace" Christmas stocking BOM hosted by author Emilie Richards and quilter Pat Sloan.

Since I was out of the country for five weeks last fall, and then traveled to Florida for nearly three weeks, it was long past time to complete November, December, and January BOMs. If you recall, I'm making two identical stockings for each month, swapping one of them with my friend Mary.

November: Gingerbread Girl

Mary will make the gingerbread boy.

December: Selvage Stocking

Mary's stockings will be green selvages.

January: Going Dotty

I'm pumped with accomplishment! Now I've begun a donation quilt. This is one I will stitch and make into a quilted wall hanging to be auctioned in July at Riverside Lutheran Bible Camp's (Story City, Iowa) annual quilt auction. It's the camp's largest fundraiser that annually raises around $50,000 for the camp.

This design is called "Northwood Memories" and comes from Wellington House Designs in Minnesota. The original pattern makes into a 7" X 9" block, but a friend enlarged it to about 10" X 12" so I can use it for the center medallion of my wall quilt. I'm planning to stitch it with DMC #8 perle cotton.
All this on top of spending many hours email-interviewing and working to write an article for the June/July issue of Quilters Newsletter magazine. It's such a blessing to write about something I love, and know a little about. In this instance, the article is about Australian stitcheries, and Australians and an American who stitch them. Hopefully it will give non-bloggers a look into the world of possibilities with stitchery.

I guess that being housebound - due to this week's ice storm - does have its benefits, but those are wearing thin! We're ready for some thawing around here!