Catching Up

Sometimes I think my brain just shuts off and when it reboots, it forgets what it was doing last... I read a previous post talking about my pumpkin quilt, and realized I never posted a picture of it here.  I really like Edyta Sitar's quilt designs... They are usually fun to make, easy applique, if a bit repetitive, and they make great lap quilts for keeping warm on a cold tv night, and fun wall quilts too.   I made this one mostly because I had a layer cake of fall fabrics I wanted to use up and it was a pattern that caught my eye in Quiltmania Magazine.  Super easy pattern, and would be great for teaching machine applique (there are convex and concave curves as well as corners).  I think I made them backwards (put my 'highlight' crescents on the 'wrong side', but Quiltmania printed the pattern for hand applique and I didn't feel like reversing it before I traced the shapes... so it is what it is).  I like it.  And I quilted it myself this time instead of sending to a longarmer.  This was actually done in July, just never posted a picture of it finished.

Having made the pumpkin quilt, I saw this Edyta Sitar pattern for Elephants at one of my LQS (local quilt shops).  To add a little interest, I reversed one of the elephants.  I call this quilt 'There's One in Every Crowd', referring to the one elephant who is bucking the trend and following her own path).  The backgrounds are all Moda Grunge, some with spots, some without, and the elephants are mostly Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  To make it easier to trace, I bought the plastic template that ES makes for this quilt.  Highly recommend using the template for this quilt.  As with the pumpkins, I quilted it myself.  This one, too, was finished earlier this year (in July). 

On the KINDNESS note (see the Word of the Year post I made previously), a dear friend and fellow quilter is a member of my minigroup.  We all chip in to a general fund each year for birthday presents for each other.  My friend wanted something that exceeded her individual budget so I chipped in so our birthday guru could get her the item she wanted.  She will never know how she lucked out.  It will be my secret.  I have also been working on my 'assertiveness' as a driver (no, I'm not an 'aggressive' driver... but I am trying to be more accommodating, letting people waiting to turn get into my lane, that sort of thing.  I still don't like to get stuck behind big trucks, but I am trying to be more courteous to other drivers.  It is a small step on the road to KINDNESS.  I am trying to smile more at strangers instead of avoiding their gaze... on the road to POSITIVITY.  And it's not even 2019 yet... but no reason not to start early and develop better habits before the year begins.