Down On The Farm

After last week's somewhat frenetic activity, you'll note that I've calmed down a bit. It doesn't mean I have any less to do; far from it. I'll blame it on the heat... although I truly love the 35 degree days we've been having pretty consistently this week, all I really want to do when I get home is nap with Little Miss (our endearment for our fur-baby, the personable Mina.)



So all I've really got accomplished since last we chatted was a little more Monkeying around... I'm about half-way to the heel on the last Koigu Monkey sock. I won't take another picture, though... just scroll down and have a gander at the finished one, and imagine it a little less complete... :)

I will, however, take this opportunity to introduce Number Five... another quilting project. Storybook Farm is an exquisite art wall-quilt by the ever-talented McKenna Ryan. A country girl at heart, and finding myself seriously displaced from Western Canada (which I call home), this quilt gives me a window on the world I love. Here's what I've done so far:





I am loving this project, with the exception of choosing fabric. When the projects are first released, they often have the fabric bundled with them... however, I jumped on this bandwagon long after the kits sold out and have had to try to kit each motif, square by square, trying to preserve the same tonalities throughout. Major PITA factor. You don't know how many fat quarters of green batik I have bought, trying to get the grass right for the scarecrow block. It's quite discouraging and the main reason why this has been stalled for so long.

Aside from that, I like the new techniques I've learned here... working with Steam-A-Seam, appliqué pressing mats, and a free license to play with free-motion machine embroidery.