Me Time

It was my turn today for a few hours to myself at a local shop for social sewing group.

I took two things to work on, depending on my mood: maybe I will just want to stitch and relax enjoying working on the Diamond Hill block 3. Nope. (Although, I can report it is now about 20% stitched down from stitching in the evenings.)

I felt like trying out fabrics for Secret Garden block 3. I found some leaf fabric, tried it, and loved it.

Then I tried out the tiger face as the Cheshire cat's face. It needs a big cheesy cartoon-ish smile appliqued over the mouth. This is going to look good. The face is going to take the place of one of the flowers. There is no room for both.

Auditioning fabrics is fun!

Now that the cat face, leaf fabric, urn and stem fabrics are chosen, I can see a few changes need to be made.

The protea looking flower is far too pale and washed out. I bought a grunge hot pink to try for the outermost petals, and will audition other fabrics for the flower after that.

And, looking at the Queen head flower, I would like to change the lime green sepals into another colour. Maybe a warm apricot blush kind of colour. I will know when the protea flowers are made.

I love the way choosing fabrics and colours evolves as the block forms.

The new Diamond Hill block comes out on the 15th. It would be great to have all the Secret Garden fabrics chosen by then, ready to make DH4. After the fourth block, I suspect we will be piecing the centre of the quilt with the blocks we have made. I would like to have the first four blocks stitched for the release of the 5th month instructions so that I can move along with the next instructions straight away.

I only have enough background fabric for the first 4 applique blocks so far, so I'll have to buy more. Twist my arm!

My friend Sarah at 9658 Textiles has written a superb tutorial on dyeing wool fabric for rug hooking when you want just the right shade. Dyeing and rug hooking are definitely on my "to do"/"to drool" list.  I can only say go read the post and check out Sarah's work. Totally droolworthy.

Linking up with Esther's WIPs on Wednesdays.