Bubbles

No, not Bubbles Malone, the famous stripper.  Bubbles in my quilting. 

I know what you're thinking...a very unconventional choice with all those feathers.  But, look two borders above the bubbles at the fabric I used  And, it's in the points below the bubbles, but you can't see it very clearly.  It's sort of bubbles.  I had really been sweating what to do in this border and I was doing some finishing up outlining and looked to my left, and there was that bubble fabric. 

So, I cut a piece of paper the exact size of the borders and I used my Dad's 60ish year old drafting compass to draw circles.  I wanted a variety of sizes and they had to touch one another so that I didn't have starts and stops. 

And, then I needle punched that into four strips of tissue paper that I pinned to the quilt and I quilted along the lines. 

Voila!

I think it's going to work okay.  We will have to see.  It is an unconventional combination because one implies formality to me (the feathers) and one is whimsical (the bubbles).  There is a wide outer border of that same print and I plan to do the exact same thing out there...except I plan to use bigger bubbles so it doesn't take so long to fill.  From 3" moving down by half inch increments to 1/2" diameter so there is a good variety of size. 

I also caught up on some piecing.  I had this holly block from Have a Jolly Little Christmas  cut and the piecing was started.  So, I finished it up and I made the most recent block, the ribbon wreath. 

The holly is a little abstract for me, but it will be great in the rest of the quilt. 

And, because I don't quite have enough projects going on, I have taken up a new one...needlepoint.  Not that I wanted to learn needlepoint, but I have inherited the most beautiful UFO that needs to be finished.  It's just too pretty not to finish it.  But, I didn't know the first thing about needlepoint, so I decided to learn.  I'm not showing my first project.  Nobody needs to see that.  But, I've started my second project. 

I bought a cheap pre-owned kit off ebay.  That really is the best way to practice, right?  You probly can't see it, but I've finished the house and have moved out into the trees.  I'm trying to master tension.  I'm thinking about watching a video and seeing if I can pick up any tips.  Everything I've tried from the book I have is either too loose or too tight. 

 

And, this must have come out over the weekend; Paducah winner.  I've been getting a lot of traffic from that.  Thanks so much to KathyS for letting everybody know that not all quilters are women and for mentioning my blog!!!  It is a beautiful quilt and I'm so glad to have been a part of it.  There's a video about it somewhere where the winner of the raffle that entered it in the Paducah show talks about it.  In that video, she mentions me by name.  I'm famous!  Well, sort of. 

 

Everybody have a great July 3rd.  I have the day off and am headed out to water the flowerpots.  It was too hot yesterday afternoon, when I normally would have watered, so since I had today off, I procrastinated.  Don't tell Syd.  She doesn't need any encouragement or reinforcement about procrastinating.

 

Later this week, I'll post pics of the Simply Delicious quilt.  It's finished and I've spritzed out the blue marking ink.  Next is attaching the binding.  Woo-hoo!!

 

BTW, I saw a Simply Delicious kit on ebay a couple days ago.  If you wanted to make that quilt, you might check it out.  I just checked and its still there.  And, there are a few random blocks, too. 

 

A finish.