report card tuesday ~ jan. 31st

it's report card tuesday once again already.

• tuesday, jan. 24th: cretan stitch practice ~ made a fabric covered button using the cretan stitch
• wednesday, jan. 25th: basted my pink lemonade quilt ~ hexie work
• thursday, jan. 26th: made three fabric covered buttons
• friday, jan. 27th: cretan stitch work on stocking (with some of those fabric buttons)
• saturday, jan. 28th: began quilting on pink lemonade ~ worked on hand stitching the binding on gift quilt
• sunday, jan. 29th: worked on hand stitching the binding on gift quilt
• monday, jan. 30th: worked on hand stitching the binding on gift quilt

if you would like to see what others are doing with their 15 minute challenge or you're interested in joining in you can visit Kate at Life in Pieces.

my only photo for this post is a bit on the dark side. that's because i was using the bright afternoon sunshine to work by and really got into the stitching 'zone'. before i knew it the sun had dipped down below the mountain.  i could still see (just barely) to stitch so i kept right on going . . . then i realized that i hadn't gotten any shots yet for this post and i'd better get to it. after all, there has to be at least one photo doesn't there~!?! as you can see i haven't completely gotten that binding on yet but i'm really close.  this is a quilt that i've shown bits of before. a friend and i have collaborated on a gift. this quilt is a really BIG king size and i'd like to show it in it's entirety but am not quite sure where i'm going to hang it to get a full shot . . . if anyone has ideas please feel free to share them with me in the comments. i don't have a wall big enough inside that will work . . . i have a wooden six foot fence but that's not big enough . . . i'm seriously pondering ways that i can hang it on the side of the house . . .

as you can probably tell this binding has sort of eclipsed everything else. i did get a few fabric covered buttons done this week. one of them i sewed onto the stocking and there is a detailed shot of it within a previous post (feel free to look back if you missed it) but  the other three will be photographed later on when i have more time and better light . . .



my pink lemonade has taken a very temporary back seat to this binding work. Lori at Humble Quilts is planning a linky party on wednesday so you may want to check out all of those delightful little quilts when that happens. i'm probably not going to have mine finished completely for that event but i'll add a shot of it anyway.

my new stitch for TAST (week 5) practice is the herringbone stitch. there is also an additional challenge to combine the herringbone with one of the stitches already presented this year (weeks 1-4). i'm enjoying the practice and i'm very excited to see the stocking coming along so nicely too.

recent gifts include:

• the excitement of being close to a big (quilt) finish
• MORE completed fabric covered buttons
• the use of my hands. sometimes they ache a bit but they still work well enough and i know my life would not be happy in the same way without the use of them.