Me doing what?!?

Well two things, one is making a block for Simon Haskin's charity for Leukemia, Sunshine for ALL -The Leukemia Quilt Project. This is an international push for quilters all over the world to make blocks and/or quilts to raise funds for Leukemia research and for children with Leukemia to have during the very long treatment. You can find out about here  on the Facebook page. He is setting up a website but it isn't ready to run just yet (watch this space and I will post a link when it is up and running). There are places in Canada, Europe, the USA and Australia to send the blocks. The finished size is 8" so the unfinished size is 8 ½". The colour should be orange with pink and yellow accent colours (though you can use muslin/calico for a background).  No batting or embellishments nor any stabilizer please.

This was the difficulty for me. I thought I could applique a yellow feather onto an orange background, starch it within an inch of it's life, and then freemotion a feather on it. WRONG! The freemotion stitching gathered it up so much more because there was no batting or stabiliser behind it,  this block will be abandoned. No mistake is a waste, it is a lesson. So I shall attempt it again with washout stabiliser and see if this works.

But the surprising thing isn't that.


It's this,

can you imagine, me doing hand applique? Me neither, but I am, and although I have only done a little so far, I am enjoying it. I found some fabulous linen for the background. It is a little heavier than quilt weight cotton but I like using something so much stronger. I measured off one meter and washed and tumble dried it. It shrunk down to 97% so that is not as much as I expected, about the same as some cottons. It is all going to be this very low contrast colourwise.