Water's Edge

Here's what I turned part of my hand-dyed fabrics into - a started wall hanging a la Alicia Merrett and Laura Wasilowski.
In the lower left corner you can see that I've started the hand stitching.
The piece is titled Water's Edge.

Finished Spring Wall Hanging!

Ta-daaaa! One finished project, except for label and hanging sleeve.

This was my sampler of decorative stitches, made a little fun. 

Particular characteristics:

• almost every quilted fern is a different stitch
• I love the detailed stitch hanging from the mushroom the best
• It's raw-edge applique, and I left plenty of edges raw on purpose
• The ferns are in yellow thread on purpose, so don't bother suggesting green. I was trying for that subtle look that makes the quilt look one way from a distance, and more interesting close up
• Don't even bother telling me some of the stems are too wide - that was another design element
• The yellow fabric is ombre´ going from dark yellow to light yellow

Here are the pictures, before I coaxed the basting stitch holes out and gave it a final pressing. 

Mola magnificence

After 100,000 stitches which I loved doing by hand, it's pretty clear to me that I always need a hand sewing project to work on. I do have a wholecloth pillow top I'm working on, but it's mostly for practice rather than performance. Also, my holy grail of a double wedding ring is not right for me to start either yet.
Enter Herma, who volunteered to teach a Mola class for us at the James Byrnes Center in Stuttgart, where we meet for a sewing circle one Friday each month. If you're interested in American/German local relationships, visit this place, or join the membership. It's very good if you spend a lot of time in Stuttgart.
Our class started on Feb 3, my birthday, so how could I refuse?! It was just great, and I find myself staying up late, working on the project. Remember my attempts to learn applique? Well this is a type of reverse applique, and I LOVE it. I'm going to pull out some more hearts and get back to my applique again as well.
Here's my progress so far.

Trying to applique

Applique is new to me. Months ago Judy demo'ed needle turn applique to our guild, and  I started it, but never progressed.
So I decided to learn more systematically. Here are hearts cut out for the purpose of learning 4 techniques:

• needle turn (the dark red heart that's already started
• back-basted applique
• freezer paper (the one showing the paper and the turned edge)
• foundation (sew to a foundation like interfacing or dryer sheet, etc)

However, I'm barely getting a start. After deciding to learn these techniques, I got sick, and now I'm involved in a long-distance land sale, which requires more time than I prefer, and work is heating up between now and mid-December. So much for planned free, relaxing time. Anyway, it's still on my active list, and I expect to make some progress. I'll keep you posted.