Wrapping Things Up

I've been working here on getting odds and ends finished before Bonnie's mystery starts in a mere 5 days. I have my fabrics chosen and mostly purchased, I need a few more fat quarters in two colorways but otherwise am all set.

I've gotten *most* of my Christmas presents stitched up, can't show you photos of those until after the season. But I also have been working to wrap up my Skill Builder BOM. I'm pleased to say that I have finally caught up!

Here are all the blocks laid out together:

It's exciting to finally see it coming together! I have never done a quilt as you go before, so we will see how smoothly the actual assembly goes. From tutorials I've read online, it looks like a pain. I believe the assembly instructions for this project will be released in December.

Here are some close-ups of some of the recently completed blocks:

This embroidery block took me forever simply due to the hand stitching. I worked on it very slowly over time while sitting in front of the tv. The circles are made using piecelique, which I like but don't love. You can see glue stains all over the hoop because I am messy. 

Here we have the first paper pieced block, the iron. This block and I did NOT get along.

This block was made up of many long, thin pieces, which are very hard to paper piece because they aren't secured to the paper in enough spots. The instructor used freezer paper but you can only do that if you have an inkjet printer, and I have a laserjet so I had to use regular paper.

And then I got about halfway through quilting it and determined that I wouldn't have enough thread to finish the block and didn't want to go on a wild goose chase to try to match the color, so I ripped it all out. Then I was quilting it the second time and this happened:

 

 So, more ripping ensued. Like I said, this block and I don't get along.

Next came the sewing machine, with much more manageable pieces.

And the bookshelf, which I had a lot of fun with. The pattern called for a glue method that I did not appreciate, so I pieced it.

And finally, the folded quilt. My quilt binding pieces don't match up perfectly but I think it still looks fine.

 Phew! Now, onto my bee block and a few other fun odds and ends before the big mystery begins!