Wallhanging Redo

For the past three weekends, I've been bogged down in a project that had one problem after another. If I weren't so stubborn, I think I would have given up on it. In mid-August, I "finished" this project:

Every time I looked at it, though, I hated it more. So while trying to figure out what to do, I stumbled across these leftovers:

These should look familiar - see the quilt at the top of the blog. I had always figured I'd find a way to work these leftovers into another project. I started out by slicing the screen print pieces away from each other. Then, I proceeded to quilt the dickens out of each piece. Then, I added a layer of batting and the green backing to the hunk of yellow leftover. Here's a side view of the resulting strips.

I then got to pick out the stitches that were in the way, carefully stitch the top layer of the strips to the top layer of the blocks, giving me this on the back:

I trimmed away excess batting, folded over edges, put thread in the bobbin that would match the front of the piece, and prayed, begged, and cursed my way to this:

Yeah, I see the flecks of batting, but you know, they're going to be against the wall of my office! I added outside borders using the same technique, secured any remote seams and then stepped back and looked at it. The center was sort of odd looking, and, frankly, I was concerned about angle of the blocks. I needed to put something in the middle, and while I was pawing through various odds and ends, a holiday card from 2005 sent by my friend Rita Stark fell off the bulletin board. I took the card apart, added some ribbon trim under the edges of the piece to stabilize it and to help it stand out from the background.

And, here is the final piece. I am pleased with it. It's fun, it's a little wonky, and, best of all, it's done.

(It does have a top corner, unfortunately, I didn't notice the photography error until I was pulling it off the camera.) Now, here's some kitty loving - Baby Boy getting snuggles from his da-da -

I have been doing a lot of reading, and I plan to do a post really soon catching up on that front. The scarf for Hubby is closing in on done, and I am thinking about Christmas knitting. I have this wildly outrageous idea of trying to complete four cowls / neckwarmers between now and Christmas for my nieces. I looked up some patterns yesterday afternoon, and I don't think this is outside the realm of possibility. It'll let me use leftover yarn from other projects and give me an excuse to buy more.

I hope to be back here later this week. Take care.