Sharing Some April Finishes

I worked in the office today, and after that I did some merchandising, and when I was finally on the way home at 7:30, I stopped to pick up a prescription only to find out that they had sent it back into stock because I hadn't picked it up sooner, so I've got to sit and wait for that. Obviously, when I got home, I really needed to do something fun to take the edge off the day, so I made this pincushion. A bunch of circles to cut out, a little hand stitching and it's assembled with a glue gun. Two hours with the tv on. Not bad. I like it. (And now that I look at it, this is what I should have made for the 'Bloomin'' challenge!)

This is the challenge quilt that went in on Friday. String piecing on muslin, piping, piano key, a little applique, thread painting, used a template and a pouncer for the first time. Not exactly my cup of tea, but it's done. I'm sure we'll find a home for it.

Next we have my favorite so far of the Aurifil Designers 2012 Blocks. April Showers (clearly). I'm really enjoying the embroidery experience (I think it's solely due to the Aurifil 28 wt thread I'm using. It would most definitely not be so much fun if I was separating strands of floss.

The long in-process Drunkard's Path with the decorative stitched fabric also went off to the show. It was renamed 'Broken Records'. There's a lot of different ways to view this...negative space, positive space, pinwheels, curves. I should have named it 'Introspective Stoner Quilt'.

Last week I caught a sale at JoAnn online and bought a holiday cartridge for the Slice Fabrique (it has an alphabet on it), and a circle die for the Accuquilt. Notice anything different about this die? I was excited when I took it out of the package. They've started using two colors of foam on the die so you no longer have to Sharpie around the shapes so you know where to lay your fabric. Way to go Accuquilt!

And when I was at Mimi's class last weekend, I picked up some batiks to use on my first mystery quilt. I'm going to do a Merry Mayhem mystery (it's already started) that's being played out on the MidAppalachian Quilters site. I figured as long as I was going to attend the conference and take two classes, I should also do the mystery. Maybe tomorrow night I'll start cutting. While I'm not entirely confident, I'm pretty sure I've represented a light, a medium and 2 darks with the stack of fabric above.

Along with this I've got a wholecloth project that I need to sandwich and get quilted and then have at with some metallic fabric paint--another first for me. I'll be sure to share all the gory details of that project with you.

Of course, it might be nice if I got those last few blocks prepped for one of the Baltimore Album quilts. Next class is in 2 weeks, I think. And I've got to figure out how to get pencil out of fabric. Any ideas?