Hope Abides

I confess I held off blogging until the last minute this week. We have been staying at home for 3 weeks now and Governor Inslee of Washington State just issued a new, more comprehensive lockdown for our state for the coming two week period as some people are still not curtailing their movements.

Sewing continues. My eyes have continued to heal although my one month post op check has been cancelled and I now have no idea when I will have new glasses, so the readers may have to suffice for an extended period.

Work on my Hope applique project continues. The center is complete, although I left off some smaller elements and decided to proceed to the border. And then I got stuck until some of the quilting village made a few comments that got me moving again.

The quilting village is a wonderful community and ready to jump in and provide new inspiration. One comment was that as my center appears to floating, perhaps some fish should appear. This sent me scrambling to locate the fishes in my stash and they fit the mood perfectly as the fabric has a metallic element. So the fish joined in (thank you, Nancy).

Then I was concerned that the fish borders (2) – although I really liked them – almost seemed to be a entirely different quilt! So I borrowed some inspiration from another quilting village member (Thank you Glenda!) and cut out flowers to use on the opposing borders, using my original flower colors to provide a visual link with the center.

Stitching has commenced although I have switched from turned edge which I used in the center to raw edge, and I am using a purple/aqua/blue variegated thread that goes nicely with the border fabric and elements.

Where to from here? Cornerstone blocks, I think, with the original grunge metallic background. I am not sure whether to call it a wall hanging and be done or to continue to make it larger. Our printer died and without a printer, I can’t print out the next pattern section. And with lockdown and greatly extended shipping times for Amazon, I don’t expect to have one soon.

I will put Hope aside after my border stitching is done and move onto quilting on the three completed tops I have waiting. Nelke, Red Delicious and my Log Cabin Carpenter Square all need quilting.

Stay home, communicate with the village, and happy quilting, Lennea