Long term project progress (and a win!)

Back last year I posted about a long term hand stitched project I'm making for myself. You can read about it here if you want.  Anyway at that stage I had about 60 of the blue dresdens and if I make it to the same size as the pattern, I need 144! That may be too large so I'm hedging my bets and working on maybe 121.

I had some projects to finish by Christmas so this one fell by the wayside a bit but in the new year I picked it back up again and started taking it to work on the bus.  Mainly because I found a handy little plastic box that clips shut so its easy to put in my bag.  It was actually the box our solar lights came in!

Anyway when I last posted I had been thinking I would use some fabric I had been given to make the contrast/background blocks:

I'd have to say I just found it difficult to get excited about this fabric though and that may be why I put the project aside too.  In the end I came across a lovely softy buttery yellow fabric on the internet at equilter.com with an embossed (is that the right word?) pattern which I thought would be just perfect and it is! It was very inexpensive too, I think it only cost me $20 all up.  Hope I ordered enough!

Well, I tell you, if you want to move a project along, take it on the bus with you!  I now have 107 blue dresden blocks and about 25 yellow ones.  Here's some of the blue blocks (or should that be rounds!):

To compare here is how it would have looked with the first fabric I was looking at for the background:

and here it is with the yellow fabric:

I'm so much happier with this fabric choice.   I need to make yellow suffolk puffs for each of the blue dresden blocks as well - Yikes, that means 121 of them too!  Given I've never made one before that could be good or a nightmare depending on how I feel about them after I've made the first one! I'm also supposed to put one in the middle of each yellow one in a contrasting colour but I'm not sure it needs it. I'll see as I go along.  Its not like there's actually a hole which needs covering like there is on the dresdens.

This is the fabric which got me started on this whole quilt originally:

Its hard to see in this slightly fuzzy shot but there is the same yellow in the paisley shapes, so that's probably why I was so happy to find that yellow!  I was thinking that if I do make contrasting puffs, this fabric would probably be my choice for those going onto the yellow.

Now I mentioned a win didn't I!  In the February link up for the 13 UFO's in 2013 quiltalong at 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks I was lucky enough to win the draw for that month's prize!  Yay me! It was my choice of a bag pattern by Sara at Sew Sweetness.  I chose the Velocity Bag.  Sara has some great bag patterns over in her shop. Big thank you to Marti at 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks for the prize! Now all I have to do is make it!  Another project to do! (Do you think if I make a Velocity bag, it will make me go faster when I'm using it?)

Thanks for visiting with me today,

Cheers