Its been a slow week

Its been a slow week.  I thought I would piece the back of the Snowball charity quilt with all the left over pieces.  This was more of a challenge then I anticipated and has been very boring, so I was glad when I finally got it finished.  I also made the binding, so its all ready to go.

I found this wall hanging in the cupboard, when I was digging out the snowball fabrics.  I started this project three years ago when I was pregnant.  So you would think that that makes it a reasonably "new" UFO for me.  But in reality I brought (and lost) this pattern many years ago, before I was married or had met DH.  This is by the Chook Shed Pattern Company and came in a pack with two other patterns, one that I made,  with the view of making "Welcome Friends" when I had my first child/girl.  In the mean time I loaned the pattern to someone and it was never returned. Years later I was delighted when I found the pattern published in `Naive & Country Quilts' magazine (vol 1. No 1).

I was about five months pregnant when I made the top and started the applique while we were on holidays.  I tthought I would try out machine applique with mono filament thread, which I didn't like very much once I got to the small pieces.  So I made the dolls using needle turn instead.  I was about six months pregnant when I got carried away at the end of season sales buying pink baby clothes.  DH then asked "why do you think the baby is a girl?"  So I decided that I would start assuming the baby was a boy and put all the girly things aside including this wall hanging.  DS2 is a delightful boy who loves cuddles with Mum, bike riding with Dad and running around with DS1 - so I have no regrets that we have two boys!  However three years later with very little applique left to do I decided I could finish this UFO very quickly and got to work.  Now its just waiting to be prepared for quilting.  I think that I am going to spray baste the top as I want to stipple the background.  So that's today's job and then this week I might try and start some machine quilting...not my favorite part of the process!  Happy quilting Sue.