Good things come in little packages...

I started working on these little six inch hand applique blocks before the move last year.  I made three of each one...for a total of 36!  I am involved in a reproduction block swap with two of my Michigan friends.  

Ola and Mary are fabulous piecers, so I decided to contribute what I do best, hand applique.  I called the project REPRO MADNESS.

I made the enclosed grid of 12 blocks with Picasa...it is fun to see them all together!  They will be blended with the pieced blocks from my friends for a project yet to be determined (we will each come up with our own setting and project).

(I made a cherry block to represent Michigan's fruit farms.)

I was able to prep enough of the little blocks ahead to have a little hand work to do through all the moving crap during the last half of 2015, once my finger allowed me to hold a needle again.

(I made this to represent our friendship...we've been 'partners in crime' for a long time...working at quilt shops together, working on projects together, teaching classes together, going on road trips together, sharing each others' lives...I miss them so much!)

Half of the finished blocks are Lorie Smith's designs and half are my own creation.  She has so many cute six-inch blocks among her many beautiful patterns, so it is easy to be lazy and just use her designs.  As I go forward, I want more of them to be my drawings.

(Well...EVERYBODY likes cake!)

(Just had to come up with something that would use all my yummy purple reproduction fabrics...)

(Again, another block representing Michigan and all the fruit farms...I lived right next to a fabulous apple orchard in Ypsilanti.)

(Ola and I aren't quite the sewing machine collectors that Mary is, but we are still young and breathing...so there is time.)

Enough of the cozy catch-up of completed blocks...I have managed to find enough stash items to prep another six sets of 3 blocks each...another 18 blocks in total.

(These are just glue prepped on overly large backgrounds...there will be embroidery added after hand applique stitching, and then will be cropped to six inches square.)

After these sets, I have individual blocks designed for each of us featuring past beloved pets (a chocolate lab for Ola, a wiener dog for Mary, and my beloved Weasley the cat).  I will only do one of each of those.  Then I may continue making the 6 inch blocks, but no longer in sets of three for the swap.  I have a hard time doing more than one of each block...I get easily bored and distracted with repetition.

Although, I may have to do one more for all of us...19 total blocks is just a weird number to end on!

I have another twelve blocks already designed, ready to be prepped!  I had one creative weekend where I just doodled and doodled, and everything 'clicked.'

I am excited to be getting off the 'mountain' tonight and going to the January meeting of the Huntsville guild.  It is over an hour drive each way, but it will be worth it to talk to someone other than my husband.

(I realize this is the third blog post in as many days...not my usual sporadic production, for sure.)

In stitches,
Teresa   :o)