Assorted

I've been working on several different projects that I can share pictures of. First up - I got my anvil quilt totally finished. The blocks are 3" and the finished size is 16" x 31". 

I have it displayed on a hanging rack beneath a giant shelf unit attached to the wall at the top of my stairs.

I quilted it on my sewing machine with an all over Baptist Fan pattern. It's far from perfect, but I kinda like the curved quilting with the angular piecing.

This is little pincushion I made from a strip of wool rolled up into a coil and embellished with little flowers. It's topped with a pin I made to go with it. I took a corsage pin and smashed the head of it off with a hammer. Then, using Sculpey clay I shaped the flower & leaf to match the stitched version and attached them to the pin and baked them in the oven according to package instructions. This was a gift for a dear friend and I think she liked it! I want to make some more.

I've been making lots of hexies and have sewn some into the traditional Grandmother's Flower Garden setting.  Each flower is getting stitched onto it's own square of fabric and we'll see what happens after that. Also wanted to show you my new quilty mug. I'm a big water drinker. Have had a giant mug of ice water constantly by my side for years and years. When I saw this version in a newspaper ad last week I had to go check it out. It's stainless steel and insulated. So far it works great, but it is quite a bit smaller than my old one so I have to fill it several times throughout the day.

Have started making some scrappy basket blocks - I believe this version is called cake stand. Quite a lot of work for a 4" block but I like it.

And I've also been doing a bit of rug hooking. Have one rug ready to finish the edge on so I bought some red wool yarn at JoAnn Fabrics to whip it with but it was way too bright. Threw it in my electric fry pan and toned it down a bit with some brown dye and now it's just the right color, though I'm not sure you can really see the difference in this picture.  Hope to get it all done over the weekend.

I finally decided on the last border of my family rug and will be using circles and stripes. This rug is very scrappy - just like the quilts I like to make.

So that's what I've been up to the last few days.