ALYOF: April finish

Where did April go? I have no clue. Oh wait, I've been sick with bronchitis and recovering most of the month. I still haven't completely gotten rid of the cough. Grrrrrr.

I almost reached my goal!

I finished two rows of my Elephant Parade QAL. Looking good, huh?

I really like the tails I added. Their little bums looked bare without a tail for the next trunk in line to hold onto. Don't elephants hold tails with trunks, kind of like mommies hold babies' hands?

Anyway: I cut three lengths of whole embroidery floss (6 strands each), and braided them. Then I cut off the length I wanted, roughly 3", and tied a knot near the end of each tail. Then pin the tail in the desired position on the bum of the elephant, all raw edges together, and sew the sashing to the elephant. Make sure to catch the tail end in the seam, back stitching several times over the tail. I also sewed across the tail at the 1/8" in the seam allowance, too.

I feel like I'm in junior high again, braiding embroidery floss for friendship bracelets, with the starting knot pinned to my pants! LOL !

Pageant prep

My work for last night and today is hand-work, with squirmy invisible thread!

I applied the rhinestone trim and pin to this cute swimsuit with Superior invisible monofilament polyester thread. By hand. You can't see it, which is great, but it sure took longer than I thought it would, because it's fine, thin, curly thread and hard to see! It kept getting caught on all the rhinestones and little branches of the pin.

My cute neighbor is in the "Miss" teen city royalty pageant tonight, and her mama, my friend, called me in tears because she  had a whoops and couldn't finish the embellishment herself. No worries!

(Here in Utah, each city has a week-long festival during the summer, themed with whatever our city is known for, and we have parades and events, too. The senior high school girls compete in a pageant to crown the royalty to show off and preside at these events and city service opportunities. Our city's festival is Onion Days, held during Labor Day, and we also have the Scottish Festival during July.)

So I get to add another accomplishment to my sewing repertoire:

Two wedding dresses

One pageant swimsuit embellishment.

Enter HMQS?

I'm seriously trying to decide if I have any quilts finished and worthy to submit to the Home Maching Quilting Show in Sandy, Utah. It is being held May 7-9. They've extended the submission deadline until April 25. 

I really didn't have much finished last year, so is it worth it to pick one and submit it?

ALYOF--April goal

Hello,

I feel like I've fallen off the wagon and can't catch up. I missed the last two months of goal parties wth Sew Bittersweet Designs!

Goal for April:

Finish the quilt top for the Elephant Parade QAL.

Second goal:

Quilt the Swoon !

And of course, keep up with the Pat Sloan BOM....Pat just posted April's block.