Rargh...

I've been lax in updating recently... don't know why but it's felt like a very busy week despite being no different from any other! Still, I have found time to do some more work to my lion and I think I'm done with the cutting now. I still need to fix him down but I picked up some lion-coloured threads and a pack of bondaweb today so I think I should get him settled down this weeked. I took a quick picture this afternoon (which prompted this posting) as we have visitors coming tonight and I have to pack him away so they don't destroy him while drunk so here he is in all his glory. The quilt is roughly single bed sized but it didn't fit on the table and there was no way I was putting something with this many little pieces on the floor.


The mane is made from loads of different yellow/orange fabrics cut in a spiky pattern and layered on top of each other - I left a tab at the bottom of each set so I can bondaweb them down but I think i'm going to leave the spiky bits free so they flow around as the quilt gets moved. It's not quite right on the left so I'll fix that next time I lay him out but otherwise this is how he'll look. Now all I have to do is decide what's going in the outside panels... I'm thinking maybe girraffe as they're nice and tall.

Basically I'm just going to have some of fun with this, it's been on the to-do pile for sooo long that I don't mind risking it a bit - I'm going to do my best to make it into something awesome but I've been 'meh' about it for so long that if it does go horribly wrong it won't really be a great loss!

In other news I've decided to stop lurking on the internet and get out there and 'meet' a few other quilters. So I have signed up for 'Another Little Quilt Swap 3' (ALQS3) and will be attempting to make an art quilt by the middle of July - I have a few ideas I've been toying with for a while so it will be interesting to see how they take form. (And an aside to mum if you read this: It's okay not to like it and I promise to keep making 'proper' quilts too!)

Finally I'm giving in to temptation and trying my hand at ATC's - I'm currently drafting out some practice pieces and then I'm going to have a go at joining some swaps. For those that don't know these are like tiny miniature quilts (2 1/2" x 3 1/2" so I mean smaall) which you then trade with other people - kind of like the trading cards we had as kids but far prettier! I'm quite excited to start work on a collection, particularly as once we move I should get my own quilting room which I can cover in pretty fabric creations!

All in all I'm giving my muse a kick start for spring!