What kind of quilt is that for a baby?

My local quilt bee met Thursday night, during which I realized that I currently did not have any handwork project. Most of the others were hemming bindings, stitching applique, cutting out patterns, even knitting. With a cold weekend in our mountain cabin looming at the end of the week, I decided to see what I had to work on.

Then I had a Duh-Huh moment. I am signed up to take a second online class with Pamela Allen, who introduced me to a new improvisational way to create art quilts last year. But I have only finished two of the projects from the first class (Cut Flowers and The Green Man.) . Her method involves cutting shapes freehand with scissors, attaching them to a background with glue-stick, and then stitching down around the edges with embroidery thread before machine quilting. I still have two pieces in the glue-stick phase.

So, yesterday, while the telly served up all my local sports team going down in defeat, even miserable embarrassing defeat on the part of the Carolina Panthers, I started embroidering my self-portrait from that class.
Funny story... of course, I have been working on the baby quilt for my "expecting" niece's daughter, and also started quilting it yesterday. When I laid this self-portrait down to show DH Charlie, he exclaimed, "You will scare Melinda's baby to death with that thing!"

I got a good chuckle out of that one, but after looking at it again, decided to make a few changes. This lady does look rather Satanic, all glowing red and orange, and that open mouth is slightly too Edward Munchian. So, she will undergo a few changes. I am thinking of calling this piece "Bird Watching Gone Wrong."

Speaking of going wrong, that attempt to quilt the baby quilt did not go very well yesterday. I think my Gammill was paying me back for leaving it in a cold room with no attention for about a month since before Christmas. I had to give it quite a bit of servicing to get a decent tension and keep the thread from breaking. And I got a small tear in the backing fabric for the first time ever, and ran over the white border of the quilt with one of the wheels accidentally. I had the top draped over the table while I was threading the machine, and guess what? Those wheels needed cleaning, too, because I got a nice "tire track" on the white fabric. But, all these things can be fixed.

Maybe tomorrow. Tonight I will probably be the kiss of death for another favorite sports team, the San Diego Chargers, in their playoff game. Their awesome quarterback, Phillip Rivers, is a former N.C. State Wolfpack star, and we love to follow the careers of our former college players.

I hope you are having a good weekend, with successful projects and better luck with your sports teams!