class projects... part two

i have been busy sewing, and lots of WIP (work in progress) but not many completed items...  however, i realize i haven't celebrated a few things that were started/inspired from my time in Midway in June... now that it is already August!!!

Hexagon tote

tote interior... those are roses in case you can't tell!

 My first tote! and perhaps almost my LAST one too! well, i guess i have enough more of the stabilizer so i could make another one... it turned out ok and was a delight to the recipient so i have to think it was a successful class project and good for me to know that at my core i am a quilting girl, not a tote-bag girl...

Alice's postcard

 i wrote about the concept of ikigai a few months ago, and realized i wanted to honor Alice for her optimism about life in general and quilting in particular with an ikigai postcard.  i found the characters and put them on tracing paper, then embroidered through them all -- it got a bit fuzzy as i pulled the paper back out of them, but they are still approximately formed to the word... and i loved the crane and cherry blossoms how they ended up working out for the available space

it was fun to take this to the post office, get it stamped and ready, and then wait to hear that it made the trip back to my building... although i could have hand-delivered, "people mail" has it's own special joy amongst the bills and advertisements.  and i am so happy that Alice loved it!!!

Hezseltine postcard

this one i was too late to mail (i was working on it the day they were flying home from Africa), but happily hand-delivered to the pile of mail awaiting them! The Hezseltines have been serving a mission in Liberia; they started just as i started chemotherapy and have been supportive from halfway around the globe as i walk through this experience... i started their postcard with a leftover block from the butterfly quilt, and took advantage of some of the decorative stitches on my machine to dress it up a bit.  if i were to do again i think i would practice cornering on the decorative stitches... but whenever my perfectionist brain got anxious about it, i would say to myself "it's a postcard!" and move on!  Eilene appreciated the effort and found it charming amongst all her other mail to sort through... woot, success again!

i still have three more of the forms for postcards that came in the supply kit i bought with class, but haven't decided what to make or entirely who to send them to...  in part because i went back to my first love, which is quilting (LOL) but i'm confident they will get an inspiration and then completion one day.  Like the tote experiment, not convinced i will go out and get more postcard supplies when i could work on things that make me smile MORE, but glad to have a concept/experience and consider myself capable if the need arises

considering myself blessed by the experience... and curious about what i will decide to learn about next!